I'm wondering if there are any restrictions on the use of raw manure on vegetable land. Is there a certain length of time that must pass between spreading and harvest? Can you use raw manure on garden/veggie land or must it be composted first?
"... one is nearer God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth."
Posts: 35 | Location: Zone 5, Southern Ontario | Registered: March 13, 2002
As far as I'm concerned, manure has absolutely no place in the garden - except in the compost pile. Manure smells bad for a reason. The reason is that it is full of bad microbes. Compost smells good for a reason. The reason is that it's ready to use in the garden.
If you have a large supply of fresh manure, you can let it sit in a pile for a year and it will smell fresh again and be ready to use. If you can mix it in with sawdust or dry leaves, it will be a better product.
I disagree and agree with San Anonio. I am a regular user of my horses' and cows' manure. They are relatively oderless after a few minutes of being expelled. My primary use for it is compost. In the past I have layed fresh manure between the rows of my corn and had great results, but, at the time I also had a thick layer of straw mulch on the ground. The manure sat there and leached like tea through the mulch and gave the corn a boost of nitrogen. Over the years I have replaced this method with compost and teas. If you have manure I suggest composting it, but that doesn't mean you can't experiment. I do it all the time just to see what results I'll get. I will have my regular plots that I compost and mulch as usual and I will have test beds.
Rockfish, deep in the Sand Hills of North Carolina "Fail Carpathia"
Posts: 421 | Location: Zone 7b South Central, NC | Registered: January 16, 2003
Fresh horse and cow manure, as well as sheep, goat, pig, and poultry, should not be used in the garden because of the strong possibility of pathogens (disease causing organisms) in that manure. The only reason fresh manures smell bad is because of the nutrients escaping to the atmosphere. Always compost manures before using them in the garden, which aside from aiding in destroying the pathogens will capture the nutrients so they would be available to the plants.
Another reason NOT to use frsh manure, is that it can actually BURN your plants! (Believe this is because of the high nitrogen content) Once composted, though, it is perfectly OK to use. The ONLY "green" manure (uncomposted) that I know of that can be applied DIRECTLY to the garden without danger of burning your plants is rabbit poop.
<Anonymous>
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I love horse manure! I collect literally tons every week in my pickup truck from a local equine clinic, premixed with lots of sawdust, hay, and feeds, as one of my prime ingredients in my customer's special compost stockpiles. It's great stuff!
Horse manure doesn't stink, whether it's fresh or not to me. It's a very "clean" manure. No matter how weedy, smelly, or pathogenic any animal wastes is, always blend it with browns to absorb the precious ammonia/nitrogen, develop humus in the pile, and to neutralize toxins, and to balance other nutrients in the pile.
