Kitchen Garden Forum

I know I'm late but I've just acquired lots of well rotted horse/straw manure. Is there any difference nutritionally between that and home made compost? I was going to cover bare ground now ready for next year, mainly for tomatoes, squashes etc., beans and potatoes. Does it matter which I use or can I even throw a bit of each on the ground?
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Granny

Dear Granny, if it's really well rotted horse manure it's probably lost some of it's nutrients, so will be similar as your compost.
So just throw on some of each, they both will do a good job.

Hello Granny

Unfortunately natural manures are not an exact science and the nutrient value of either the compost or FYM depends on many variables including how it was stored.

I treat these manures as a soil conditioner that will improve the structure of the soil weather it is light and sandy or heavy clay. Both the compost and FYM can be mixed if you wish, and the application will of course contain nutrients, but as previously said the amounts and proportions are variable

Generally FYM and compost have a similar analysis however compost tends to have higher potassium content so it is better balanced for general use.

My advice is, if you have any rotted organic (organic,in the true sense of the word) matter get it on the land ideally in autumn or spring, the worms will love it. If you are going to add a soil sweetener such as lime then do not apply it at the same time as FYM since it may start a chemical reaction that robs the FYM of nitrogen. I try to manure in the autumn and add any lime in the spring or vice versa, but seldom manage it. Compost can go on with lime without any harm.

Happy dung spreading

Barney

Thanks both of you. We'll get spreading! I know we're a bit late but the weather is quite mild still so I'm hoping it won't matter too much.
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Granny

Our homemade compost is full of opium poppy seeds But probably some manure has seeds in depending on what the animals were fed on.Some hay has a lot of dock seeds in, but maybe these are killed off by digestion (if the critturs don't spit them out) or by the heat generated in the muck heap. I'm talking rubbish. I'll get my coat...

Hi Granny
Though I have access to rotted horse manure I try not to use it as I find it is invariably full of weed seeds, which have not rotted down. It may be good stuff for growing, but you will spend most of the year pulling weeds!
John N

Yes, unfortunately invariably if animal manure is mixed with straw it will contain many weed seeds. In the past I often regretted some applications of manure and wished that I had applied a good old dose of National Growmore to a previous weed free area.. However this appears to be sacrilege to some.

Barney

As an alternative to Growmore, CB, you could use Chase Seaweed fertiliser, the organic equivalent. It's probably more expensive though.

mike

Of course there are weed seeds in FYM the very nature of it would suggest so but I find that instead of pulling weeds the use of a Hoe works wonders.
Somehow young modern gardeners seem to be making what is probably the most useful tool in the gardeners armoury of tools redundant.
You are still going to get annual weeds even if you never use Stable or FYM and anybody who makes compost utilizing weeds will experience even more weeds than using the manures for the simple reason that the very great percentage of compost heaps never reach the required temperature to kill them off.
For this reason alone Granny I would take as much Stable manure as you can possibly accommodate.
If you cannot manage to dig it in if you spread it and cover the plot with H/D Black Polythene over winter it is absolutely amazing how much the worms will take into the soil for you.
I did read on this forum some time ago that if in early spring you cover the bed with clear Polythene the first flush of annual weeds will germinate then put the black back for a few weeks will put paid to them. I have never tried this but may be worth a trial.
JB>

We get our FYM from a local farmer whose manager turns it so it gets really hot and really black which sterilises it and kills most of the weeds if you cant see yellow or orange straw and its really black its normally got hot enough

Farmyard manure and black polythene it is then. Thanks to all.
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Granny