From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Yreka, CA

(I'm new at this.) I found a stable where they have been piling the horse manure for YEARS. I mean, the mound is at least two stories high, and the stuff at the bottom is utterly black, and vary compressed. It smells great! (You know, for manure I mean.) They give it away free, and my daughter (she's two) loves to go see the horseys, so I could conceivably end up with a whole lot of this, uh, stuff. How much is too much? Should I use it to bury the vines, or is it too rich for that? Thanks! PVZ

7/23/2002 2:33:54 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

hey pvz...I 've never seen anyone here say they had to much manure. if the composted manure is ready I would still mix it in some of the soil the plant is already growing in to cover the vines. you can have the manure tested to make sure its not to hot and cause any aborts but two years sounds fine to me. unless the nitrogen is leaching down from the top to where your digging. that's a great find for the garden nxt year! Grow em Big!

7/23/2002 7:00:12 AM

Cairo, Georgia

Do not use fresh this year,,you can use all the composted manure that your hands can load!! All you want cuz,,the more ,the merrier...

7/23/2002 7:58:34 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

PVZ - I was wondering the same thing for next year. How much is too much? I started doing some research and saw that the only precaution would be that you don't want to get to an acid Ph. - so test your soil
I'm sure a lot of people on BP.com would like to have access to that pile. Especially the composted stuff at the bottom.
I'd like to see some more input on this topic if available.
Cheers - Ceis

7/23/2002 11:32:14 AM

South Hill, Virginia

Wow!....that is one big pile of poop. You should pose with it and take a picture so we can all see it.

7/23/2002 11:49:07 AM

Yreka, CA

Well, now that you mention it, I HAVE posed with it for a picture! The trouble is that my camera is just a rinky-dink regular old camera. However, I get my pictures processed by Costco, and they will give me the option of having the photos put on a CD, or having them available on the Kodak website. Will either of these options work for getting the pics onto this site, do you know? BTW svrichb, I am new to this site (and this sport) and your diary has been a lot of fun, and very interesting for me to read. Also, I am a big fan of homebrew as well! A kindred spirit! :-) PVZ

7/23/2002 1:06:44 PM

Cooks Creek, Manitoba, Canada

Since you live in sunny CA this shouldn't be a problem, but for those of us that live where the winters get cold there is something you need to watch out for. Last fall I piled on the manure very thick - too thick. I asked the neighbor if he could spread some of his cow manure over my garden. When he asked how much I just told him to lay it on - so he did - 6 to 12 inches deep. I was very happy, I tilled it in a couple of times but even with a fairly big tiller I could only incorporate it in to a depth of about 18 inches and the top layer was still mostly manure. To make a long story short, the high organic content of the manure acted like a blanket on the underlying clay soil keeping the soil temperatures very cold well into the spring season.

7/23/2002 1:45:53 PM

South Hill, Virginia

Seems like giant pumpkin growers have alot in common. I mean, who else would want to see a big pile of manure (or pose with one:))? If you get your pics on the Kodak website it should be in some format you can upload to your growers diary. Looking forward to seeing that one!

The homebrew should be ready in another week. I snuck a bottle this past weekend and it wasn't quite done.....drank it anyway...and a couple more. I need to network with more homebrewers anyway because what I make always has a bunch of sediment. I figure the fiber is good for me and cancels out any damage done by the alcohol;)

7/23/2002 2:02:17 PM

Knopp, Germany

huh, what damage, what kind of a web site is this anyway?

7/23/2002 2:04:49 PM

South Hill, Virginia

lol!

7/23/2002 3:06:07 PM

Tacoma, WA

Remember PVZ, many of the "heavy hitters" have their soil organic content at 15% or higher. I have added 30 pick up loads and my organic content is still below 8%.

7/24/2002 1:29:03 PM

Yreka, CA

How do you determine organic content? If your soil is 8% organic content, what is the balance? I am always surprised at how much there is to learn! It sounded so simple! Plant a seed, water it. LOL! PVZ

7/24/2002 1:45:11 PM

Tacoma, WA

When you send your soil to A & L Labs, they will tell you the % of organic material as compared to non-organic, ie. minerals.

7/25/2002 4:22:57 PM

Cape Cod

Alexsdad: Something you said about too hot causing aborts; I had all aborts (nine) till Sept. when one finally survived. At least I got a 50 lb. jack o lantern for Halloween :-(.

I had been mixing in goose/duck/chicken manure with the soil, not to mention a lot of 3-4-5 organic fert and some C4 (26-77-43) as I called it, that a friend gave me. The plant didn't show any signs of fertilizer burn - well maybe just a little burn on the edge of a few leaves. Some leaves were 35" across with secondaries removed.

Any idea which caused the aborts, the manure or the fert, or perhps the aggregate of all of them? I sure don't want to go there next year.

11/8/2002 8:48:52 PM