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Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

Manure seems to be the topic of the day as we all look to make amendments to the patch for the coming year. Should we put it on now or later, is it high in shavings or not, high in salts, does it provide too much nitrogen or tie it up? All are questions we seem to have.

I would therefore like to ask the group what their thoughts are as to the manure cycle. I would arbitrarily breakdown the category into "fresh" vs "composted" manure with composted manure being 6-12 months old. I enjoy these discussions as I learn a tremendous amount. Eric

12/21/2007 1:00:43 PM

Somers, CT

It depends... It comes down to what you need after the soil test. If organic matter(OM)needs to be increased, composted manuer needs to be added. This has less nitrogen than fresh and is usually added in the fall or early spring. Fresh manuer is added usually in the spring to add nitrogen to the soil which is needed for plant growth. Nitrogen leaches out of the soil easily so it does not last very long as opposed to other nutrients. Five yards of fresh for two plants is what I usually do and have my plants growing into the woods if I do not stop them. As far as contents, you can send some to the lab for testing to get true values. Wood shavings mess with the PH a bit but in my case fully composted after a full season or two. That is all I could get so I used it.

12/21/2007 1:34:52 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

Eric

I posted a note on Manure, two threads down which is also relevent to this thread.

The N in well composted manure is already converted to the organic form and is much more stable and less suseptable to leaching. This Nitrogen is also "slow release" that is good in that you will have a gradual feeding for the plants. the down side is that you really don't want a lot of available N at pollination and at initial fruit set. This can cause a lot of aborts and BES in the first 20 days of fruit growth. I applied a lot of composted manure this fall and I am a little worried about excessive N this year. I am hoping the cover crop will absorb the access and tie it up.

12/22/2007 11:10:07 AM

Colorado

hey petman.I would just like to add -that a little restraint is wise with amendments.Dont try to whip your soil up to speed with 6" of composted manure in one application.Try one or 2 inches in the fall and good things will happen.

12/22/2007 2:17:17 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

I am adding about 15 yards a year in the fall over my entire patch which is about 3,600 sf this year. I can't add anymore with the neighbors complaining. Unfortunately I don't live in the country or on a farm. Amazingly it doesn't amount to much when you get it all spread out.

12/22/2007 10:19:23 PM

milford, CT,

I added 10 yds of manure to 1000sq ft last year. My OM % went up to 23%...un-necesary!!!! My upper patch had 9% OM and out grew the lower patch by 300 lbs. I believe many of the early season problems I had were directly related to this. I was given the advice once..why do we use 2 lbs when only 1 lb is needed. Many of us..myself included.. sometimes get into the more is better mode. Set your soil parameters, make the amendments, and let nature do it's work. Super-Jacked-Out of balance soil may be worse than what we started with. Just my thoughts. mark

12/27/2007 9:49:57 PM

Puyallup, WA

Ten yards is equal to four pick-up loads of manure. In a spot 33' X 33' means that you're in "Deep Sh*t"!

1/9/2008 8:20:33 PM