A friend has a horse stables and offered my some manure, now is it ok
just to take or will i need to do something to it first?

Also my dad in law has a cow farm is this stuff any better?

Thanks

This will be going into a garden and really want to do it this week as
it's a bkank canvas at the mo.

Based in South Wales

On 25 Mar 2006 08:04:50 -0800, "htmark98"
wrote:

A friend has a horse stables and offered my some manure, now is it ok
just to take or will i need to do something to it first?

It will need to be composted down of piled up and left to rot for a
while.
If put onto many plants or shoots it is too strang and will burn and
kill them.

Dave the exTrailer wrote in
:

On 25 Mar 2006 08:04:50 -0800, "htmark98"
wrote:

A friend has a horse stables and offered my some manure, now is it ok
just to take or will i need to do something to it first?

It will need to be composted down of piled up and left to rot for a
while.
If put onto many plants or shoots it is too strang and will burn and
kill them.

I've never had a problem using it fresh so long as I mixed it
well into soil before application *and* neutralized it (the
urine component is quite acidic) with lime.

I've had very good success applying it fresh before planting,
adding lime, and making sure it had either a good rain or
watering and a day or so to rest before planting.

"htmark98" wrote in message

A friend has a horse stables and offered my some manure, now is it
ok
just to take or will i need to do something to it first?

I use it as it comes straight from the horse and either fresh or weeks
old direct onto my roses. I make sure that the roses are well watered
before I apply it and I don't put it near the stem of the roses and
then I mulch over it. The roses love it.

At the start of winter I spread it about 6 inches thick over the
vegetable beds that are empty and cover it with mulch. Again it can
be anything from steaming fresh to older but I don't use it dried out.
By spring theworms look like they've been to a resort for a
rejuvination program.

Also my dad in law has a cow farm is this stuff any better?

It's good too. Use both in the same way. Never use fowl manure fresh
though.

As far as using fresh manure on veg crops, can I add a word of caution.
One of the advantages of allowing a muck heap to stand is that it
generates heat, which inturn kills any nasty bacteria in the manure.
From experience in the food industry I know that livestock,
irrespective of how the beast was reared (orgainically or intensively)
still can contain E. coil bacteria. Good heat composting kills the
bug.
If fresh manure was applied to the ground prior to planting of a salad
crop, this could lead to a transfer of E. coli bacteria to the crop.
In the US there was a large outbeak several years ago, where such an
inicdent happened, contaminating radishes. This resulted in a change
in guidelines to salad producers here, regarding the application of
manure. I have been searching through my info but I cannot find the
exact guidance, but from memory, I think it was 8 months.
Whilst all reference is to commercial production, it is worthy of
consideration to home grown crops too, I feel, particully when using
salads as a catch crop.
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire