[Beetroot Queen]

I have a dalek full of lovely compost, when is best to empty and spread on empty beds. Shall i do it now or leave till spring. I didnt want to spread it if it will lose its goodness before spring planting but i am also running out of dalek space.

We also have some manure thats on the fresher side, we are putting that aside to rot down but when would that be safe to spread on. 

[snowdrops]

Hi BQ,I'd bag it up & put it on in spring a few weeks before planting,unless you have loads & loads & just want to use it up.

[m1ckz]

u can put the manure on now     it will rot by the string,,,,worms will get to work on it too

[goodtogrow]

Provocative questions, BQ...

Agree that the contents of the dalek are best bagged - we all have big white bulk bags of the type used to deliver aggregates, no?

The bless-ed question of when to apply manure, in its various stages of degradation, is more vexed.

If we turn it in now, it will degrade while soil temperatures permit, and not when they don't.  It'll start again in Spring, when soil temperatures permit, but over the coldest months of Winter it must stand still.

This observation is based on the belief that soil bacterial activity stops, or slows down, below 10C..

For me, heaping the manure in rows, covered with micro-porous sheeting, directly on the soil, works.  The sheeting helps to maintain the temperature and so breakdown.  It's composting where you want it, aka in-situ composting.

Best wishes

Tom

[DD.]

Hold on.

Let's not mix home-made compost up with manure, (I'm not talking in the physical sense!). The question was about compost, NOT manure.

Home-made compost made purely from vegetable matter, (green matter), maybe with a bit cardboard or paper thrown in (brown matter), will not have a very high fertilising value. It will be high in humus and be good for lightening the soil and water retention, but it will not do a lot in the way of nourishing plants.

If it's well rotted now, as it appears to be from BQ's description, I'd sling it on to give myself an empty compost bin. You'll need the space in it as whatever you throw in from now will not rot down very quickly.

[goodtogrow]

Hold on, there are two questions DD.  I for one am not mixed up by them

[DD.]

Apologies - too early in the morning - even with the extra hour - must have fallen asleep halfway through reading it!

Re the compost, my answer stands, it won't have an awful lot of goodness to lose

[snowdrops]

I also must have got caught napping as I didn't see the 2nd ?. In that case my first answer still stands but for the fresher manure may I suggest turning your other daleks out & putting back with layers of manure & although I agree composting slows down/stops below certain temperatures,the addition of the fresher manure will boost the composting process for the time being & also add more nutrients to the finished product. Well that's what I have done for the last 30 odd years. Also you get a good work out as well.

[Totty]

I agree with DD, if the compost is ready, throw it on. As mentioned, the main use of homemade compost is as a conditioner, to add humus, not to add lots of nutrient. Putting it on the garden or digging it in now will be fine and would be my preference.
As for manure, it's upto you. By adding it to the soil when still fresh, it will continue to rot, but will rob the soil of a little nitrogen in doing so, but come spring it will be fine.
I would recommend emptying the dalek of its compost, and refilling with your freshish manure, that will hold a decent temperature while rotting, even in the winter, leaving you free to add it in a more decomposed state in spring.

Totty

[Beetroot Queen]

Lovely thanking you all, i will let hubby know  or maybe i'll add it to his list

[Kirpi]

Over the next month or so I'll be spreading about 30 cubic feet of home-grown compost over 40 square feet of growing space - that's all beds apart from my onion bed which is already mostly planted up with autumn sets.

The beds will be a few inches deep when I'm done, but the worms will drag most if it down into the soil layers, leaving nourished soil again ready to feed my plants next year and no digging.

I can't comment on the manure side of things as I don't use it.

[JayG]

Most home-made composts and most animal manures are relatively low in nutrients if you compare their NPK analysis to other fertilisers, but that's only part of the story - plants have to be able to absorb water and nutrients from the soil to prosper so physical soil condition is at least as important as the numerical nutrient levels, and there is no soil type whose condition isn't improved by the addition of organic matter, although I don't dig compost into my very sandy soil in autumn as it tends to mostly disappear by spring.

You may find THIS article about natural fertilisers interesting (it's from the American Rose Society, abbreviated to "ARS" in their URL, so they should know a thing or two about manure!   )

[fatbelly]

Home-made compost made purely from vegetable matter, (green matter), maybe with a bit cardboard or paper thrown in (brown matter), will not have a very high fertilising value. It will be high in humus and be good for lightening the soil and water retention, but it will not do a lot in the way of nourishing plants.

DD, I bow to your superior knowledge but I am surprised to hear that Compost from our Daleks offers little nutritional value for our plants.   

Each spring I throw the rotted contents of my Dalek on my Onion bed &  I get great onions , but I never have quite enough Compost for the whole bed. The area that doesn't get any Compost always produces smaller Onions. I thought the larger sized Onions with better bulb size & top growth was due to the nutritional value that my Compost gives. But after reading your post the better Onions is down to other factors rather than nutrition.

[mumofstig]

The onions will grow better in soil that is in better condition

[Yorkie]

Home-made compost made purely from vegetable matter, (green matter), maybe with a bit cardboard or paper thrown in (brown matter), will not have a very high fertilising value. It will be high in humus and be good for lightening the soil and water retention, but it will not do a lot in the way of nourishing plants.

DD, I bow to your superior knowledge but I am surprised to hear that Compost from our Daleks offers little nutritional value for our plants.   

I agree with DD's comments.  I did the City and Guilds Gardening course many moons ago now, and remember the lecturer emphasising that the purpose of organic matter is soil conditioning and not nutrition / fertiliser.