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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Adding composted manure to a compost pile

gardening_dizzle

14 years ago

Hi all! I'm new to composting and am about to build a pile that will hopefully be ready for my spring garden. I've got more than enough leaves and have gathered as much green material as I can but don't have enough to build the size pile I'd like. Would adding a few bags of composted manure to the pile be good for it? I'm sure it can't hurt but don't want to waste money on it if I don't need to.

Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated.

Comments (8)

borderbarb
14 years ago
Though bags of steer manure are usually pretty cheap, you may want to read the following story
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/world/story/1250165.html

about antibiotics fed to animals. Unless you can verify that the steer manure comes from dairy cows, it may have residue of the antibiotics and other stuff fed to steers before slaughter to keep them healthy and rapid growth.

Maybe you can add other things to the pile ... like coffee grounds [from Starbucks] .....
val_s
14 years ago
Barbs suggestion of Starbucks is a good one.

There is also a pretty good list in the FAQ's. The one entitled A Brief Intro to Composting has some good ideas. Scroll down to Greens that are easy to come by

Also, I learned something from my good friend Robert. Cheap dog food is an excellent "green". Gets a pile going really good. Of course I've never actually tried this myself (the dog has a cow if I even look at her food).

Val
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usually the companies here give away their coffee grounds to other people or actually sell them -.-" i mean we don't have many coffee shops to begin with and the very few often run dry on used grounds as im not the only gardener in the state and we live in a small state since it's Hawaii. i often use my own grounds but i am talking about an outside pile i mean 1 cup of coffee does not yield a lot of grounds in general and the pile outside will need over 50 cups that is for sure more likely more due to some of the grounds washing away into the soil. but i have been using my urine to compost this pile 3 months into it been using it about 2 times a week moving into 3. and it's been doing great. the middle is all composted it's rich black and doesn't smell like piss. should be able to get a good yield within a year. would be less but people keep adding browns to it making it hard to harvest in time. it usually rains a lot and my pile can get rained on. im looking only to use the urine until it's composted a decent amount to the fact i can water it down and retain the moisture i'll use diluted urine
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The main concurn with fresh cow manure is keeping it airated. For that reason I wouldn't mix it with the other material. If the cows are on pasture,I would alow most to lay where it falls and eventualy return to the soil. If they are stalled which requires cleaning,I would want to age it before putting into a bin. I would want an area about 6'X6' on the ground where I could dump in adjoining stacks until the ground was covered about 6" to 8" deep. With a square point shovel,I would put 3/4ths of the 36 sq ft on top of one 3'x3' corner,alternating each shovel full coming from aereas of varying dryness/age in hopes of dry material creating air pockets in the new stack. The new stack will recieve the first new manure from stalls then the remaining emaginary "L" shaped bare ground will be covered similar to when we started. When the ground is once again covered,everything is stacked in the diagonal corner layering dry with fresher. Ok,I hope to have created somwhat of a visual of a stratigy for ageing and composting the manure with minium labor. Don't use a tape measure and calander in attempt to adheare to the method,use your judgment on space,timing and wherther to add moisture or cover to prevent over watering by rain. You will reach a point where the manure is reduced in bulk and is more suitable for mixing with material in your bin without creating anarobic problems. Alternate to incorprating into your bin,taking the manure to fully composted is satisfactory also.
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If you have finished compost now the time to spread it on your soil is now. There is no good reason to wait until spring to spread the compost you have now. Compost can be spread on soil anytime it is ready, finished, although few of us would do that when the garden has 4 feet of snow on it.
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Horse manure composts pretty good on its own. Its mostly grain or hay or whatever the horse has been eating, horses have a pretty inefficient digestion, unlike cows. The only thing I'd worry about is that horse manure will tend to dry out pretty bad. So for spring, just mix in some browns so it doesn't stink to bad and let it compost. Some of the stuff from summer should be pretty well ready by now and will be even better by spring.
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Lloyd
14 years ago
Well, I had a wise and witty post on here this morning but I guess the emergency back-up reload quashed it. For the life of me, I don't remember what I said. :-(

Suffice to say, that gardeners everywhere were nodding their heads in agreement with every pithy and erudite point I brought up.

Lloyd

P.S. First statement was true, second one would have feritilized a garden for years!
dbm2009
14 years ago
I think adding composted manure to the pile would be great. It would benefit the pile by adding to the diversity of nutrients,microbes,material textures and structues. It would also benefit the manure for the same reasons.

david
Lloyd
14 years ago
I sorta remember now....

I'd put the composted manure into the garden this spring prior to planting and keep building the compost pile to be used in the fall after the garden is harvested. This would get you into a 'fall to fall' rotation for the compost.

Lloyd
tiffy_z5_6_can
14 years ago
Pardon my ignorance but GA? Georgia? Live near the coast? Got seaweed? Good stuff! Another source of greens is at your local feed store - Alfalfa pellets. I get them pretty cheap.

Val's right though, especially if you don't want to pay a dime for your greens. Check out Starbucks or coffee shops for their UCGs.
gardening_dizzle
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, everyone!

Barb, I've collected numerous bags from Starbuck's so far but they don't save it regularly... they throw it all away!!! What a travesty!
I did a little research and dbm2009 is right that adding already composted material will provide more of the micro-organisms that break stuff down.

tiffy_z5_6_can, I'm in Atlanta... Unfortunately, I'm about four hours to the beach or else I'd be all over the seaweed!!!

I did, however, find a horse rescue farm nearby that gives away manure for free!!!! Heading there tomorrow to pick up a few bags of it. My wife is thrilled!!!
tiffy_z5_6_can
14 years ago
I envy your find!!! Drool... FREE!

Ahhhh... Life IS good!

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