When I discovered a source of free horse manure a few years back I
started lavishing the manure on my vegetable plot. The result has to
been to create a beautiful black, friable soil. Lovely to work but ,
last year, almost sterile !
All of my root crops, carrots, parsnips, radish, lettuce, brassicas,
even rasberries, which normally grow as a weed, failed. Seedlings
fail to appear. Plants wither and die. Inspection shows that the
roots systems are almost non-existent . I suspect that something is
eating the roots although I cannot see anything. Can anyone suggest
an explanation and a cure ? Have I overdone the manuring ?