Manure 101

[gump]

Okay, break down the basics of manure for a city slicker. I know all manure serves its purpose and it could be me being too detail oriented but:

a) Which types of manure are best?
b) Do certain manures provide the best fertilizer for certain crops?
c) Is there best way to produce manure on a large scale - rotation of the manure, storage, etc?

Thanks for any info and sharing your experiences.

[AlchemyAcres]

Okay, break down the basics of manure for a city slicker. I know all manure serves its purpose and it could be me being too detail oriented but:

a) Which types of manure are best?
b) Do certain manures provide the best fertilizer for certain crops?
c) Is there best way to produce manure on a large scale - rotation of the manure, storage, etc?

Thanks for any info and sharing your experiences.



The short answer....All poop is good!

It really depends on what you're specifically trying to do.
There are plenty of charts comparing manures, but they're pretty silly, IMHO....most manures are mixed with urine, bedding, etc. etc....that throws things off...the numbers really mean nothing!

Rabbit manure (minus urine) is a good all around manure....convenient pellets that won't 'burn' when added without composting. Rabbit manure mixed with urine is best composted.

It's almost impossible to answer your question without going on forever......ie...it's not a good idea to fertilize potatoes with any type of fresh manure...same with carrots.....fresh manure encourages scab on potatoes and the forking of carrots......just a couple examples.

It's best to start with a good book on organic gardening....The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman is an excellent book.

~Martin :)

[gump]

Thanks AA - poop is poop and I shouldn't overanalyze the topic.

[WileyCoyote]

Poop is poop but - too much chicken poop will burn any and everything.
I recommend Composting it all, and never using it straight - you never know what they've been eating by accident or design, who got too much or too little sweet feed/corn/hay this week, etc. I like to mix it all together and let it cook with green and dry organic material and whatever else I have, then plowing it under and letting it sit and rot for several months before I plant over it.

When we first bought our yard, all it had in it was Bahai grass and pine trees. I plowed it up, and cleaned out a neighbor's barn (cattle, horses, and chicken poop along with bedding). Brought it all home, spread it on top, and then plowed it all under. The following spring everything I planted grew so fast you could almost hear it! Six years later folks said you could prop a dead stick in my yard and it would have leaves in a month.

[Deberosa]

You ask how to produce it, well I figured that part out! Get a cow! Even a mini cow will do!

My Dexter and her heifer have produced at least 5 tractor buckets full of the "stuff" in 6 weeks!!!

Got it all in a pile under a tarp mixed with leaves from friends, littler from the chick brooder, grass clippings and the old mushy pumpkins and squash. Hope to have some good compost in a few months. I still have the deep bedding in the hen house, it's two feet thick in places now and more of Daisy's contributions for a second pile in a month or so. Shovelling in cold weather is certainly preferred!

Chicken manure will burn even with straw mixed unless aged first, but chicken manure mixed with wood chips is not as hot.

[DM]

It's true that chicken and turkey poop (TP) is "hot"... I still have no problem putting it "between" the rows of my sweetcorn...

http://www.fototime.com/CAC512E9BE06E42/standard.jpg

Then i cover it with mulch...

http://www.fototime.com/816E87F880570BF/standard.jpg

Corn can take a huge amount of N, and can use a lot of TP every year... Rotateing crops means the "other" garden crops won't see that TP for at least a year when they move to that corn ground...

On the other hand, other than flowers and corn, (and my lawn) i wouldn't use it that way... I may put a very small amout of it around certain plants though.

I'd rather put manure on my garden in the fall,

http://www.fototime.com/FC36CF929E7E528/standard.jpg

Then till it in and let it break down over the winter than go through the whole composting odeal...

http://www.fototime.com/F5E967D9A792A8F/standard.jpg

I just hate having to have to go through all the work of moveing it, turning it and moveing it some more! That's all time i can spend doing something else...

Yes i posted picts of a big garden, but it works the same way for me in my small gardens too...

DM

[bookwormom]

is that you on that tractor DM.
I find I never have enough manure. we wound up with five dexters, but they do their dropping all over the place and only a little at their feeding station. Looks like I won't get much from that source.
My mother in law used to say she could grow a head of cabbage with a spoon full of chicken manure anywhere.

[Deberosa]

My Dexters are more than happy to poop in their nice lean to for me!!! We also go on treasure hunts around their pasture to gather our supply. Have to get it before the rain washes it in or the chickens scratch through it though.

I have to compost my manure over the winter because starting in late September my gardens become too waterlogged to get any equipment onto them, let alone till. I turn my pile with my trusty tractor - so much easier, but really you don't need to turn it to make compost. It just takes longer is all. Even the small pile we made in the cow pasture was steaming when we moved it last weekend.

[DM]

Yes book, that's me on the tractor....

Deb, Around here summers seem to be getting drier and drier, it's been a while since i've had more moisture than i need!

DM

[Deberosa]

DM, I just noticed in your last picture here there are some plants in tubes to the left of the picture - what are they? Why the tubes?

[gardenfay]

Gump; just wanted to say that I've (like DM) have many times applied fresh chicken manure in between rows of sweet corn. Yes, it is "hot" but good aged manures don't provide near the nitrogen growing corn needs. So I just try not to get it nearer than 2-3 inches from the cornstalks and then i water the poop out of it. haha Sorry, couldn't resist!

[DM]

DM, I just noticed in your last picture here there are some plants in tubes to the left of the picture - what are they? Why the tubes?

Those tubes have Sycamore tree's in them.... I planted them there as seedlings, and i'll start transplanting them where i want them anytime now...

The tubes help them get through the winter better, and also keep the rabbits ect.. from munching on the tree's in the winter...

I've planter over 12,000 tree's here, and these are the first Sycamores on my farm...

DM