I was in Home Depot today to purchase some Burpee Swiss Chard seed. While there, I was looking at the various brands of garden soils and potting mixes. Which ranged in price from about $1.00 for topsoil which seems now to be a blend of rocks, stones, gravel, and sand. They may even throw in a few toxic chemicals for good luck. That used to be a pretty good base soil to build your garden soil on. Then they went up in price to $1.97 for what they call Scotts Garden Soil. The prices ranged up to about $10.00 per bag for the high class brands of potting soils and garden soils.
I was curious about the contents of the lower price, Scotts garden soil so I bought a couple of bags thinking it would simply be high quality dirt. When I got home, I read the instructions on the bag and they said to "not" plant anything directly into the soil, but to mix it with topsoil before using it for planting. I opened the bag and immediately knew why you should mix it. It is almost pure manure. No wonder the bag also said to use gloves when mixing the soil. Don't get me wrong, I love manure in the garden but it simply has become so hard to obtain high quality manure for a reasonable price. I believe the "MOOPOO" brand is about $3.95 per bag and it is diluted with sand. I will mix some in my soil in my former lettuce bed before I plant anything in it. I will soak it daily with a water hose to move the nutrients into the underlying soil and probably plant my Swiss Chard there next week.
Hard to believe someone would be so happy to find a bag of poop for a reasonable price.
Ted
If you want manure for your garden!
Last edited by tedln on Fri May 07, 2010 7:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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sciencegal
- Senior Member
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- Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:17 pm
I grew up in West Texas surrounded by cattle feedlots. I still think I am smelling manure in my dreams sometimes.sciencegal wrote:I wish you lived near me. Between several head of beef steers, the horse, mule and donkey and about 30 dairy goats, manure is something that I have coming out of my ears. I'd give you all you want for free. It's high quality stuff, too.
Dixana is right though. Those people will be more than happy to take all the manure you can provide. They will load it themselves and be happy to pay you some money as a token of their respect. One lady in California who raises cattle is packing it in over sized tea bags and selling the tea bags on the internet so people can home brew their own poo tea for their gardens. A number of stores are now carrying her poo bags. Shes probably making more money from the poo than from the beef. I heard she is looking for a breed of cattle that have a genetic predisposition to diarrhea. (Just kidding about her looking for a new breed).
Ted
Are you making any good artisan cheeses out of the goats milk?sciencegal wrote:I wish you lived near me. Between several head of beef steers, the horse, mule and donkey and about 30 dairy goats, manure is something that I have coming out of my ears. I'd give you all you want for free. It's high quality stuff, too.
Ted
That is funny; I have some neighbors who told me I could have all the manure I want, they have cattle and horses. One of my neighbors had a portable lumber mill brought in to cut some trees into lumber for his new house and he let me have a bunch of it, the piles were close enough to my garden that I just drove my tractor to one of the big piles and made a bunch of trips with one bucket at a time.sciencegal wrote:I wish you lived near me. Between several head of beef steers, the horse, mule and donkey and about 30 dairy goats, manure is something that I have coming out of my ears. I'd give you all you want for free. It's high quality stuff, too.
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BrianSkilton
- Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:59 pm
- Location: South Dakota
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gixxerific
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:42 pm
- Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B
We raised calves last year and probably will this year. Last year I thought I would have a good supply of manure. The problem was by the time I could pick up any cow poo, the insects had already turned it to dust. The only way I could get any manure would have been to follow them around with a wheelbarrow right behind the rear ends. I decided to buy it instead.
Ted
Ted
Yes, I checked. It only listed the nutritional and mineral percentages similar to commercial fertilizers in the bag. The percentages were very low compared to commercial fertilizers. The only thing that clued me into the manure was the odor. That has always been one of the things I like about manure. It has low nitrogen, but it is very slow release over a long period. I have always believed it is high in natural acids which cause minerals already in the soil to be released for uptake by the plants. It also has a natural bacterial culture which are beneficial in the soil
Ted
Ted