I partially filled my raised bed with ten-year old horse manure and compost. Haven't added any ferts yet to most of it, though did put compost tea on some plants. But even the ones without the compost are doing great. Plus, I've only pulled out a handful of weeds do far. Mike

Hello all. I'm from Sweden and have read this thread with great interest! Just wanted to share my experience with horse manure. Right now I'm working on building a hugelkultur (A hugelkultur is a 3-5 feet high bed to grow vegetables in, which starts at the bottom with half rotten logs of trees, then branches and sticks and then finer material. This bed is good at keeping moist and giving nutrients to whatever you plant for years.) This fall I am topping this new bed with fresh horse manure (just a thin layer) and finally hay. In spring next year, the manure should have composted enough to be able to plant in. I will make holes in the then half composted hay and add just a little planting soil to put the plant in. A previous experiment I had great results from, was when making a new raspberry "field". On a piece of pasture with wild grasses and stuff, I put a layer of newspaper on about 15' x 8' of the pasture. And then on top of that, a lasagna with horse manure and seaweed. 3 layers of each, about 4-5 inches each layer. That made a pile that was about 2-2,5 feet high. Then I covered it with about 4 inches of planting soil. This was all done in the fall. The composting process started immediately and after a day or two, the temperature in the pile was around 125 F. When composting, the pile shrank as a soufflé and next spring it was less than 10 inches high. The raspberry plants were planted in two rows and grow formidably. This must have been 7-8 years ago and I have not put anything else on this bed since then. So, since it is fall now, if you want a planting bed next spring and you have a piece of land that you want to use for a planting bed and want to spend as little time as possible to prepare it; make a lasagna with horse manure and some vegetative scrap (like seaweed, kelp, tree leafs, hay or what have you) at least 2 feet high. Top it with some kind of soil. Next spring you should be ready to plant in it. No tilling and other preparations. If your ingredients are dry, give each layer a spray of water before adding the next. Addendum. I have not made any measurements of pH or nutrients before and after, so I can't really say if this composting time of about 8 months was optimal. Anyway, it worked for me and it was a very simple way to prepare a planting bed.

i've been using horse manure with straw/wood shavings/sawdust bedding in my compost piles for a few years now, and i've asked this same question about when it is considered properly composted and safe for use on food crops. i can't find a definitive answer on that quite yet, but in case anyone is interested, here are a few links to sites with some interesting information on best practices. Some of these publications are kinda scientific, but there's still some good information there for us lay people so don't be intimidated. EPA List of Publications on Compost: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/composting/pubs/index.htm Rutgers - New Jersey Ag Exp Station on Composting Horse Manure: http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/publications/stablemgt/E307.htm Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education has a free downloadable PDF on Building Soil which includes a chapter on composting manure: http://www.sare.org/coreinfo/soil.htm National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service has a publication on manure for organic crop production here: http://attra.ncat.org/soils.html One of these days, i'm going to try to ask a soil scientist at my local agricultural experiment station about the latest recommendations for composting manure. Unfortunately, i get the feeling that there's a lot we just don't know for sure yet, and i think it wise to use composted manure cautiously. Certainly, i would agree that you shouldn't apply it if the pile is still generating any heat. Good luck.

Don't know where you are, but keep in mind what I say comes from a hot and super dry climate. I use a LOT of horse manure. Local manure gets sopped up with all sorts of different materials, mostly whatever wood shreds the stable can buy cheaply. Ten dollars a yard is a good price for what you describe. No weeds. Ever. I also let it all sit (most is considerably fresh!) for a long time before using with food plants, although I have planted flowers in very fresh manure and never see "burning". Burning is just one hazard of using fresh manure; the other is pathogens, real or not, but you gotta be safe with fresh stuff. This stuff here sits on fill sand left over from construction nearly fifty years ago. Haven't worked my way over to the clay/caliche areas much yet. It's laid on straight, maybe three to five inches a year because of lots of shrinkage. I don't dig, but it gets mixed with the sandy stuff anyhow through planting and pulling and burying of garbage. But no weeds. Ever. Manure loses its N fast! It gasses off, especially if you let it dry out. One other thing to consider when using manure, mixed in or not, is the products of breakdown leach down into the sand and that's where the plant roots go too. These leached breakdown products, humus and larger colloids, are what make the minerals in the ground available to the plant roots. They will get there! If adding manure to sterile sand, one's first season may somewhat suck, plant nutrition-wise, but after some time one finds no need for much additional fertilizer, if at all. Again, local conditions. But no weeds, ever. YMMV