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Austria

I`m doing fine here for the first season but really want to improve next year as much as possible. So I`m already thinking about how to prepare the soil in the coming fall. One thing I want to do is adding a real big amount of manure to the patch (5-10 tons). I had a professional horse trainer promising I can go get as much manure as I want at his farm. So far so good, now somebody told me to take care because of the following: Professional horsefarms always use quite a lot of medication on the horses. That would be why this kind of manure was rather considered waste than manure and you were not allowed to just put that to the soil.
1)Is this right?
2)What kind of manure do you use, where do you get it from and if you have to pay for how much is it?
3) Should or must manure be aged when you put it to the soil in fall, considering its "use" for the coming season?
4) Last question: Most farms have a lot of straw mixed with the manure. Some say, this is not good at all. Should manure without straw be preferred. If yes, why?

8/4/2005 8:54:10 AM

Knopp, Germany

1) No idea, first I have heard of that though.
2) Cow, I live in a village with cow farmers. Cost nothing.
3) Putting fresh manure, depending of course on how much, is not a problem in the fall, that still gives you enough time for it to compost enough for the following spring. Of course well composted manure is much better.
4) I have straw in my manure. I do not have a problem with the straw, I actually believe it helps aerate the soil which is great for the roots. The biggest problems with the straw are the seeds the usually accompany it. The will grow, believe me, weeding is fun..LOL BTW, a heavy hitter, that grew 2 1300+ pumpkins in the same year, told me that he intentionally adds bales of hay or straw to his manure.

Are there any cow farms in your area Heino? I have been told that many times they will allow people to haul their manure away for free, of course you do the work.

8/4/2005 9:12:23 AM

Austria

Thank you Owen,

1) I was surprised too, but it appears likely to be true as in Austria the legal provisions seem to make differences as from where the manure is. Profesional horse farms -> special refuse vs. biological farms -> manure

4) That is good news (except for the weeding LOL!) because almost all kinds of manure do contain straw nowadays. Hard to find pure manure, which is even offered in ebay sometimes ;-)

We have quite a bunch of farmers with cattle here. One or two of them will be approached by the pumpkin guy, demanding the tithe (Zehent) of the brown gold, their cattle will have produced by that time - LOL! I`m sure I`ll hate to do the work ... another sacrifice to be made on the way to a real big one ...

8/4/2005 10:45:11 AM

Buren Ameland,West Frisian Islands, Netherlands

Heino,
4+2.I get the manure from sheep, it is mixed with staw and grass. This is good, it brings the C-N balance, C stands for Carbon and N for Nitrogene. Both are needed for a good soil. To much Nitrogene and you get fast growing but weak plants, vines break and what not. I have seen this a lot. To much Carbon (to little Nitrogene and other nutrients) and the plant will stay small and grows less.
Anough Carbon (straw) and less split!
The sheep manure I get free from my brother and the neighbour. Next to that I collect all rotten material from my garden and compost it for about one year.
Also do I get free mowed grass from the municipality, I use it to cover the whole pumkin garden! It is prevending our sandy soil to dry up too much, it prevends weedsgrowing and it i a good composter as well.
Next year I hope to get free fishgarbage from the fish-shop!
Now it is too late to bring this in the soil.

1. The medication for the horses, don't worry to much about that, our sheep are medicated too, for else these animals suffer to much from all kind of worms and sickenss.

3. When the manure is not old anough it easily can bring burndamage on your plants, so be carefull it not to fresh material. One year is safe.:-)Theo.

8/4/2005 4:42:37 PM

Liverpool , England

Manure...now thats a topic I can talk for hours on. I put tons of fresh manure on each autumn and winter.Horse manure and woodshavings.The actual manure has very little goodness in it, believe it or not.But the bedding, woodshavings or straw do and it is the urine in the manure that helps rot down the bedding making it usable.After the initial heat has gone from the manure, usually 4 weeks or so, then it is ready for use. It may still look much the same but now it is in the second part of decomposition.This is the time that it gives up most of its nutrients and is of more benifit to the roots than fully rotted manure which has already given up the best part of its nutrients.Look at peat, nothing is more rotted than peat, 1,000's of years old, but no goodness in it at all except for soil conditioning.

8/4/2005 6:54:58 PM

Liverpool , England

I spelt benefit wrong in my last post...forgive me....dang I'll never live it down if that USA mob read it.......lol

8/4/2005 8:52:49 PM

Buren Ameland,West Frisian Islands, Netherlands

Alun,
Sure, you are right and the worms and microbs make this decomposting process happening, that is the miracle.
Using woodshavings and horse manure is the same good combination for the good C-N balance.

8/5/2005 3:57:51 AM

Belgium Europe

You can also check Borje Gustavsons 2003 diary.Many ways to get free manure.

8/5/2005 3:51:20 PM

Austria

Ok, thanks all for the replies. What do we have so far:

Cow Manure, sheep manure, horse manure and human manure. I guess I will try a combination between cow and horse manure and freshwater seaweed next year.

8/8/2005 4:43:53 AM

Loitsche/Sachsen-Anhalt/Germany

Heino,
ich werde auch im kommende Jahr Pferdemist einsetzen. Die verwendung der Medikamente bei den Pferden halte ich nicht für bedenklich. Die Medikamente bedürfen einer Zulassung. Aber wenn Du genaueres wissen willst, solltest Du mit dem Tierarst sprechen.

Beste Grüsse, Christian

8/9/2005 5:02:04 PM