I agree with Jeri -- steer manure of any kind should not be put on roses or any food crop. Ever.

Best to just throw it away. You don't want all that salt and the other contaminents in your garden.

Kathy

You can actually get the same benefits with no dangerous side-effects by using alfalfa.

Jeri

I use BLACK HEN put out by the Black Cow people, and it seems to work good.. as well as Alfalfa and Blood Meal and Milorganite.... I can't get fresh horse manure where I live... sally

Well dang!! I was trying to pull up some old threads and people talk so good about it so I thought I would just try it. The bags I purchased aren't with me now but I think it had Moo Nure on the bag so am assuming its cow manure. Good bet huh!! lol! Anyway will the bag probably tell me if its aged and ok to put out around the base of the plants? I was first going to use it around my hosta but thought I would use it around other plants too. I really would rather use some the bagged stuff instead of trying to find someone with stables. On another thread people were discussing the differences in horse and cow manure and the majority of people seemed to prefer the cow for some reason. I would guess either would be good but just wanted to hear a few more opinions. I do use the alfalfa but thought this might give them all a little extra boost. Thanks in advance for your advice. Judy

I agree with the posters above who urge caution when using bagged manures -- especially if you're growing food crops. If you do use the bagged stuff as a soil amendment, it's wise to avoid altogether anything labeled as 'steer' manure, which generally indicates that the product came from beef cattle. Bags labeled 'cow' manure (Black Kow, for instance) contain manure only from dairy cattle, which OSTENSIBLY harbors fewer dangerous contaminants. (I've been searching online for the article I read about contaminant differences in dairy vs. stockyard manures; I'll post it here when/if I find it).

In addition to all the other harmful 'additives' in animal manures, a new one surfaced in Britain a couple of years ago -- namely, a new Dow Chemical herbicide containing something called aminopyralid that was sprayed on hay fields to control weeds. The stuff was found to remain at least partially active even in composted manure, and produced weirdly contorted growth in ornamental plants. So, caution is certainly warranted when we're using these products. I bring in as much stable manure as I can, but I have to confess that occasionally the bagged Black Kow stuff makes it into my garden.

Bagged manure is like everything else, a highly debated subject. Some bagged manures contain little cow manure and are mixed with other things. Dehydrated bagged cow manure should have the highest amount of manure.
But, there is just no way for us to know what is exactly in those bagged manure products and where they came from.
And most do come from feedlots.
If you go to a farm or stable, the person will usually tell you what they feeds there cattle, horses, etc. and you have a better idea of what your getting.

I'll be applying composted stable manure. How much can I apply?

Cats, when we use it, we bring it home from the stable in plastic bags, and put it right out -- NOT composted.
We just mulch out to the drip line with it, and water it in well.
It's been our experience that the manure smell disappears within a day (Our neighbors even said so!)

For advice on using MANURES, you still can't find a better guide than Dean Reynolds Hole. GOOGLE has his "A BOOK ABOUT ROSES," and in my copy, the chapter on Manures begins on Pg. 58.
One of my favorite passages begins in my copy on Pg. 90, and commences with: "Returning on a summer's afternoon from a parochial walk, I inferred from wheel-tracks on my carriage drive . . . "

Jeri

Jeri, I think I've got to check out his book - I love his writing style!

I was delighted to learn, a while back, that Dean Hole is also the favorite rose-writer of one of MY favorite rose-writers: Ireland's wonderful Sean McCann.

Yes. Do read Dean Hole!
This book ran for some immense number of re-prints, so you can find good copies on line for ridiculously-low prices. And every bit of it is golden. Who'd have guessed that he wrote a century ago?

Jeri

Jeri, I checked viewed the manure section in Google Books & I like a lot of his ideas - not to mention his writing style!

What time of year do you apply your manure? I'm also in CA, in Sonoma Co. I've put very small amounts in over the winter so it can get rained it. It sounds like he might advise adding it after or during the spring flush, but I'm not sure.

Jeri, I have seen this subject debated on here before and I do remember that you have stated that you just put the fresh manure out......I guess I have a hard time reconciling that with the usual advice about "fresh manure burning plants so always compost it first". I have horses so I have more poo I could ever use and sometimes it would be easier to just throw it on there instead of composting.

Is your manure mixed with shavings? And what about weed/grass seeds? I am also assuming that the fresh stuff would only be applied to the top and never to the hole (such as when planting).

Thanks so much for your help!

Lynn

prettypetals, I'm sorry - I didn't meant to hijack your thread with my questions!

Lynn

No problem Lynn, I like reading other posters questions and seeing the answers they get. I had hoped to apply some manure especially to my hosta this year because they had not grown much the last couple of years and thought I would give some to lots of my other plants but now i'm not so sure. The alfalfa does seem to work great so I may just stick with it and use some of the bagged manure a little at a time. So ask away with as many questions as you like, Judy

Probably the ideal time to add manure would be spring.
We do it when we get a round tuit.
It's not a huge issue here, for the roses are never actually dormant, or fully out of bloom.

Lynn, we have in the past gotten our horse poo from a small local boarding stable. The horses are NOT out grazing. They're in stalls or corrals, and nothing is growing there.

Bagged stall waste -- largely straw -- is kept separate from the bags of manure.
We did bring home some of that once, for a specific non-rose project. It was pretty urine-soaked, and rotted nicely in place.

The manure is pretty much "pure" manure. It's bagged up in old plastic bags or feed sacks. You have to get there early to score it, because it disappears very quickly.

We once watched a woman fill the entire trunk and inside of a fairly new luxury car, piling it carefully around the baby in the back seat in an infant car seat. It was awesome.

If I run short of that source, I can always try for manure from my nephew's two horses.

Lastly, the first time someone told me they used horse manure straight from the horse, I did not believe it.
After hearing it more than once, we tried it, and saw that it's pretty wonderful stuff, just as it is.

But one man's ceiling is another man's floor, and you shouldn't do anything you feel uncomfortable about.

Jeri

Thanks Jeri! The only problem with my poo(!) is that my horses do graze in the pasture and, along with the hay they eat, probably produce weedy poo. I may try it anyway - it's not a precious resource here, being a semi-rural location. It'll be a little experiment!

I hope you didn't mind being a temporary HS consultant :)

Lynn

Lynn, I love HS so much . . .

You know, I think if you have weedy poo, then I would compost it.
Get the compost temperature up high enough (and God knows, you should be able to do that in TX!!!) and the weed-seeds should die, yes?

It's these effete SoCal horses that don't eat no weeds.

Jeri