[greenhead]

Question:  How often should manure be applied to the beds - every season or every other season.  Does it depend on crops. Is horse manure 'the same' as spent mushroom compost?  How important is crop rotation? 

thanks for your help.

[Yorkie]

It depends on the crops - you should be rotating them every year, which is really important.

Never apply where carrots or parsnips will be the following year.

Most other crops (except salads) are pretty heavy feeders so will benefit from an application of manure.

Both horse manure and spent mushroom compost are organic matter, which will improve the soil structure.  However, I believe that mushroom compost is fairly alkaline so it is worth knowing how acidic or alkaline your soil is already, as you don't want to affect this too much.

[Salmo]

Horse manure has nutriens in it as well as organic matter. Fresh manure should be heaped for a year to rot before it is used.

Mushroom compost is half rotted straw that has been used as a medium on which to grow mushrooms. It has no nutrients but is a good soil conditioner. It has lime in it which you may want, or not.

Some crops, potatoes, onions, brassicas, squashes respond well to manure so concentrate on these crops. As has been said, aviod manure before carrots and parsnips as the roots tend to fork.

[RichardA]

I find that spent mushroom compost and manure are not advisable where smaller seeds are sown as they are too strong or too limey for the very young shoots. For potatoes etc no problem with manure applied the autumn before but mushroom compost because of the lime should never be used where potatoes are to be planted next. Peas, beans and brasicas love the mc and it is an excellent soil conditioner.
R

[viettaclark]

I buy bulk bags of ''blended horse manure'' which is a mix of rotted horse manure and mushroom compost. It's a reasonable price, has a good Ph balance and is lovely to use. Plants like it too!

[Trillium]

Question:  How often should manure be applied to the beds - every season or every other season.  Does it depend on crops.

It also depends on your soil. some are blessed with really nice stuff, the rest of us have something resembling landfill or brickyards. Manure goes a long way to enriching the soil and creating good tilth. For the last few years I've added an inch of chicken poo over the whole bed then rotovated it in with dried leaves on top (in the fall). It's now turning into lovely stuff and I rarely have to side-dress plants during the growing season. Once you reach a really nice tilth, usually every 2nd year of manuring is adequate but its fine to top up with some every year, just not loads at that point.

[hillbilly]

All above sounds good advice though over feeding with manure (like every year) can cause over sappy plants prone to disease.
Don't lay manure over cold, wet clay soil - dig it in to the top 8inches.
If you lay a high nutrient improver like manure (or garden compost)in the fall the winter rains can wash alot of the goodness out so cover with leafmold or a fabric to protect it or lay it in Feb.
Happy mucking about!

[strangerachael]

[quote
If you lay a high nutrient improver like manure (or garden compost)in the fall the winter rains can wash alot of the goodness out so cover with leafmold or a fabric to protect it or lay it in Feb.
[/quote]
This always baffles me. Where do the nutrients wash away to? Don't they just go further down into the soil? Which is where you want them really?

[hillbilly]

[quote
If you lay a high nutrient improver like manure (or garden compost)in the fall the winter rains can wash alot of the goodness out so cover with leafmold or a fabric to protect it or lay it in Feb.

This always baffles me. Where do the nutrients wash away to? Don't they just go further down into the soil? Which is where you want them really?
[/quote]

I think it depends on your soil and how much rain we get. Most veg like their nutrient in the top 6 to 12 inches as they're generally single season crops. It's wasted much below that. Heavy rain can take most of it through a sandy soil in quite a short time.
My cherry tree suffered from magnesium deficiency in 2007 when the rain here in the summer was TORRENTIAL  . I took the mottly leaves to the local hort college and they said the iron was washed out the soil which stops the roots taking up magnesium. Delicate relationships and all that..
Sorry to waffle on but you did ask!

[strangerachael]

Mmm, well my soil is quite sandy so maybe I will cover it up for the winter...

[crh75]

If your soil is rather sandy then a green manure would be a good idea. This would protect then soil from the rain and add organic matter.

[strangerachael]

Well, some of it is already covered in green manure, but another part where it was growing so big I have already dug it in...