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David Hare-Scott[_2_] · 08-06-2011, 12:51 AM posted to rec.gardens

wrote:
Found this article on manure tea and decided to give it a try........
so two weeks ago went picked up 2 5 gallon pails of fresh manure &
straw. I placed in 30 gallon barrel and filled with rain water.
Now I am finding the stuff stinks to high heaven.......smells like
very rank sewage...... Is this stuff safe to use on vegetables?

Yes. It is usual to put it on the soil though ;-)

The smell is from a wide variety of microorganisms but not from fecal
bacteria which are the main group that is a danger to humans. There is a
school of thought (that has some evidence in support) that it is not so much
the dissolved nutrients that improve the soil but innoculation with the
microbes. In that sense it isn't actually a fertiliser. This explains one
of the common observations that it works best the first few times you apply
it (or on degraded soil) but not so much after that as the soil then has its
microflora restored and adding more makes no difference.

Personally I couldn't be bothered, it is easier to apply the manure directly
and get the same effect, plus the nutrients from bulk manure, plus the
improvement of soil texture from the fibre in the manure that is not in the
tea.

David