[garddwr]

Hi,

I can get hold of some free horse manure from the stables down the road but I wouldn't know if its contaminated. And would you use this?
 
OR

I can get free cow manure (Slurry) which is very very fresh (about 3 months old)

I am starting off in the plot this spring. How would you go about manuring it  ?

P.s I put a lot of the slurry stuff under the spuds last year and I had a very good crop. They were first earlies btw.

Thanks

[woodburner]

hmm  "None of the above".
I'd either test it, incorprate it into the top soil and leave it a couple of months (both if test is positive), grow sweetcorn on it (burning the stalks afterwards rather than compossting them) or grow green manure.

Are you sure the cow manure is safe? I'd do the same with that actually.

[GreenOwl]

I'm with Woodburner.  The cow manure is as likely, if not more so, to be contaminated as the horse poo.

I'd actually go for the horse poo but only if I had the space to spread it out to encourage the stuff to decompose if required.  I would test it (with some tomato plants) to find out before using it.

[nobby]

neather
get some councel compost its not to expensive and layed on top will help keep down the weeds

[peapod]

Mines neither too G

And sorry Nobby, but I wouldnt trust my own local councils compost, I dont know how they do it,so I wouldnt risk that any bindweed/marestail etc has really been gotten rid of in the processing

Paula

[corynsboy]

We get our horse manure delivered by local stables. ( Yes we are spoiled) Someone on our committee does the thinking on this for us.

We'll see in the spring just how much thought went in to getting the manure or if the stables just said "sure, it's fine" just to get it off their hands.

[FRUITFULL]

Horse pooh definatly.They are not force feed junk but i would imagine a cow is.But then i could be wrong.
You cant beet a bit of horse pooh but after jumping over a fence once and landing in a cow pat wearing flip flops i d take a wide berth  :roll:

[DD.]

And sorry Nobby, but I wouldnt trust my own local councils compost, I dont know how they do it,so I wouldnt risk that any bindweed/marestail etc has really been gotten rid of in the processing

Paula

I wouldn't trust them either.

All my club roots are taken away by the council as we are not allowed bonfires.

I don't know what their composting factilities are like!

[PinkTequila]

Horse pooh definatly.They are not force feed junk but i would imagine a cow is.But then i could be wrong.
You cant beet a bit of horse pooh but after jumping over a fence once and landing in a cow pat wearing flip flops i d take a wide berth  :roll:

f

Cows are not generally force fed junk. They are the farmer's livelihood. Most dairy farmer's in my area feed their cattle on grass! Of course in some areas this has been the problem with the herbicide. The farm I get my manure from has not used the herbicide.

[woodburner]

Horse pooh definatly.They are not force feed junk but i would imagine a cow is.But then i could be wrong.
You cant beet a bit of horse pooh but after jumping over a fence once and landing in a cow pat wearing flip flops i d take a wide berth  :roll:

I used well rotted horse poo for my spuds. Guess what . . .  :roll: