[Brambles]

We have been offered a lorryload of plain horse manure.. AND horse manure with straw..  We have just cleared, weeded and seived a huge area of our extended vegetable plot and I am now not sure how to apply the manure!!  At this time of year I feel it is ok to just put the manure on top of the soil..  Husband wants to dig it in, we have already sweated blood over this great expanse of convolvulous, nettles and brambles..  Nothing will be planted here until Spring..  Pleeeease what would YOUR advice be? :?

[PinkTequila]

I would dig it in! You say you have sieved the vegetable plot, is this normal?! I would now go through the plot digging the manure in and leaving it in clods over the winter. Did you really sieve it?

[Brambles]

When I was out for the day, my husband (who is NO gardener!) got a digger in and dug the whole area, all the wretched brambles and other "NICE" weeds were chopped up and dug in!!!  I nearly cried!! :cry:   He then made a massive sieve as sort of compensation, about 5ft high and 3ft wide and threw all the soil at it, took a couple of weeks.  Now most of the chopped weeds have been burnt and we have a great area of soil nearly ready to go.

[peterjf]

is the manure well rotted  ?

if not then spread it over the allotment and leave it there until spring , say mid february , then it will be ready for digging it in ,

i do this every year , especially where im going to be growing brassicas

[SnooziSuzi]

I'm off to collect a whole load of rotted horse manure tomorrow (hangover permitting  :drunken:  :shaking: - just got back from a 40th birthday party)  and I'll lay it on top of the newly dug bed for the worms to take down, however it is 6 and two threes as to whether you dig it in or not - if you're not planning on using the bed straight away then remember to cover it with anything so long as it excludes light and stops the weeds from growing!

[Steve.P]

I would say it's totally up to you brambles. Just a case of whether you can be bothered or not. It wont hurt to leave it until the spring, it's not going anywhere, and the weather will brake it down. Have seen somewhere that some crops don't like freshly manured soil so a check on this wont hurt.

[SnooziSuzi]

yes, crops like carrots and parsnips don't like the land to have been manured in the last season or so, but brassicas and potatoes love it!

[Nogger]

on our lotty we are very fortunate,in the next field to us we have approx 20 horses and the manure is free,the owner brings us a tractor trailer loads when ever we need it,all the guy's on the lotty have made a large square section out of doors or pallets and then we get the farmer to unload then shovel it in with is bucket on the front of his tractor,when he has finished, the heap will be approx 4-5feet high then we cover it with plastic or old carpet,after about 6 months or even less its only 2-3 feet high its all rotted down to nice black stuff,

so my advice were to store it cover it and then come spring you will have some cracking stuff to put where ever you decide to put it ,

this year in the spring i dug out all of my soil in my 8x6 greenhouse and then refilled with well rotted horse manure as described above,and this year i have had a great crop of TOMS and cucumber without any feed on them just water,and i shall do the same again next spring

[Yorkie]

If it's not too late, it might be worth double checking with the manure supplier whether the horses have eaten grass treated with a certain type of herbicide, or the straw was treated with it when grass.

This thread explains the issues.