I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted beforehand?

TIA

Paul

On 16/10/08 11:30, in article
, "Paul"
wrote:

I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted beforehand?

TIA

Paul

You might want to check the source of the manure before getting it. There
has been a lot of publicity given to manure used on allotments etc. which
was contaminated with weed killer. The weed killer had been used on grazing
land and had passed through the animals, doing them no apparent harm.
As a result, some allotments and veg. Gardens have lost this year's crop and
possibly won't be able to plant next year's, either.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 16/10/08 11:30, in article
,
"Paul"
wrote:

I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted
beforehand?

TIA

Paul

You might want to check the source of the manure before getting it.
There
has been a lot of publicity given to manure used on allotments etc.
which
was contaminated with weed killer. The weed killer had been used on
grazing
land and had passed through the animals, doing them no apparent harm.
As a result, some allotments and veg. Gardens have lost this year's
crop and
possibly won't be able to plant next year's, either.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)


Paul,

You may find this link useful: http://tinyurl.com/4gg377

Regards,
Emrysdavies.

Fresh manure can "burn" veg seedlings. I would always let it rot down either in a heap, covered up with thick black plastic or a tarpaulin to keep out the rain, or in with compost, where it is an excellent "accelerator". You'll know when it's ready because there will be no smell and it will be crumbly. I'm trying to think what veg you would plant so late in the year, as different things need different feeding regimes.

Also there may be bits of couch and other weed seeds that haven't rotted yet, leave it for a while.

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:05:38 +0100, Granity
wrote:


Janet Conroy;819192 Wrote:
Fresh manure can "burn" veg seedlings. I would always let it rot down
either in a heap, covered up with thick black plastic or a tarpaulin to
keep out the rain, or in with compost, where it is an excellent
"accelerator". You'll know when it's ready because there will be no
smell and it will be crumbly. I'm trying to think what veg you would
plant so late in the year, as different things need different feeding
regimes.

Also there may be bits of couch and other weed seeds that haven't
rotted yet, leave it for a while.

If horse manure it will have a lot of seeds and covering with
tarpaulin won't produce enough heat in the pile to kill many of them.
You need an insulated bin and frequent turns over to get the
decomposition working at a fast rate.

If you dig it in deep now, eg at the bottom of a 12" deep trench, it
should have broken down enough to plant early spring. It breaks down
faster in the soil than on top of it. The longer you leave it the less
chance of the excess of ammonia damaging plants or nitrogen being used
up by the start of the rotting process.

I'm also wondering what you might be sowing in a month from now.
Lettuces have a very shallow root system so might be ok 12" away from
manure. Root crops, no way!

"Paul" wrote in message

I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted beforehand?

I cover my beg beds with manure in Autumn and leave it over winter. In
Spring, what I do varies according to what I'm goig to put in the bed. For
lettuces and very small seedling, I rake off any stuff that still looks like
manure and chuck it somehwere else. If I'm planting something that I know
loves manure, like sweet corn, I just clear enough of a space to put in the
seedlings and rake it back up to the stem of the corn as it grows.

After years of doing this, I don't support the theories about "well rotted
manure" that I've read about in books. I think piling it to be "well rotted"
is a waste of the nutrients in the manure - the nutrients end up in the soil
wherever it was piled and I prefer the nutrients in my garden beds.

Any animal manure other than pig or fowl, is not likely to burn anything.
I've read that comment a lot but I've never managed to do it just as I've
never ever done it with chemical of pelleted manure. And I use a LOT of
manure including extremely fresh stuff. If it's too close to the stems of
small seedlings it could rot the stems but in my experience that is about as
bad as can get. The only other thing to worry about with manures is
pathogens from water splashes.

Sacha gave good advice about the dangers of manures in the UK possibly being
contaminated but the advice for dealign with that seems to be not to pile it
but to spread it as the toxins have more of a chance of disippating.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted beforehand?

