[Jim T]

Going to the nearby stables for another barrow load of horse poo tomorrow for my compost heap.
Making layers of upside down turf, horse poo, grass cuttings etc.
I'm letting it get rained on a bit longer; then i'll turn it over again and cover it over.
Does that seem OK? Not sure how wet I should get it and should I dust it with ammonium sulphate? Or - I've heard of something called "Garrota"

[noshed]

I would cover me poo and let it heat up in some enormous biochemical eruption. (The woman living in the flat above my plot asked me to cover mine the other day anyway.) But it will be great by the autumn.

[Jim T]

I would cover me poo and let it heat up in some enormous biochemical eruption. (The woman living in the flat above my plot asked me to cover mine the other day anyway.) But it will be great by the autumn.

  Thanks noshed, I'll enjoy that .. so long as me wifr doesn't find out , Jim

[David.]

Do you also collect the straw for mulching?

At the stables where my daughter rides the have a enormous mini-tractor drawn vacuum cleaner for poo-picking, so the poo and straw are seperate for most of the year.

I leave a few buiders 'dumpy bags' for them to put the straw in and swop those for empty bags when we come 2ce a week and shovel pure poo into bags to go on top.

[Jim T]

Do you also collect the straw for mulching?

At the stables where my daughter rides the have a enormous mini-tractor drawn vacuum cleaner for poo-picking, so the poo and straw are seperate for most of the year.

I leave a few buiders 'dumpy bags' for them to put the straw in and swop those for empty bags when we come 2ce a week and shovel pure poo into bags to go on top.

No David, only the poo.
They pick the poo every morning and pile it up in the corner of the field. Never thought of straw.
Do I need straw for the hot bed I'm making?
What I'm doing is layering poo and grass cuttings with compost. I'm going to buy a maxmin thermometer and when it gets up to 18C I'll cover with 30 cm compost and start planting sweet potatoes and melons.
Does this seem OK :?:

[David.]

I'm only using the straw for mulch at the moment, but intending to dig out the bottom of our coldframes and replace with hotbed straw in the Autumn so you're a bit ahead of me there.

However, my melons burnt up in my coldframes in the heatwave last year.

I'm ingtry sweet potatoes for the first time this year but the sprouts are still very small and I intended them to go in an uncovered raised bed.

The stable straw gives off more heat than pure horse poo, and is good for covering early potatoes, mulching around potatatoes, under marrows, cucumbers, strawberries, etc., or even making paths.

I've even thought of constructing a giant coldframe with dumpy bags of straw around early vegetables in pots.

[Jim T]

I'm ingtry sweet potatoes for the first time this year but the sprouts are still very small and I intended them to go in an uncovered raised bed.

The stable straw gives off more heat than pure horse poo, and is good for covering early potatoes, mulching around potatatoes, under marrows, cucumbers, strawberries, etc., or even making paths.

1. I couldn't get any sprouts or slips from the sweet potato which I half immersed in water for about 4 weeks in the greenhouse. So I'm just going to stick some in the hot bed and see :roll:
2. How do I get straw - the only straw I saw at the stable I thought was the horses breakfast and I don't want to ask for that :!:
I'm very ignorant about these things and would be grateful for any tips and how to use it to speed up the warming of my hot bed

[Trillium]

   
Horses eat hay, not straw. Straw is what they sleep on and dump on. It's the brittle, yellow coloured stuff. I'm sure if you asked the stable owner, he'd show you where he keeps the used stuff, or simply buy a bale from a farmer.

[Jim T]

   
Horses eat hay, not straw. Straw is what they sleep on and dump on. It's the brittle, yellow coloured stuff. I'm sure if you asked the stable owner, he'd show you where he keeps the used stuff, or simply buy a bale from a farmer.

Many thanks .oh stupid me :roll:  :oops:

But how do I use straw to help with my hot bed :?:

[Trillium]

Sorry Jim T, didn't mean to laugh at you, but the image of stealing the straw out of the horse's mouth almost had me falling off my chair.  They will, in desperation, eat straw, but it's like us chewing on linoleum for sustenance.  Straw is totally devoid of nutrition; it's the leftover stalk of grain crops, and since there is so much of it, the farmer began using it for any non-edible purposes. Mind, it's so sharp and itchy that I often wonder if horses and cattle find it so. As for making love in the straw pile, only a poet would find that enjoyable. Even hay is pretty scratchy.

[David.]

Bales of straw don't have all that free activater (horse urine) in that stable straw does and they cost £1 each, but easier to transport and not so smelly/full of flies.

[Jim T]

Sorry Jim T, didn't mean to laugh at you, but the image of stealing the straw out of the horse's mouth almost had me falling off my chair.  They will, in desperation, eat straw, but it's like us chewing on linoleum for sustenance.  Straw is totally devoid of nutrition; it's the leftover stalk of grain crops, and since there is so much of it, the farmer began using it for any non-edible purposes. Mind, it's so sharp and itchy that I often wonder if horses and cattle find it so. As for making love in the straw pile, only a poet would find that enjoyable. Even hay is pretty scratchy.

ThanksTrillium. So how do I use it to help with my hot bed?
As you can tell I am trying all sorts of things fiddling around to grow some semi tropical things I see people talking about :roll:  
Jim

[WG.]

Even hay is pretty scratchy.

You seem to know a lot about it, T?  

In fact, straw is frequently used as animal feed.  It is covered and treated with ammonia to make it more palatable to stock.  After treatment, it has similar nutritional value to hay.   Just thought you'd like to know ...

[Trillium]

Boy, trust a Scot to turn something inedible like straw into something sort of edible. I mean, why would people want to eat sheep stomachs in the first place   To count sheep at night perhaps?  

Over here, straw is just straw, not treated in any way for feed. We do, however, have organic and non-organic straw and hay. The organic stuff gets very high prices and almost all of it goes to the thoroughbred racehorse business. And Canada ships tons of both to the US racetracks because all their stuff must be sprayed against resident bugs. Not really something you'd want to feed a million dollar horse.

As for poor Jim T's request, I don't do hotbeds so I'm not knowledgeable. I did see a clip from Gardener's world either this past week or last week and Monty was doing it. I'd try to Google for better info or check older gardening books when it was regularly done. Wish I could help.

[WG.]

Freshy strawy manure according to http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/faqs.php?id=162.  Munty had a good (winter-time) tip somewhere about starting it all off with a good soaking of hot water.

And Trillium, the sheeps stomach isn't eaten; it is merely used to hold together much cheaper ingredients while they are cooked  ...   ... but a good haggis is a wondrous dining pleasure.