[greenasgrass]

...by not yet having added any manure to all the veg beds on my new plot? Ive searched around and it appears that the best time to do this would have been around October/November last year? Is it too late add manure now? I am thinking I wouldn't be giving it enough time to rot down enough if I do and could end up doing more harm than good!

[JayG]

If (but only if!) the manure is already properly rotted it will be fine, although I suggest at this stage you need to dig it in rather than just spread it on top (and don't manure where you are going to grow root crops this year.)

[Fisherman]

I agree with JayG, just make sure its well rotted down. Be careful which crops its used on: -

Spuds - more the merrier
Onions - not required
Carrots - disaster
Brassicas - limited amount
Legumes - limited amount
Cucurbitaceae - more the merrier

Best to get it on the ground or dug in during Autumn  / early Winter. If its fresh it will burn or kill your crops. Best to have three compost heaps with manure - fresh, cooking and cooked

[Trillium]

I'm with the others. If I have fresh manure, it goes on in the fall on the surface.

Since I didn't add any last fall (didn't have it then), I'll be adding rotted manure this spring. As you can see, its just aging the manure over winter that's critical. If you can get only fresh manure now, then its best composted first.

[Azazello]

you may well have a company near-by who bags well rotted manure up and sells it to garden centres.

There are a couple round here and I always use their product - I just buy 15 bags or so and dig it in (I pay around £2.50 per bag) where it needs to be.

Homebase manure is very expensive but would do I guess if you were in a pinch and had no other options.

[greenasgrass]

Cheers for all the advice folks 

I have been looking at a few different suppliers of well rotted manure, and while it would be much cheaper to buy in bulk, delivery and access restrictions mean I will have to go with buying four or five 25kg bags a week and adding them bed by bed.

Thanks again.

[digalotty]

if you are limited being your first year why dont you just put the manure in trenches and dig in just where you are sowing rather than manuring the full bed

[Mrs Bee]

if you are limited being your first year why dont you just put the manure in trenches and dig in just where you are sowing rather than manuring the full bed

Was going to ask a manure question but I think you may have just answered it.

I am a relative newbie to allomenteering and in Spring last year, as we were clearing our wilderness and building raised beds we ran out of rotted manure. Being a bit of a maverick and tending to break rules, and desperate to have more useable growing space, we filled the bottom of 3 of the raised beds with fresh horse dung and topped it with free compost from the council.  We planted winter squash and celeriac.

I was expecting disaster and plants with burnt roots but we got a bumper crop. DId I unknowingly do the right thing or  did I just get lucky? 
Actually come to think about it I think we did the same with some of the other beds but with fresh chicken manure and straw.

[noshed]

That's what everyone on our site does. When we get the manure delivered they fill huge bays with it. In the spring they dig a hole and fill it with soil/council compost, then they plant the pumpkins etc. They grow huge.
Then in the autumn they dig the manure into their beds and start again with a bay of fresh manure.
The straw from fresh manure is also good for making temporary paths between beds.

[JayG]

Some gardening practices are considered "bad", and some "good", but nature is such that the outcome is rarely black and white - you are no more guaranteed 100% success by always doing the "right" thing than total failure by doing the opposite.

In Mrs Ball's case what probably happened is that by the time the roots had grown down into the fresh manure it had "quietened down" sufficiently to do much more good than harm.

[Mrs Bee]

Thanks a lot for the info. This site is a mine of information and there is nothing  as good as tapping into other people's experiences.

Have only been doing this a couple of years.

Noshed, am dead jealous that you have a site where you can get compost and manure delivered! Ours has 'people only' access so we have to go and bag our manure from the local stables and do the same with the free compost.

And it is on a hill. We are towards the bottom so get clay, claggy and waterlogged.
But that works out quite well as the raised beds gives the drainage and we don't have to water quite so much! All swings and roundabouts.
Mind you, having people only access means that they can't build  houses on the allotment unless several people sell their houses to developers to give their bulldozers access.

[greenasgrass]

if you are limited being your first year why dont you just put the manure in trenches and dig in just where you are sowing rather than manuring the full bed

Sounds like a plan digalotty 

Stroke of luck today. Most of the pen I have taken over is in pretty good condition really but one part that needed attention was a big pile of cut down brambles, dead plants and what must be the remnants of the last few times the chicken shed was cleaned out. I had started the job on saturday and was determined to finish it today.

Once I had sorted through the 'mound' (by transfering some to a new compost heap, rest burnt) there was a large sheet of tarpaulin at the bottom covering a decent amount of old manure! Felt like I had struck oil  There are a lot of runners going along the edges (bindweed by the looks of it) but with care, I reckon I can salvage most of it so well happy. Will still need to buy more, but not nearly as much now.