Using Horse Manure
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.
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
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
Composted manure gets 'composted' by sitting and cooking out. It can (and often does) happen at the horse barn.Bobberman wrote: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!
Oh, the addition to a compost bin-tumbler-pile in your compost might be a welcome addition, but it has cooked all the same.
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
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
-
- Full Member
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 8:07 pm
- Location: Florida
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
- Full Member
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 9:59 am
- Location: UK
-
- Full Member
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 8:07 pm
- Location: Florida