Do you recall that a few weeks ago you and I had a disagreement about the
use of fresh manure?

Well, since then, I've decided that I needed to do some research on the
topic of manure and the injunction that "thou shalt not use fresh manure as
it burns". As you know, David and I both reported that we'd used it very
fresh and had had no ill effects from it's burning but then I wrote that you
have to pick the place you use it. I can't recall what David wrote about
that. (Toxics and zoonoses weren't what I was interested in so I won't
address that at all).

After you and I disagreed, I wondered where this 'rule' on fresh manure came
from and why it came about.

I wondered if it was just an old husband's tale that has just been repeated
since the year dot and we all just now think that it does burn therefore we
don't use it fresh. I've got a very extensive gardening library and I've
scoured it from top to bottom reading to find out a reasoning behind this
"don't use fresh" injunction. It's astounding how silent the whole library
is on the whole subject.

I've found not one useful reference on the 'why' of it. I did find one cite
on usenet that may be useful and will give that below.

I did find some references in one book to the NPK levels of different fresh
vs (presumably aged) manures and thought you might be interested.

The book this info is from is called "Soil Food 1372 ways to add fertility
to your soil" by Jackie French (an Australian writer who I have come to
trust) but I note that the figures she gives are different to others in
other books I have for the (presumably aged) manure. But they differ all
over the net too, so I'm ignoring that.
NPK by weight (depending on quality of fodder)
cattle fresh 0.29, 0.17, 0.35
cow 0.6, 0.2, 0.5
hen fresh 2.1, .88, 1.85
hen 1.1, .8, .5
Horse fresh 0.5, 0.2, 0.13
horse 0.7, 0.3, 0.6
rabbit fresh 2.0, 0.62, 0.05
rabbit 2.4, 1.4, 0.6

Now, having seen those figures it seems to me (based on those figures) that
the aging process gives it more ooomph rather than less.

I came across this cite:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=...=4&ct=re sult

I have found the Rodale books are good ones so what it said made sense to
me.

It says of fresh vs rotted/aged manure that:
i) in the composting process, manure can lose up to half it's moisture
content and thus concentrate nutrients
ii) nitrogen in composted manure is fixed whereas in fresh, it's soluble
iii) solubility of P and K is greater in composted manure
and on P.125 it says that 'when manure is added directly to the soil, it
generally releases highly soluble nitrates that behave similarly to chemical
fertilisers, as well as ammonia, which can burn plant roots and interfere
with seed germination.'

Now, having digested all that and much, much more, I'm left wondering very
vaguely and very mildly about the use aged manure or fresh. So, now it's
time for you to express your opinion, but first I'll set the scene.

I garden on land that was first cleared in the late 1960s. The natural
'soil' here is extremely poor (which is why it was never cleared for farming
since European settlement) - it's unimproved colour is a pale yellow. The
uncleared areas round here have the same type of trees that would have grown
here - stunted natives - no big forest trees, all small, sparsely growing
Eucalypts with limited understorey. My soil is clay like (no topsoil
profile at all) and has a lot of small stones (mainly quartz but with other
small stones that I can't classify). Neither my house garden or my vegetable
garden had any soil improvement done when the house garden was 'landscaped'.
I started my vegetable garden by cutting a roughly quarter acre chunk out of
rough pasture that was full of native grasses. My first veg bed was coffin
sized and it took me more than a week to dig that - use the pick to get
about 1 inch depressions, water, next day go back over it with the pick and
get another inch down and water again - the soil is (or was) water repellent
and there was not a worm to be seen. If I plant direct into the unimproved
soil, the plants sit there and either die or just cling to life.

I scavenge, gather and use in my garden anything that has once lived. This
includes leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, dead chooks, old hay and
even my dead pets. I spread old manure, fresh manure (cattle, horse, chook
and sheep) and organic stuff like blood and bone and ash from my fire place
and I pound up the unburned carbon chunks and use that and also soot from my
chimney. I give my chooks my weeds and then add them to my compost after a
season. I try to make compost but can't turn it in a conventional heap (2
lots of major surgery in my mid 50s which has left me more feeble than I'd
choose to be) so I have 2 big upside down bins and 2 tumblers. I tend to
sheet compost more than anything and especially in Autumn/winter when I
spread as much manure as I can all over the place. We also encourage wild
birds as much as we can too given that they leave behind their fertiliser as
well.

My garden would be about 3 acres I suppose but I've never bothered to
measure it.

I measure my success by my worms and the colour of my soil. I've gone from
pale yellow and wormless in my veg garden to dark brown and worm ridden.
That applies in some of the rest of the garden too.

So, any views or known facts on the possibility of fresh vs old being an old
husband's tale? And what would you do in my situation?