Using Horse Manure

[MaryT]

Is it OK to use fresh horse manure on shrubs, flowering bushes and such or does it have to be older? When I say fresh I mean....from last night The oldest I have is 5 months at the bottom of the pile but wondering if I could just skip a step when I clean the stalls.

[cynthia_h]

Horse, cow, and other manures must be left to compost/rot for several months before being applied to plants. Otherwise, the nitrogen content will burn the plants and hurt them.

Do you have a compost pile? That would be a great place for the manure to go!

The only manure I've ever heard of being OK to apply directly--from the animal to the plant, as it were--is rabbit, because its nitrogen content is very low.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[MaryT]

Thanks Cynthia. That is what I thought I had heard. I can get some from the bottom of the pile another day.

[Bobberman]

I have a place to get horse manure that has sat in a pile for a year and its full of worms! Its actually mixed with saw dust and seems to work nice in my garden with a a little lime added!

[tomc]

I have a place to get horse manure that has sat in a pile for a year and its full of worms! Its actually mixed with saw dust and seems to work nice in my garden with a a little lime added!

Composted manure gets 'composted' by sitting and cooking out. It can (and often does) happen at the horse barn.

Oh, the addition to a compost bin-tumbler-pile in your compost might be a welcome addition, but it has cooked all the same.

[NooraK]

I was told to be careful with horse manure because there is an herbicide that is approved to be used on pastures, which is then ingested by the animal, and does not break down in the digestion process. As such, it would then harm your plants if you were to use it even after composting.

I did a bit of web searching, and I think this is what the person who told me was referring to:

https://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Contaminated-Compost-Clopyralid-Aminopyralid-Pyralid-Dow-Chemicals-Toxins.aspx

[Bobberman]

Good point that probably holds true for all types of farm manure! Poisons in the soil to control weeds are a big problem. Run off from the roads is another problem! We are lucky that plants can think! Cows do not completely digest corn like pigs do! What is the answer?

[growin' stuff]

Personally, we have never had a problem with fresh horse manure, but we spread it out, maybe that's why? The watermelon plant LOVES it and is growing on top of a pile of fresh manure. The only time it burned anything is when we piled some of it up for my neighbor, and it started to compost and got hot...my neighbor put it directly on some plants while it was hot. So, just make sure you spread it out and don't put it on the plant, but around the plant.

[vegetable-gardener88]

We get horse manure from a friend who doesn't use herbicides. It's very good manure to feed the plants. Our rhubarb plants love it. It's old manure around about 1 year old and has hunderds of worms in there. We also use the manure in our raised beds and around the fruit bushes.

[growin' stuff]

Yep, I just came in from my horse manure garden . It's like I went shopping in my yard. Came back in with corn, peppers, okra, and tomatoes. We always share some with the neighbors cause we can't eat all of it.