CULT: Use of Manure

In a message dated 7/13/01 9:11:24 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
jreeds@microsensors.com writes:

<< I only once used a significant amount of steer manure in an iris bed.
 Almost everything rotted out.  It was way too hot from decomposition, loaded
 with nasty bacteria, and salty to the point of stressing the iris.  Maybe
 someone else has had different experiences, but I will never again use steer
 manure on my iris. >>

It's not the type of manure as much as its condition and how it is applied.  
I've noticed a communications chasm [not just 'gap'] between those of us who 
learned gardening the old-fashioned way and those who grew up in the 
commercial fertilizer age.  

One post isn't going to solve the problem, of course, but I'm going to 
attempt to partially bridge this gap with a bit of backstory.  When I was 
growing up, my family had a dairy and also kept pigs and chickens -- so would 
never have "wasted money" on commercial fertilizer.  After I was out on my 
own and learned how to test my soil, though, I came to use both and 
appreciate their relative advantages and disadvantages.  [If you want to 
fast-forward to my practical advice for using manure, just scroll to the end 
of this message!]  


First, to explain the old-fashioned approach:

When pig manure was cleaned out of the pen, it was simply left in small piles 
to decompose.  This was blackjack country, and the pigpen was always placed 
where neighboring trees could provide shade.  Pokeweed, which is something 
like spinach, was native to these woodlands.  A staple to some, a nostaligic 
treat to others, it was certainly in demand.  By the time I was old enough to 
"hunt poke", there were a number of clumps near the new pigpen -- but the 
area around the old one had the largest and best stand in the entire area.  I 
offer this as an example of the effect of manure that has been left to 
decompose without attention or interference for a number of years.

Cleaning the chicken roost was certainly a regular requirement.  Most of the 
year, the manure was simply left where it fell -- in a long row next to the 
chicken house.  Each fall, however, cleaning started with removing the old, 
decomposed manure and scattering it around the trees in the adjoining 
orchard.  The scattering process itself shattered the dried manure and winter 
rains would dissolve it, forming a natural "manure tea" so by spring there 
was little trace of the top-dressing.  Undoubtedly this was a matter of 
convenience, not an indication that chicken manure is the best possible 
fertilizer for fruit trees!

Of course, with the dairy, cattle manure was the most plentiful so it was 
used on both the vegetable garden and flower beds.  

In the vegetable garden, AGED manure was applied as a top-dressing after each 
fall's killing frost.  In the perennial border [asparagus, blackberries, and 
rhubarb] it was simply left to decompose like the chicken manure in the 
orchard.  In the garden itself, it was tilled into the soil along with the 
dead annuals.  The flower beds got the same treatment as the perennial 
vegetables:  AGED, manure particles. 

For the top-dressed areas, if a cow patty had somehow managed to hold its 
form through the double-shoveling process it was suspect.  If it didn't 
shatter satisfactorily when hit with the tines of a rake, it was outa there.  
YES, I've had to go back and shovel more manure because the first batch was 
too fresh.  [Not exactly the image you have of me if you know about my career 
in the space program, is it?]


Second, a look at commercial fertilizers:

Their advantage is clear:  labeling in terms of nutrient ratio.  Their 
disadvantage is that none supply all of a garden's needs.  Used in conjuction 
with soil testing, they can certainly improve performance.  Applied 
indiscriminately, they may be ineffective or even harmful.


For the commercial operation, we used both.  I'll skip the details, because 
they are in the archives.....


NOW -- to get back to the specific effect of manure on iris:

If it was too hot and still had bacteria in it, it was simply too fresh.  Not 
ready for fall top-dressing of a dormant asparagus bed -- much less for use 
in a bed of fall-planted iris. Well-composted manure is dry and crumbles 
easily.  It mixes readily with soil, and the resultant product feels and 
smells like good loam.  If it smells like something you wouldn't want to 
stick your bare hand in, your iris won't like it either!

"Steer manure" suggests that it came out of a bag -- a by-product of a feeder 
lot, dry enough to sack but not necessarily composted.  Most of this stuff 
can be treated like dry manure you shoveled yourself, but if you want to use 
it as top-dressing you really do need to test it to determine how far along 
it is in decomposition.  Dump the sack into a wheelbarrow.  Wet it down.  If 
it still smells like manure, do NOT use it for top-dressing or till it into 
the topsoil.  Add it to your compost heap, use it to make manure tea, or dump 
it on the edge of your garden and let it age some more.

In this case, though, the key word may be "on".  Yes, each fall my 
grandmother top-dressed her perennial beds with aged manure.  In that 
climate, with iris from the diploid era, it worked.  Winter rains gradually 
dissolved the manure particles and washed their nutrients down into the root 
zone and, by spring, the manure had simply disappeared.

BUT -- if you put manure that hasn't reached the aged-to-powder, 
doesn't-smell-like-manure stage ON the iris rather than UNDER them, the roots 
can't take advantage of its nutrients and the rhizomes may be damaged by its 
water-holding capacity.   


For the proverbial "Bottom Line", I've found that:

1.  Soil-testing is vital for the serious grower.  It's important to feed the 
SOIL, not just the plant.  If the soil is healthy, iris will thrive.   Advice 
like using superphosphate to produce more bloom or potash to promote increase 
just shows you how to tweak things in the direction you want IF your basic 
conditions are already balanced.  If your soil is NOT balances, some 
deficiencies are best treated with manure, others with chemical fertilizers.

2.  Any manure is most effective when incorporated into the root zone and the 
rhizome-layer [roughly the top 4 inches of the soil] remains both manure- and 
fertilizer-free.

3.  Horse manure is more effective for iris than any other type of manure or 
specific commercial fertilizer -- but it isn't perfect.  Steer manure will 
do, if you don't have access to horses.  By testing old, manure-treated soil, 
I've found that commercial fertilizers CAN be used to compensate for 
remaining deficiencies. 

4.  Commercial fertilizers can add nutrients, but don't affect the tilth of 
the soil.  If that's the real problem, you need to add organic matter and 
well-aged manure is one of the best sources.

Sharon McAllister
Southern New Mexico, where manure can still be shoveled from corrals!

 

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