[wendycas]

Hi
Someone said that our 3 inches of manure on some of our beds was too thick.  Is there an optimum thickness or does it depend on the crop going into it?  What would happen if there's too much manure on-would it be too rich or too acidic? 

[Totty]

Not every crop thrives in recently heavily manured ground. But the beds that you do manure, you cannot over manure IMO. So long as it's nicely rotted.
Too much fresh manure may cause some problems.
As mentioned on another thread recently, manure is not packed with nutrient and is more beneficial for its soil conditioning properties, I therefore use as much as I can, as well as leafmold, in order to feed the Soil.
I use organic feeds such as blood fish and bone to feed plants.

Totty

[wendycas]

Hi
Thanks-that's really interesting. I know what you mean about conditioning the soil-we had some heavy clay beds which were well manured last autumn and this summer the soil was fantastic. So, just another question-you mentioned adding nutrients-when do you do that, now or before planting next year?
Thanks

[Kirpi]

I find it strange that the feeling here is that manure and compost is not very high in nutrients. Along with Comfrey tea and Nettle tea, my homegrown compost and a lot of guinea pig hutch bedding from a local breeder/kenneler is all I use on my beds and I do fine.

But then my compost layers go on in about four inch depths so maybe low in nutrient concentration but plenty in volume?

[Yana]

I find it strange that the feeling here is that manure and compost is not very high in nutrients. Along with Comfrey tea and Nettle tea, my homegrown compost and a lot of guinea pig hutch bedding from a local breeder/kenneler is all I use on my beds and I do fine.

But then my compost layers go on in about four inch depths so maybe low in nutrient concentration but plenty in volume?

Substitute rabbit for guinea pig and I use exactly the same as you Kirpi. Always get good results.

[DD.]

I find it strange that the feeling here is that manure and compost is not very high in nutrients. Along with Comfrey tea and Nettle tea, my homegrown compost and a lot of guinea pig hutch bedding from a local breeder/kenneler is all I use on my beds and I do fine.

Manure
Comfrey Tea
Nettle Tea
Homegrown compost
Guinea pig hutch bedding

Is all you use? I think there's a bit of a clue here. That's 5 different lots according to my system of counting. It's way more than just manure.

[goodtogrow]

I use compost, and nothing but compost, and have done for a long time, and now I'm old....

On the matter of using manure, and nothing but manure, in sufficient quantity, how did man grow crops from the earliest civilisation, long before chicken pellets were invented?

[DD.]

how did man grow crops from the earliest civilisation, long before chicken pellets were invented?

Poorly.

[goodtogrow]

But my crops aren't so poor, DD...

[ididntdoit]

how did man grow crops from the earliest civilisation, long before chicken pellets were invented?

He used fresh chicken manure and it was probably better than the dried stuff. He also used blood (from animals),  bones (from  animals again) and lots of other fresher stuff.

[goodtogrow]

And because he included those, in tiny quantities spread on a field scale, his crops grew, and if he hadn't his crops wouldn't've grown, and he'd've died, and none of us would be here today...

[JayG]

Compared to dried fertilisers most manures are quite low in nutrients in percentage terms.....

....but you normally use much more of it than dried fertilisers and it has the added benefit of improving the condition of the soil.

Whether it's enough on its own depends on many things - what type, when you applied it, how much, what sort of soil you have, and to some extent what you intend to grow.

So everyone's right (yippee!  )

[ptarmigan]

I had access to a lot of well rotted manure last year - sadly not this year as well - and layered it about 3 inches thick over the beds - in fact some of it would have been 4 to 5 inches (was a bit worried I had overdone it on one bed so put squashes in that one.  Heavy clay soil was so much easier to work the next year, with lots of worms and things grew well.

[Goosegirl]

Three inches of manure put on a bed now to over-winter will be much reduced by spring due to the action of rain and a gradual settling down over time, unless you have trodden over it. Worms won't do too much in winter even if it slightly warmer at the bottom, but will have a great time when the weather eventually warms up.

[mumofstig]

In a lot of primitive civilisations they grew crops til the harvest was poor and then chopped down another lot of trees, and started growing there instead.