Farm1 wrote:
"pete" wrote in message

On Saturday's we have an ABC radio, gardening, phone in, talk back
programme and the "experts" on there say horse manure is (Emphasis this
bit loudly over the microphone) Absolutely no good for gardens ....


I suspect that in terms of fertility it isn't much use (chook or cow being
better) but in terms of soil amendment for friability I think it's wonderful


Well I'm finding that it works pretty well on soil that without it would
grow nothing, though maybe that same soil would be fertile to a degree
if it wasn't saline ... which sort of proves your statement above about
friability and mine earlier about texture ...which no doubt if we tried
hard enough we could prove are the same thing :-) ....

I find chook poo is great as a Nitrogen fertiliser but is lacking in
Phosphorous and Potassium whereas most of the others have a more rounded
concentration of all 3, I find my brassica's go purple at plant out
time using just horse manure, but as it breaks down and the soil
improves they grow like wildfire, maybe the Nitrogen is unavailable
early on in the process ? or maybe its just that brassica's need more
Nitrogen than hoss poo can supply at that particular time, I'd always
assumed it was the richness or freshness that was causing the purple
colour and as ages things improve.

I always thought hoss poo was lacking in Nitrogen but lately I've been
thinking that it has enough for it to be considered a good all round
fertiliser if its incorporated with enough soil to allow the growth of
beneficial bacteria, fungi and insects to break it down sufficiently to
"allow" it to release those nutrients for plants to use when they need
it.



I love quandongs. I think they are one of the most superb fruits - just
wish I could get a plant or 10.

Ya know they are supposed to be planted with another plant?


Do you mean another quandong plant? But no, I didn't know that they needed
to be planted near anything.

They do well with lower growing stuff ... native grasses or low shrubs,
they actually feed from the roots of the host plant.

This link may be useful http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/s-acu.html

The Quandongs near us are growing in pure Shellgrit ..old stuff that's
been there probably thousands of years, it's broken down to basically
nothing more than rough sand grain size and of course has excellent
drainage but probably little else and our low rainfall doesn't help,
though if we had higher rainfall maybe it would be worse for any
nutrient would be leached through quicker.

I think dry and very well drained is the key for established Quandongs
...though young plants must be kept moist to get em started.

Ya see how edumacational this group is?

Pete