[NO GREEN FINGERS]

what is the best
horse manure with wood chipings
or
cow manure
or
chicken manure

have been told that hoarse manure with wood chipings is not that good
is this true

also how long should i leave both horse and cow manure before using


thanks

[PinkTequila]

Check it is not contaminated first I would say. I woujld go for horse with straw normally if I coujld get it. I can't so I use Farmyard manure (cow) with straw. Worth reading the other threads on here about manure contamination

[seaweed king]

hi,
  try seaweed its clean and free , rots fast no smells easy to handle .
chicken pellets as well , too many weed seeds if you use cow or horse unless its well rotted about 3 years .
great spuds this year with it

[Novice but totally hooked]

My sign on says it all but ....

this is the first year we've grown any veggie but to carve out the plot we have fenced off a very small part  (probably about the size of an average allotment) of our 6 acres of paddocks and turned it into our veggie garden.

About 10 years ago it was the muck heap for horse poo and wood shaving - no straw.  When we started digging it over last autum it was a mass of nettles but once we'd cleared them it was fantastic.

We've got amazing crumbly texture, no stones, a surface that drains brilliantly and the most amazing harvest with everything we've grown so far.

I know we're fortunate to have the luxuary of space and no time constraints but if anyone else is in the position of being able to cultivate an ex-muck heap 'in situ' I'd thoroughly recommend it.

We're hoping to double the size of the cultivated area for next year.

[Gwiz]

I can't say that we can get any cow manure where we are, but from what I can remember from horticultural college, it should be "well rotted", the same as horse manure.
having said that, numerous people on our allotments use it fresh on a "no dig" basis, and suffer no ill effects from it  ( horse manure) some of it has wood chips, some of it shredded paper.
The only chicken manure I've ever used has been in the processed pelleted form, and very good it has been too!

[debih]

We have just got our allotment and the man that had it before manured it every year for for the past 30 years.  I dont know what sort of manure he used but we have spent two days clearing out the weeds and digging and it is like digging in a huge bag of compost.

The weeds came out really easily and soil looks like breadcrumbs.

Whatever he used worked!