Re: Newbie Question
Fresh manure isn't a good addative. If your neighbor has
aged manure use that. Fresh manure has to be broken down by
bacteria before plants can use it. These bacteria need
nitrogen to break the manure down, and are beter at
utilizing the nitrogen in the soil than plants are. So the
nitro is "tied up" while this decomposition is going on,
and is unavailable to the plants while this goes on. If the
manure has straw, sawdust, shredded paper, or other high
carbon stuff in it, usually used as bedding for the
animals, then the decomposition will tie up the nitro even
longer.
Adding nitrogen fertilizer offset that tied up by the
bacteria doesn't work that well, since the bacteria is
still better able to utilize the added nitro. They just
multiply at a more rapid rate and tie up that too. Foliar
feeding nitrogen through a water soluble fertilizer is the
only way I know to bypass the bacteria untill they've
consumed all the undigested manure/bedding.
If they have aged manure, use that, it should smell and
look like dark dirt. Add as much of the aged stuff as you
want, it'll add some firtility, and greatly improve your
soil's tilth. It'll improve both clay and sandy soils,
making the clay looser, and lets the sandy soil retain
water better.
Take any of the fresh manure and compost it before adding
to the garden. If done right, it can be ready in a few
weeks. Composting is a complex proceedure if your wanting
to retain as much fertility as possible, so do some
research on it.
The only time you want to add fresh manure before
planting is if you want to use the heat from the
decomposition for warming the soil. This is usually done by
digging a pit, filling with fresh manure, and covering with
a foot of soil, and give it a week or so to heat up. I
haven't done this, so I won't add anything else to that.
Adding fresh manure to a fallow field is ok, but nutrients
are lost by sheet composting this way, it doesn't take much
effort to utilize it this way though.
Matt
If they have aged m
--- TizMyLife@aol.com wrote:
> Hello,
> My daughter and I have decided to take a shot at
> raising a giant
> pumpkin. We have visited many great websites and picked
> up many great ideas.
> Here is our question: Our neighbor has chickens and cows.
> He has offered to
> let us have all of the manure we can haul. We plan to
> plant our seed in the
> middle of April. If we fill our pumpkin bed with 6-8
> inches of fresh manure,
> will it be ok to plant in 2 weeks or must we wait longer
> and allow the added
> manure to cure? If we must wait, how long must we wait?
>
> Thanks,
> Bob Cohen
> Steakley Farm
>
>
>
=====
Good fishing!
Matt Moore
Visit my Severum Page at:
http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html
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