when to manure??

[steve76]

Hi all and sorry for the question,
I did a search but couldn't find the answer, so as it is i now have a supply of very fresh horse manure straight from the field not mixed with anything and as my potatoes,onions,garlic etc come out should i start to put this fresh manure on the parts of the plot that i will not be using untill next year march april time and dig it in january, febuary or would all of the goodness be washed out over the winter period???.
I have never manured my plot before.

Thanks for your help.
Steve,

[steve76]

[ed dibbles]

The standard advice is to stack it in a heap letting it "mature" before using it directly on growing crops.

However you are not advocating that but spreading it on empty ground until next spring when it would no longer be fresh manure but weathered instead.

I reckon either way is going to give good results since organic matter added to all soils is beneficial. If you are going to spread it on the ground over winter may I suggest you put it where your greediest crops will be - cucurbits, brassicas (caulies particularly) celery etc. Don't put it where any root crops are to be as they won't benefit from it.

Also any nutrient leaching that takes place will likely end up in the soil directly under the spread manure. Exactly where you need it.

One year I wanted to grow some giant cabbages for fun. I spread 4 bags of manure over an area in the autumn and planted two "Brunswick" and two "Champion" cabbages three feet apart in spring and by august had 4 giant cabbages each three feet across!

[AlanP]

A few years ago I covered one of my beds with 6inch thick fresh horse manure, this was done in the Autumn ready for beans and peas the following year, never ever again, this bed can still grow a mass of chick weed while your back is turned, it needs composting first.

Alan

[terrier]

A few years ago I covered one of my beds with 6inch thick fresh horse manure, this was done in the Autumn ready for beans and peas the following year, never ever again, this bed can still grow a mass of chick weed while your back is turned, it needs composting first.

Alan

??  Are you saying the the horse manure caused the chickweed or there was no benefit in manuring with horse muck?

[Digeroo]

Manure does carry weed seeds.  Even composting it does not shift fat hen.   

Due to the possibilities of importing weedkillers I would certainly recommend spreading manure on top.  I believe it to be burying it that causes the problems.

I still think it is necessary test all manure by growing beans.

[BarriedaleNick]

I have adopted a slightly different approach this year.  Instead of dumping manure all over my raised beds I have just applied it where needed.  Essentially digging a hole filling with a manure and soil mix and then planting in that.  Even did this with sweetcorn although it was a bit of a pain.  It seems to be working as everything has grown exceptionally well this year.

Personally I think I would stack it in a heap and cover it with a tarp over winter - in fact that is exactly what I do - bags of fairly fresh manure and bags of leaves pilled up and covered.  Normally by next spring it has rotted down enough. 

It didn't get rid of the weed seeds though!  Fat hen everywhere!

[terrier]

Horses are scavengers, they seem to have a go at most plants and roots when grazing, so there will always be plenty of seeds in the 'oss muck. Even so, I dump as much of the stuff as I can on the flower and veg beds to over winter, never dig it in. Once the weeds start to grow it's easy to go over with a rake to get most of them out. Horse muck takes very little time to begin to rot down and is unlikely to damage any established plant that can live in a slightly acidic soil. I started my Dhalias in trays of almost fresh horse muck this year without any detrimental effects and now they're planted out in horse muck and leaf mould and some used growbag contents from last year. Out of interest, I checked the Ph of horse muck against the contents of a tomato grow bag and the readings were virtually the same.

[Fork]

I prefare cow muck to horse.I find the former contains less weed seeds