Kitchen Garden Forum

What is the best option.

Manure on and rotovating in the autumn.

or

Manure on and leave to rot in over winter then rotovate in.

Your suggestions please.

Regards
Peter

Hi Peter and welcome

I spread the manure and leave it over the winter. I dig it in as I need the land in the spring, or if it's starting to get very weedy.

Me too. It reduces the amount of work if you spread a good layer on in the autumn and let the worms do their stuff during winter. Spring weeding seems to be a joy!

And me, A good layer on top and let the worms do what they do best.

Hi Boxer,
I spread my manure now and allow it to become saturated and then cover with black heavy duty polythene as I find that the worm activity is far greater than just leaving it on the surface. This means that no leaching occurs and I can uncover the ground next year and all it needs is a very light forking over to be ready for anything I care to use it for. It's not a no dig method but certainly heavy digging is not necessary with my soil. I am lucky and have no clay but if you have a heavy soil with clay perhaps you may need to dig the manure in now and leave it to the weather to assist in breaking it down.
I would sum it up this way: it really depends on what type of soil you have as to which method you use. None of the methods mentioned are wrong it is just what is best for your soil that counts.
I suppose I could be accused of sitting on the fence!
JB.

No, just pragmatic!

Barney

Thanks Barney. Where have you been hiding?
JB.

Hi Boxer and all,

I've managed this year to create a certain amount of compost and on my raised beds I have been digging out all the weeds, putting a layer of leafmould on top where I'm going to grow roots next year and compost [I've got no manure this year] on other beds and covering everything with cardboard. This will stop leaching, but the cardboard will eventually rot down and add carbon to the soil. One can plant through the cardboard in the spring and you have a ready-made mulch. The cardboard may also stop weeds germinating.

This is the first time I've done this, so who knows if it'll work, but it's recommended in the HDRA publications.

Best wishes; keep warm and enjoy the fruits of your labours.

mike

Mike, I was interest to read about your cardboard mulch and might try this on a small part of my vegetable growing area, as our soil is quite light here and if I manure too early I worry about heavy rain leaching out the goodness. Can you give us a mid winter update on how it's working as I suspect the success of this method or otherwise may partly depend on the type of soil one has?

I have clay. Digging adds more clay. So I mulch in atumn and let the worms do the work. After 25 years or so, the tilth is quite good..

I have heard it said that it is better to put well rotted manure on in Early spring/Late winter as the Winter rains leach a lot of the nutrients from the manure.
Anyone heard of this or has an opinion

George, I've never read any scientific evidence that rain leaches out a lot of the nutrients from manure over the winter but it just seemed to me a natural thing which would happen, unless you can manure in autumn and then protect your soil with black polythene, or something similar. I'm suspect heavy clay soils will retain more nutrients than lighter soils. By inclination I would prefer to manure in autumn, if only to have one more gardening task out of the way before winter, but if you have to pay for your manure and can't get it free, it seems sensible not to waste most of the benefits by letting them leach out with rain.

But where do the nutrients leach TO?

Halfway to Australia possibly or down into the water courses, but probably well out of the reach of any roots who can make use of them

the theory is the nutrients dissolve in water,
so in heavy rain surface runoff will take nutrients from the surface directly into drains, ditches and then onto steams , rivers and the sea.
in more moderate rain which soaks down into the soil the nutrients are taken deep into the ground and can appear in wells and boreholes.
to minimise leaching losses any nutrients should idealy be applied at intervals during the growing season in small doses, matching the nutrient supply to the crops usage..
however the nutrients in manure are not all immediatly available , they are released as the manure rots away.
it can be argued that the manure should be applied as a mulch from early spring as the crops are starting to grow, however if you want to dig it in you obviously want it dug in before planting any crops.
or it could also be argued that digging manure in during the winter will help retain rainfall in the topsoil thereby reducing leaching of nutrients down to the subsoil....
in the big picture the amount of nutrients leached into the ground water from manure used in allotments and gardens is going to be pretty insignificant so it boils down to do you want to autumn dig or use spring/summer mulches. mulches will also help to prevent water loss by evaporation from the soil surface in hot weather, but may encourage more slugs etc...
it boils down to personal choice in the end.