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Re: Could use some advice

SequoyahGa@aol.com wrote:
> 
> ... I would prefer not to use any animal products in my garden
> such as manure or bone meal, what other options do I have to add nutrients to
> this hard clay soil? Thanks, Victoria North Georgia, Zone 7, SequoyahGa@aol.com

Darryl Clark wrote:
> 
> ...I believe there is a mail list for composters on the net....
>...I am> considering the of free horse manure.  I you have reasons why this is
> undesireable I'd love to hear them.  autores@iname.com

 To Victoria: If you are concerned about safety issues using animal
manure and bone meal, I understand and share your concerns.  After
researching the topic with respect to the possibility of E.coli 0157:H7,
BSE  (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and other parasites being
transferred from cattle manure to humans, I've also decided to
temporarily discontinue using cattle manure and bone meal until more
information becomes available although I'm probably unnecessarily
depriving myself of a readily available and inexpensive source of
organic material (see  
"http://www.cahe.wsu.edu/~wwmg/library/vege001/vege001.htm")
and   "http://www.mad-cow.org/").   If your soil is not alkaline, you
might consider using rock phosphate to replace bone meal as a source for
phosphorus and as Darryl indicated, there are many other sources of
organic material.  To subscribe to the compost mail list, send mail to:  

listproc@listproc.wsu.edu 

with the following request:

subscribe COMPOST

To Darryl: if you're going to use horse manure, it might be interesting
to know the horse's diet.    
The horse's digestive system, compared to cattle, is more direct and
less
efficient in terms of retaining nitrogen with the result that horse
manure
is a hot manure fairly high in nitrogen and creates more heat in
compost.
Most pleasure horses in our area are kept in barren corrals without
any possibility for grazing. Corraled horses need lots of bulk in their
diet to keep them them from ingesting soil and suffering from sand
colic, a
common equine malady. Veterinarians frequently
recommend feeding corraled horses lots of low-nutrient grass hay
supplemented with some alfalfa. This can result in many strange weeds
being
introduced into the garden because the composting process is rarely hot
enough to destroy all of the seeds present in the hay. The purest grass
hay
readily available is common bermudagrass and manure from bermuda-fed
horses
will ensure introduction into the garden. Stabled horses usually don't
ingest soil so they can be fed pelleted hay which is free of noxious
weed seeds.

Pleasure horses are usually wormed twice each year using a verimicide to
eliminate any parasites. There are also products that are used daily to
prevent internal parasites.  Traces of these medications may exist in
the 
animals' waste but it is unlikely these will survive the
compost cycle. And if they do, they are probably not systemic to
vegetable
plants. But it's something to think about.

Olin Miller

>
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