[fekq]

I'm going to be planting up a bed of around 7 diff squash and pumpkins, and wondered whether the "free manure"  (it'll be horse poo) on offer in the local Friday Ad would be ok to use in the planting holes? I know people say that you should leave manure to rot for ages before digging it in, but thought squashes might be hardy enough.

My compost is looking pretty un-rotted in its bins, which has scuppered that plan (I used up the rotted stuff in the spring).

[Trillium]

Horse manure would also contain straw, which may or may not slow down the rotting depending on percentages. All manure should be about a year old to be safe to plant in or use with new plantings. Anything fresher will burn tender roots due to the high nitrogen which plants aren't used to. I suspect that horse stables are getting rid of mostly fresh stuff unless you specifically ask for old stuff and its approximate age.

[sunshineband]

We found this out the hard way  afew years back when we spread manure from the farm around our pumpkin plants and the stems went all black