Manure Tea?...

Horse Manure tea,or cattle manure,if you can't find Horse manure.One guy i know uses Elephant Manure,From a place here in new Jersey that grows Elephants,But i never went there thow he told me where the place is.I think is something like 'great adventure stables'.

Figs say yumm yumm,
I say yuck yuck...

I bet that Elephant manure goes a long way!

You are right Leon,This guy swears by it.I have a good source of Horse manure so i was not interested but this guy said that Elephant manure is much better.!!!!!!!

I am currently working on a horse farm. I never thought about taking a load of dried horse manure home. I have about a cubic yard of potting mix ( mix of forest soil, bark chips& composted steer manure). I think I'll bring home some dried horse manure and mix it in with the rest and see what happens.

Figfarmer: Horse Manure is not to be mixed,but to be applied in top as dressing or make manure tea from it.
The mix can harm the roots in container or ground.
Also make sure it is not from show horses and they do not use too many harmfull chemicals that eventually end up in bedding.Regards

There was an article in last years paper about how people would line up to take away the dung from Ringling Bros Circus elephants. I always wanted to try it for my veggies but missed them this year. The Meadowlands arena is almost right around the corner. Really strong stuff though. I read its to strong to use fresh, should be composted first or it fries your roots.

My understanding is that only cow manure can be immediately applied. Manure from other animals (specifically horses and sheep) is too "hot" with nitrogen/ammonia and will kill plants unless it 'ages' for a while.

In the past I've collected cow manure and put it on gardens, but I won't do it again. It contained *way* too many weed seeds.

DaveL

Among other things, last year I tried some Cockadoodle-DOO (chicken crap), 4-3-3, on my veggies and some of the figs. They claim to be organic. They also claim its doesnÂt smell to bad or something like that, don't know if I quite agree with them, especially if you make Cockadoodle-DOO tea which they recommend not storing for very long, don't know why. The tomatoes seemed to love it. I also used some Fish Fertilizer (Alaskan), noting but ground up fish parts, I guess, 5-1-1, I think its organic but I can't be sure right now. I once came across a different brand FF that had much less nitrogen with added Kelp, didn't buy it, never saw it again. And of course manure tea, put a shovel of manure in an old sheet, suspend it in a 5 gal bucket for a few days. I cut the resulting tea 50% with water.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cockadoodle-DOO

I could not believe that crap (pun intended) was $35.00 per bag! Milorganite is very similar and for the same 40lb bag is $9.00.

I had never heard of Milorganite before but a quick check turned up this. If it is the same stuff I would pass.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sludge

Thanks for tip, Herman. I won't use the horse manure. I'll stick to composted steer manure that I get from Home Depot. FF

Alpaca manure and rabbit manure (minus the urine, especially if it's from buck rabbits) are "cold", that is, they can be applied as a top/side dressing without aging. For other manures, the consensus on the Soil & Compost forum seems to be that when you can take a deep closeup whiff without gagging, it's aged enough.

I started using alfalfa tea this spring, made from cheap alfalfa pellets from the feed store (check to ensure they don't contain salt!). Apparently when alfalfa breaks down it produces an alcohol that stimulates rooting and branching. As I recall it's pretty balanced as far as NPK. It's kind of stinky, but bearable, at least to my nose.

Kristin

There is a lot of mis-information about Milorganite and the levels of toxins are well below many of the commerically available chemical fertilizers. I look at it as a hybrid fertilizer, maybe not as clean as pure manure, but not as bad as say Ironite or other granular chemical fertilizers. I called Milorganite and they told me they have a different system that no longer includes industrial waste. Nothing is perfect, but it is not like they get waste from chemical plants either. Their biosolids are EPA "Exceptional Quality" and exceed that standard. Most of our food is grown with a lesser standard of biosolids so I am not worried. Back to the figs, mine really seem to green up when I put 1/4 lb on them in the spring.

Makes me wonder about good 'greenie' THINGS I eat...

Maybe the figs would really do well with some Soylent Green. No industrial waste in that either. Might have some toxins, though.

I'll have to see if my fellow NRA life member Charlton Heston can get some Soylent Green for me. :')No flames just joking. I think the less chemicals we use in the garden the better. I just can't understand why some folks who load their yard down with arsenic containing weed/crab grass killers and toxic insecticides then cry foul when you mention Milorganite? I don't think it is as bad as some of the real organic gardeners make it out to be from the data I have seen. The figs and other plants like it so we shall see.

Last month, I went to the local recycling center & loaded up on tree leaf compost. It was $9.00 for all that my small truck could hold. I went back for more, twice, & spread it about 3 inches thick over all of the garden beds.

I figure manure is just leaves that have been composted in an animal, so it's not much different. Probably fewer toxins than Soylent Green, although I understand that there is no promise that all of those trees (which contributed the leaves for the compost) were grown under 'pure' conditions.

I also provided the fig trees with about a couple of cups of crushed eggshells for each small tree, for calcium and nitrogen. Each also gets a container of coffee grounds. I like to give them a varied diet.

Some nice brebas coming on now.

I have a bunch of compost cooking in a outdoor composter, but sadly it isn't ready yet. I did put some crushed/shredded dry leaves in the soil when I amended it in the fig trees planting holes. The more organic stuff the better and the leaves I am told will help retain moisture in the soil which is good since my backyard gets baked like adobe in the summer.