Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: mdjlucan on August 07, 2019, 20:07
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Horse manure The farmer is giving me loads of this still got the bedding in it and is this okay to spread over my allotment I’m on a clay soil will this be okay to dig in thanks
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If you can see the bedding and it is separate from the manure, you need to stack it and leave it for a few months to rot down.
If you know there is bedding in there, but the manure looks pretty uniform in colour and texture, it is OK to use. It will be great for clay soil, either spread over empty ground over winter or dug into the soil.
Lucky you to have such an obliging farmer nearby :)
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It may be worth doing the bean test to make sure there is no Aminopyralid weedkiller residue in it.
If buying in manure that may be contaminated, then I would test it by mixing 50:50 with a known multi-purpose compost and try growing a tomato plant or bean and seeing what happens.
https://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/257/aminopyralid-herbicide-residue-in-manure-killing-crops/
The problem hasn't gone away, it just seems to be getting less likely...
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This is the horse manure I was talking about
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we have used horse manure for many years with no problems but I understand Mum's concerns about aminopyralid weed killers that some farmers use on grass fields to kill weeds prior to cutting grass for hay you mite be advised to ask the farmer if he sprays his grass
I know my supplier buys her hay in but the farmer who supplies her doe's not use weed killer on his grass fields also we stack our horse manure around twelve months before using and our ground is a bit on the heavy side but after spreading horse manure and straw the ground cultivates much better with no soil capping
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That manure looks absolutely fantastic, nearly good enough to eat!