[mdjlucan]

Somebody is offering me some a but it’s got wood shavings in it is that okay to put on my allotment or not

[Goosegirl]

Personally I think it should be really good because a lot of the nitrogen in the manure will be taken up by the wood shavings as they decompose.


Edits to title for search purposes

[rowlandwells]

I would personally play it a bit cautious with that horse manure because you haven't said how old it is if its old stock then I would use it on the ground but  on the other hand if its fresh manure and shavings I would be stacking in a heap for several months before attempting to use it


I have a regular supply of horse manure all fresh from the field and stable's that I stack for around a year before using I'm not telling you how to suck eggs but that's my advise maybe other's have a different take on this but as I said I like to stay on the cautious side

[adri]

don't wood shavings rob nitrogen from the soil as they decompose?  if that's the case then I would just put it on one side for a couple of years.

[JimB]

.
Hi

Every now and then we get a load dumped for free on our allotments, and as they now never use straw  it is always wood shavings  for bedding.

We never have any problem with it, I try to have some along with branch chipping to put in the bottom of the compost bins, marvellous stuff when the bins are turned out!

[snowdrops]

If it’s not well rotted ,make a heap & turn it as frequently as you can muster, it will soon rot down straw or shavings, but whatever check for aminopyralid, do a search on here ,John has written a few articles about it, even better do ‘the bean’test for it before you accept any.

[rowlandwells]

good thinking snowdrops I never thought of that because I know one of my friends collected some horse manure from a stable and wasn't told the hay feed had come from grass treated with a selected weed killer and it killed of his plants after planting

but the horse manure was ok after stacking for about a year again good thinking  Batman 

[Dev]

I think snowdrops is right - check it out. The only trouble I found was that weed seeds, particularly clover, sprouted when I spread the manure. However, I now have a source of cow muck, and that has passed through (is it five?) stomachs rather than the horses one. I'm sure there are people out there who will tell me that some seeds can stand five stomachs, but I seem to have less weeds!