Horse Manure!
a2zmom_Z6_NJ
11 years ago
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11 years agoa2zmom_Z6_NJ
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Uncomposted horse manure buried in a trench
Comments (15)Wow. The more I read these ideas, the more my back hurts...and the ground is still frozen, so I cannot even begin to dig! Maybe it is time for the back-story: I am getting a new allotment garden plot at a local site. The ground is heavy clay, not very fertile at all and rather weedy. Everyone knew that the previous renter was leaving after last summer, so they all tossed their weeds and stems and junk on the plot, so it really looks like a mess. My hope is to plant a couple rows of raspberries and strawberries on it next year, so I would like to get the plot improved as quickly as possible this year. I also want to curb the weed problem. My first thought was to fill it up with legumes like peas, beans, etc. to maybe generate a bit of a crop for this year, but mostly to fix nitrogen, break up the clay and generate green manure. I read that fava/broad beans are great nitrogen fixers and also generate tons of greens for compost or mulch, so I was considering planting some of those along with the peas and snap beans. Then I found out about the free horse poop and started wondering if there was a way to get it incorporated heavily into the plot without the neighbouring allotment renters rising up and slaying me because of the smell! That is why I was trying to get around conventionally composting the manure above ground. One thing about these allotment gardens is that they are all sitting about six inches lower than the grass in the aisles around the beds. They have been used up and packed down heavily over the years. Each plot area is 20' by 25', so 500 sqare feet. I would need about nine yards of compost/soil to bring it up six inches to grade, and 18 yards to raise the whole allotment 6 inches above grade. This will be a big job....See MoreTo treat Downy Mldew-is chicken manure be effective as horse manure?
Comments (22)I bought 3 kinds on Amazon and 1 from Armstrong Nursery. My two favorites from Amazon were MycoBloom and MycoBliss. MycoBloom (2lbs, ~3.5 cups or 56 Tablespoons and should use 1-3 T per plant) includes fungal species isolated by researchers at Indiana University and seller answers question of which species in their mix and it’s these 7: Claroideoglomus claroideum (formerly known as Glomus claroideum), Funneliformus mosseae (formerly known as Glomus mosseae), Cetraspora pellucida, Claroideoglomus lamellosum, Acaulospora spinosa, Racocetra fulgida and Entrophospora infrequens. MycoBliss (1lb, treats 100 plants) is the other I liked and it includes 4 different species of Rhizophagus and 1 Claroideoglomus etunicatum. Notice that none of the species in these two products, MycoBloom and MycoBliss, are the same so I used both to get a total of 11 species. I like these two since they come with carrier clay powder so you can sprinkle a spoonful, which is easy to manage than mixing a concentrated powder with water, at least for me. The 3rd brand, Wildroot Organic Mycorrhizal Fungi, came as a 1 oz concentrated packet to mix into 50 gallons of water and pour on plants. However, 1/50th of an ounce, to make one gallon, is really just a pinch. I haven’t tried it yet since sprinkling the others directly onto/in soil seemed easier. But Wildroot Organic has more microbial diversity (ie. more species) and includes fungi and bacteria and seems like a high quality product. It includes 100,000 Propagules/lb Glomus Intraradices, G. G. mosseae, G. aggregatum, G. etunicatum, G. clarum, G. deserticola G. monosporum, Paraglomus brasilianum and Gigaspora margarita. 120 million propagules/lb Rhizopogon villosulus, R. lutcolus, R. amylopogon, R. fulvigleba Pisolithus tinctorius Scleroderma cepa and S. citrinum. 10 billion CFU/lb Bacillus subtilis, B. licheniformis, B. pumilus, B. amyloliquefaciens, and B. megaterium and B. thuringiensis. 500 million/lb. Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma koningii. Finally, I grabbed a bag of organic rose food at Armstrong Nursery that also includes mycorrhizae that I will use later in the season. All these products say not to use at the same time as synthetic fertilizers, especially phosphorus. Once microbes are established I am sure dilute synthetic fertilizers are fine but the microbes will be more delicate until they are established in the root zone. Also store in a cool dry place and use within a year, or so. As time goes on their freshness will be less since these are dormant, yet living, organisms....See MoreBiochar and horse manure and kelp for trace elements
Comments (84)Carol: Lilly Miller has slow-released nitrogen so it helps with rain leaching out nitrogen. The ingredients listed on Lilly Miller bag: chicken manure, cottonseed meal, ammonium phosphate, sulfur, urea, muriate of potash, calcium, trace elements added in sucrate forms. NOTE: Lilly Miller has sulfur, it's acidic but sulfur is most often leached out during rain, along with calcium. If you put 2 TBS of lime in the pot prior to heavy rain, LIME NEEDS AN ACID to make soluble calcium for plants to use. That's the logic of using Acid Lilly Miller along with Garden lime during acidic rain. Your roses are grafted on multiflora which prefer acidic pH. I would not recommend Acid Lilly Miller for roses grafted-on-Dr.Huey during tons of rain. I used sulfate of potash (18% sulfur) along with acidic gypsum (21% sulfur) during heavy rain to get the big blooms in below bouquet when I didn't have biochar back in 2013. Calcium needs an acid to convert it into SOLUBLE calcium for thick petals. Phosphorus and potassium fertilizers also need an acid to convert into SOLUBLE form for blooming, that's the logic of using Acid Lilly Miller during acidic rain. Below bouquet is achieved with sulfate of potash and acidic gypsum during acidic rain in pH 8 clay. But for neutral pH potting soil, I would use sulfate of potash and lime during heavy rain. White is Bolero, pink is Liv tyler, orange is Versigny, and red is Firefighter: Below is Versigny and left is Honey Bouquet, I really miss its honey scent. Large blooms is achieved with high potassium, and thick petals is achieved with SOLUBLE calcium. For zillion of tight-packed petals, I recommend Garden Lime (12% magnesium) or my high-magnesium clay: Versigny below liked alkaline pH, firm petals that last 5+ days in the vase was made possible with sulfate of potash plus gypsum, back when I water mostly with my pH 9 tap-water....See MoreHot Compost From Garden Waste vs From Horse Manure/Hay/Plant Waste
Comments (11)True - I wasn't claiming they're the same thing, of course, but emphasizing that the history is that our knowledge of potassium comes from plant forms (plant ashes). And in nature potassium is always found as a salt, so that's not much of a distinction. Sorry for the language geekery but another part of this I just learned: in many languages (eg german, russian) the element is 'kalii' or similar, from the arabic for plant ashes, al-kalyah - which also gave us the elemental symbol K, the word alkaline and the term for the alkali metals, etc. Anyway the implication for your purposes is pretty simple: if you've been adding a lot of compost esp woody composts (incl from hot composting) over years and years, it's quite possible you have plenty in your soil already. I understand there are cases - perhaps extreme ones - of excess potassium in soils that have been really heavily composted. (I suspect where additional fertilizer also used as well but just my suspicion). That's where the argument gets complicated chemistry-wise, whether that 'excess' is in a form that actually causes problems or is bound-up in a non-harmful form - and I simply don't know enough on that topic. (Amateur linguistics is less dangerous to opine on than amateur chemistry)...See Morea2zmom_Z6_NJ
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5