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#1
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden,
into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into the clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it is still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale substrate. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. TIA Jim |
#2
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
On Feb 6, 2:28*pm, Jim xzy wrote:
I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden, into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into the clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it is still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale substrate. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. TIA Jim You can put it a in certain areas but not root crops with the exception of potatoes. ie. not carrots parsnips, beetroot etc. Or you can stick it in the compost heap. |
#3
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
"Jim xzy" wrote in message . 4.11... I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden, into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into the clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it is still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale substrate. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. TIA Jim Jim one of my daughters and her then husband, used to breed Arabs in Staffordshire and they brought a couple with them in a horse box when they came to visit us on the Isle of Wight. They cleaned the box out with what was much the same as you described. It went onto our compost heap and activated the proceeds. Our gardens as has been reported here sooooooooooo many times are handkerchief size so in no way could we use the stuff or dig it in straight away. My advice? Well as is well known I am not the gardener of the house my wife is, and who am I to argue with well over 50 years of experience? BUT, what to do? Compost it. Mike South East Coast of the snow clear Isle of Wight -- .................................... I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight. .................................... |
#4
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
On 2012-02-06 14:28:33 +0000, Jim xzy said: I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden, into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into the clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it is still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale substrate. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It would be a good filler for runner bean trenches but otherwise I don't use unrotted/uncomposted manure on food crops. Avoid putting unrotted manure where you're going to grow root crops, it's too rich for them and will make carrots/parsmips etc fork and split. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. I wonder if you are confusing "well digested" (by a horse) with what gardeners mean by well rotted, or well composted manure. Which is the very opposite, from freshly dropped. In well rotted or composted manure, the droppings and any straw or bedding should all have lost their original shape and colour and be one indistinguishable dark mass. Janet. |
#5
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
In message , Sacha
writes On 2012-02-06 14:28:33 +0000, Jim xzy said: I've recently converted part of the wild field that was my back garden, into vegetable beds. I dug in a fair amount of last year's compost into the clayey soil, but I think the soil still needs more organic matter, as it is still rather sticky. It's also very alkaline due to the limestone shale substrate. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. TIA Jim If it's going to be a few weeks before you plant, you're probably safe to dig it in now. If it was going onto emerging plants, the urine might 'burn' it. But do check the horses haven't been grazed on fields that were sprayed with the weedkiller that killed off so many plants in gardens and allotments a few years ago. I forget its name but the damage was well-documented. Aminopyralid -- Stewart Robert Hinsley |
#6
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Too late to dig stable manure into veg beds?
Jim
What you describe is not rotted - horse stable manure, it sounds like floor sweepings out of some dirty stable or barn and I would not touch it, you could put it in the corner of your garden and it might rot eventually but not for some time, Where is the straw, horses are not bedded down on hay. If you do decide to use it ask if the horses are or have been on any medication or you could be putting all sorts of nasty stuff on your soil. kate .. I have just been given a good quantity of horse stable manure. As there is still a good few weeks before I start planting, will I be OK to dig the manure into the soil without composting it? It appears to be predominantly part-digested hay with some urine-soaked hay mixed in. It all appears to be a good few weeks old. It's not like the well-digested horse droppings that you tyipcally find on the road where horse-riders have been. TIA Jim |
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