Funny story: I'm a "city boy" with a backyard garden so I don't have ready access to manures. But I did have a friend years ago, who had a weekend farm that he invited me to. He had a few horses and cows on the premises, and I took home with me in my hatchback several black-plastic bags half-filled with manure. (The ride back was aromatic, to be sure.) I set the bags aside until time to use the contents, and when I finally did I was shocked by the number of June Bug larvae I found crawling under the bags. Big, fat creatures, the size of one's little finger. They either came along with the manure, or the manure became a magnet for them . I destroyed as many of the larvae as I could, but it took a couple of summers before I could say I won the war of the June Bugs.

Sounds like a plan to me. I do something similar with cow manure. I keep a layer of soil only 4 inches thick between the planting hole and the manure. If you layer the manure with leaves or straw and wet it well you will have an underground compost heap which will warm the soil and get your plants off to a quicker start.

Here is some info from North Carolina State University on the subject that I think is particularly good. (Link below for full article.) "Aminopyralid, clopyralid, fluroxypry, picloram, and triclopyr are in a class of herbicides known as pyridine carboxylic acids. They are registered for application to pasture, grain crops, lawns, certain vegetables and fruits, and roadsides. They are used to control a wide variety of broadleaf weeds. If these herbicides are used on a pasture or hayfield, they apparently donâÂÂt harm the animals grazing on the pasture or eating the hay. But some of these herbicides can be persistent and may remain active in the hay, straw, grass clippings, and manure, even after they are composted. Some of these herbicides have a half life of 300 days or more and aminopyralid has been reported to remain active in compost for several years. A problem sometimes arises when these materials, particularly manure and compost, are applied to fields and gardens to raise certain vegetables and flowers. The herbicides of greatest concern are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid. The garden plants that are most sensitive to this class of herbicides are tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, beans, dahlias, and some roses." "Some roses." Not sure what that means, it certainly would be good to know. Most of the product labeling for these types of herbicides says to wait 18 month before you plant sensitive crops where it has been used. I think porkpal is right that aminopyrolid is the longer acting one. For the others 18 months is not a long time for manure waste to sit around composting--and waiting for the chemical to go inactive. If I had access to lots of high quality compost that I though might be tainted I would seriously consider a small test garden with sensitive plants to experiment with the compost in. I think it could be well worth the effort. For those of us in the U.S. 2-4,D is still the predominate herbicide used for livestock hay production and it doesn't pose this problem. There are issues with this though and there is a small risk when using manures you don't know the background on. Fortunatly more people--farmers, livestock operators etc. are becoming aware of the issue. Here is a link that might be useful: Manure/herbicide Info

I've never used horse manure. I used tons of cow manure. A friend of mine uses horse manure for her roses. Every spring she gets fresh horse manure and applies it in a thick layer around the roses. At some distance, of course. If the manure touches the canes, it will burn. Any manure. I've never heard of manure burning roots, just by being applied on the ground around the plant. Of course, maybe it is possible, I just never heard of such thing or experienced. A compost pile.... You can use the compost in any way you want - for mulch (when is not finished), for tea or straight in the hole. I have plants planted in pure compost and... I have to say that the way they grow is just incredible. Compost will never burn. There's no such thing as "too much compost". It is normal to have many many kinds of bugs and worms and other creatures in a compost pile. They are important actually. You want them there. It is a whole science in making a compost pile. You will have to learn how to do it right if you want rich compost and a pile that doesn't stink the whole yard. You can have a big compost pile or a small one (a 4 x 4 x 4 I would say is a good - small - size). You know what I would do? I would find a place in my yard that is a little out of the way, I would build a bin with some chicken wire, I would get the manure, I would go in the park or forest or something like that and I would get lots of dry leaves and I would mix them together and would just let them sit there until spring. Or... you can make compost tea. I assume you know how to do that one, right? Boy, did I talk a lot :) If there's something else you need to know... go ahead and ask. Valentina