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I finally got round to going to a nearby horse riding school who have plenty of manure to take away. But its with shavings not straw.
I seem to rember another lottie owner advising not get it with shavings, any idea why? ???

i presume its to do with the rotting down time but how much longer would this take? anyone used it with/without problems.??

I use it all the time, never had a problem, I also dig in the wood chips from the local tree fellers after they have done a seasons mulching. When I used to use the straw and hay mixed manure I often hade very good crop of weeds later.

We never had any problems with manured shavings either. Fewer weeds too like Heritage said. If you can see the shavings then the stuff is not well rotted, so it would need to spend some time on your compost heap, possibly (he says hedging his bets). Only reason I can see for not using it is that it may burn plants if too fresh.

Like Eric says - if it looks good it's OK.
More expensive than cow but, as said, weed free.

We use the shavings from our greenhouse floor after they've been a year in sacks. = Tim

Hi Ouby...remember moving some pig muck yonks ago and high nitogen was mentioned, yet saw only the muck plus straw, so guess shavings would certainly be high in nitrogen,and am not sure if de-hotting the mixture would reduce the effect, in which case leaving it even longer would just leave an inert bulk. Certainly good for water retention either way.

I have bunged trailer loads of manure with shavings on plot,really helped soil. But many people have said in other threads about the wood taking something out of the soil??? I still think better than nothing.
We had loads of weeds first year but the plot hadn`t been used for 5 years so I guess this was the major cause. Always have weeds I think.

Thanks for your thoughts :D

I was probably going to dig my way through to the older manure if possible but any will do seeing as its free ;D

These 'shavings' do you think it matters what they came from ie. what wood. i dont know what the general composition of them is, might ask when i go pick up.

don`t think it matters that much,better rotted the better. If got a great pile then dig down a bit...

Quote from: oubykh on November 21, 2004, 21:44:36
Thanks for your thoughts :D

I was probably going to dig my way through to the older manure if possible but any will do seeing as its free ;D

These 'shavings' do you think it matters what they came from ie. what wood. i dont know what the general composition of them is, might ask when i go pick up.

Normally it is soft wood shavings, so pine and the like. The type of wood should not matter too much I believe once it is well broken down.

Stables would certainly not use any wood, such as Yew, that is poisonous.

Jerry

Our site is very lucky in that we get bags of horse manure + shavings delivered. The only downside is that these are (sometimes very)fresh and the consensus on the site seems to be that you should stack them until they've rotted down a bit. The reasons are covered in the 'Digging in Leaves' thread earlier. Also if you want to be organic then I think you're supposed to stack the stuff to let any chemicals break down/leach out.

I'm starting to use the stuff I stacked in the spring, on the basis that the worms are moving into it, so it must be ok. Really I think it's a bit early, but needs must as the is as heavy and sticky as a month-old treavle pudding.

Jeremy

BTW -still some weeds as I've found a few growing in the manure.

I can only get manure with shavings in and had no problems digging it straight in (did look pretty well rotted).
I asked a horsey type about it and apparently horses now suffer with asthma if they are given straw to sleep in. Very inconvienient for us gardeners!!

I wouldn'd dig in a pile of shavings alone, I'm told wood releases methane gas into the soil, (?) and I prefere manure with straw. But; If it was a case of manure with shavings or no manure, then shavings it is.

I read/saw somewhere that using manure with wood shavings in takes nitrogen from the soil which will stunt the growth of plants grown in soil mulched with it.

The wood shavings need nitrogen to break them down apparently.

Such manure can still be used, you just might need to add extra nitrogen (fertiliser?) to replace that which has been lost.

I also looked into this as the near by stables beds the horses on shavings. The problems that I heard about are that the shaving take some time to rot down (certainly longer than normal horse manure), the shavings take moisture out of the heap and the rotting down process does remove nitrogen from the soil.

However, because it is bulky it is a good improver as it will rot down in the soil.

Did a bit of research myself...


From the HDRA in relation to composting
"Strawy horse and cattle manure composts well. Keep a sack on hand to bulk up other ingredients. Manure mixed with wood shavings should be left to rot until the shavings are no longer visible. If it is dry, water well and mix with grass mowings, poultry manure or other activating material. When rotted use as a surface mulch. Wood shavings incorporated into the soil can lock up soil nitrogen, making it unavailable for plants for a year or more. "

so Richard F may be right to suggest adding further nitrogen, but would this also be taken by the shavings??

and from a surrey council website
"Wood shavings, for example, have a high lignin content that slows down their rate of decomposition"  (whats lignin?  http://www.lignin.info/whatis.html   )

the RHS comment about using manure with shavings at Wisley to help their clay soil, and on another site a RHS advisior comments that there is usually sufficient nitrogen in the soil to overcome the shavings problem.

Anyway, i cannot really turn the offer as others have said, its better than no manure and its free, i went and dug a few bags worth yesterday. i could easily see some shavings near the top but digging into the mound soon revealed some well rotted manure with no signs of shavings.