What sort of fresh manure are you talking about? Horse, cow, sheep,
chicken?
I killed my rhubarb stone dead when I was a newbie gardener by putting fresh
manure from my chickens on it. I thought it would do it good..
I now rot all manure down on my 2 compost heaps for a year, even better, two
,when it looks like soil again and can be dug in or used as a mulch with
abandon ;-)

On 17/10/08 19:27, in article , "Christina
Websell" wrote:


"Paul" wrote in message
...
I'm preparing an area of garden for growing vegetables later this /
early next year - is it OK to dig "fresh" manure into the planting
area then leave it for a few weeks, or should it be rotted beforehand?

What sort of fresh manure are you talking about? Horse, cow, sheep,
chicken?
I killed my rhubarb stone dead when I was a newbie gardener by putting fresh
manure from my chickens on it. I thought it would do it good..
I now rot all manure down on my 2 compost heaps for a year, even better, two
,when it looks like soil again and can be dug in or used as a mulch with
abandon ;-)


Isn't chicken manure especially notorious for burning off plants? If it's
not rotted down, it can be diluted a lot in buckets of water and used that
way. I think the same goes for cow manure but chicken is even more
powerful, supposedly - no idea of which ingredients account for that!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

On 18/10/08 08:42, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:56:02 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Isn't chicken manure especially notorious for burning off plants? If it's
not rotted down, it can be diluted a lot in buckets of water and used that
way. I think the same goes for cow manure but chicken is even more
powerful, supposedly - no idea of which ingredients account for that!

I used chicken manure in the bean pit that was dug well before the beans
went in last Spring. I had wonderful results but then it wasn't that fresh
and it wasn't on top of the soil.

Yes, AIUI, it's chicken manure applied directly to the plants or put into
the soil at the same time as planting. We had chickens for a few years and
the year after we got rid of them we had a fantastic crop of potatoes on
that patch.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

On 18/10/08 11:44, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:05:12 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 18/10/08 08:42, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

[10 quoted lines suppressed]

Yes, AIUI, it's chicken manure applied directly to the plants or put into
the soil at the same time as planting. We had chickens for a few years and
the year after we got rid of them we had a fantastic crop of potatoes on
that patch.

Our hens are going off to another home today as we never keep free range
hens in the Winter months as they make a shocking mess of our garden. The
hen house would need lighting for them to continue to lay eggs too, so we
start afresh every Spring with new ones.

Ours were in a large pen because of what they did to the garden!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

On 18/10/08 14:20, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:48:08 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 18/10/08 11:44, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

[16 quoted lines suppressed]

Ours were in a large pen because of what they did to the garden!

We built ours a large pen but they refuse to stay in it. I've even clipped
their wings but they still manage to fly out? The wire mesh fence is 6 feet
high too!

Ah well, I'm not surprised your hens are free spirits!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

On 18/10/08 20:52, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:45:24 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 18/10/08 14:20, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

[12 quoted lines suppressed]

Ah well, I'm not surprised your hens are free spirits!

They're gone to their new home now but I wonder if they will stay in their
allotted area LOL

We used to keep our until they were too old to lay any more and then they
went to an old people's home which turned them into soup.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
(new website online)

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 18/10/08 20:52, in article ,
"AriesVal" wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:45:24 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 18/10/08 14:20, in article
,
"AriesVal" wrote:

[12 quoted lines suppressed]

Ah well, I'm not surprised your hens are free spirits!

They're gone to their new home now but I wonder if they will stay in
their
allotted area LOL

We used to keep our until they were too old to lay any more and then they
went to an old people's home which turned them into soup.

I keep mine until they pass away naturally. 8-10 years sometimes.

Somewhere on teh intarwebs "Sacha" typed:
Isn't chicken manure especially notorious for burning off plants? If
it's not rotted down, it can be diluted a lot in buckets of water and
used that way. I think the same goes for cow manure but chicken is
even more powerful, supposedly - no idea of which ingredients account
for that!

It's the chicken's urine. They don't urinate and defacate seperately so
their manure is a mixture of both (which is why it's such a good fertiliser
used judiciously).

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)