[Missey]

Hi All

I need to buy some Farmyard Manure from either B&Q or Homebase so I can mulch my fruit trees & currant bushes this weekend - which brands at a reasonable price are worth having or avoiding.

Thanks

[AnneB]

I have never bought manure.  Round here, people who have stables are only too grateful for you to take it off your hands, they would be drowning in the stuff otherwise.   We get an occasional delivery from one stables, but you do need to rot that down for a few months before use.  There is another stables that lets us go and pack up our bags for free - they stack their manure according to age and we can get some well rotted stuff for immediate use there.
If I were you I would make some enquiries locally.
We also had a delivery of cow manure which was negotiated by one of our fellow allotmenteers.   Again I have stored it to rot down.

[Missey]

Thanks Anne - Our association does collect horse manure to sell on  but I've missed this plus I want to use now so dont have time for it to rot.    I do have pidgeon manure rotting down for next year which is just left on our site and is on a first come first served basis for free.

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

I've used Verve, Gro-sure and Country Natural through the years and all have been fine.

I normally go on price and at one point Country Natural was the cheapest and very nice to handle. Sadly the garden centre has stopped stocking it.

Never had a problem with weeds etc and it works well on my asparagus beds and for enriching the soil around new plants.

I collect some from a local farmer every couple of years for use of beds generally.

[Thrutchington]

Lucky to have an acquaintance who farms beef cattle, if i ask for manure i get the response 'how many hundred ton do you want?'. It's good stuff, last lot full of brandling worms and very nutritious to the crops. I generally get a farm trailer full every couple of years, about 5 tons.

[John]

I need to buy some Farmyard Manure from either B&Q or Homebase so I can mulch my fruit trees & currant bushes this weekend - which brands at a reasonable price are worth having or avoiding.

If you have to buy in, then I'd go for blood, fish and bone in the spring. More bang for your buck! Then mulch with compost around the tree on top.

[Missey]

Thanks John I bought some manure to mulch my fruit trees & bushes but it's not a financial option to cover my plot this year so....

Is FB&B suitable for all veg & can I throw it down with Chicken pellets when I'm planting.  Due to time restraints my plot has been neglected so really want give nexts years crop as much TLC as possible.

Thanks Missey

[John]

Hi Missey - Fish, blood & bone is basically an organic equivalent to Growmore. Growmore is a balanced fertiliser with equal parts of NPK so providing all of the major nutrients plants require. I prefer FB&B usually as it is slower release giving the plants a little longer to absorb it.

In an ideal world you would test the soil and only supplement where necessary with the correct balance of fertiliser but failing that counsel of perfection, adding a general boost a week or two prior to planting is usually a good idea. A couple of ounces or a handful per square yard is the usual dose.

You could mix with chicken manure pellets - they're roughly 4.5:3.5:2.5 NPK so heavier on the nitrogen. FB&B is usually 5:5:5 or 5:5:6 (makes little difference)

25Kg of FB&B will set you back around £20, 20Kg of Chicken pellets around £15 so so FB&B is slightly less cost for delivered nutrients. I'd say to go for chicken pellets with leafy crops like brassicas and FB&B for other crops like potatoes and roots.

You may find the articles on composts, fertilisers etc. helpful:
Composts, Fertiliser, Soil Improvers and Improvement

[Christine]

I'd say you want to be shopping at your allotment trading hut if you have one Missey looking at John's fertiliser prices. The offer is usually cheaper.

[John]

I'd say you want to be shopping at your allotment trading hut if you have one Missey looking at John's fertiliser prices. The offer is usually cheaper.

I just took the prices off Ebay which includes a delivery element - to illustrate and compare between the two as much as anything.

I also missed off that the best practice is to use compost & rotted manures as the basis of any fertility program.

[Christine]

Hah but you see I'm allotment committee and trading hut is one of our duties. Yep I suppose eBay is next good if are are brave enough to use it. Not everyone has a local garden centre I suppose.

[John]

Our nearest reasonably priced garden centre is about 12 miles away - we've learned to consider travel costs on things which wasn't something we worried about when we lived near town.
I asked our farm supplies about lime when I was picking up chicken feed. Yes, they supplied it... by the tonne.

[Missey]

Thank you all - I'm a 5/10 min drive from B&Q / Homebase / Wickes and the Range so I'll see what offers they all have. 

[veg365]

   Hi the Allotment Association gets cow manure delivered so I asked to be added to the list and was willing to pay for my share.
But it came last yr and their cronies had it all.
This yr the same happened, but I saw the farmer and asked for a delivery, but he would only del a full load to me.
So I paid £40 to him and had it del the next week, my friends helped me barrow it to my plot from the car park where it was dropped, and help clear mess after.
The Association is all committee self-promises all broken.
My friends had some manure free for there help.

[mumofstig]

Welcome to the site
Great that you got some, and can use as much as you like - at least you don't have to rely on selfish people now.