[Sandrav]

Being new to the allotment world, i am getting conflicting advice about what needs manure and what doesn't.

Can you tell me whether i am right in thinking, that you dont have manure with things that grow in the ground because they can grow in weird shapes??

Please help me.....i am confused

[zazen999]

Carrots and parsnips - will go funny shapes if manured.

[DavidT]

Manure for your gross feeders, things such as onions, leeks  and potatoes. Use lime for your Brassicas ( cabbage family ) and superphosphate for your root crops.

[barbarella]

Make sure you use well rotted manure

[IanYORK]

all good advice here  but it will depend what shape your soil is in and the plot history - do you have that information?

[lucyp]

Although there are some 'it's usually the case' rules in vegetable gardening, so much depends on what exactly your definitions are. I acquired a quantity of very old horse manure last back end and spread it over my whole plot.  I've grown my best carrots ever this year, hardly any have forked, so I got away with it this time.  I think we occasionally need to challenge accepted wisdom if the consequences aren't too important.

[sunshineband]

Sandrav, if you'd like to pop into the Information Section at the top of the page you'll find all sorts of useful stuff. There is a section on Manures and Fertilisers, which might help.

here is a ;ink, which I hope will help 

http://www.allotment-garden.org/fertilizer/index.php

[zazen999]

Although there are some 'it's usually the case' rules in vegetable gardening, so much depends on what exactly your definitions are. I acquired a quantity of very old horse manure last back end and spread it over my whole plot.  I've grown my best carrots ever this year, hardly any have forked, so I got away with it this time.  I think we occasionally need to challenge accepted wisdom if the consequences aren't too important.

Probably because it was very old horse manure, and not just well rotted horse manure.

I don't use manure at all; and grow my carrots and parsnips in clay - and get fine long specimens - so growing them in thick clay IS possible! Many others will disagree.

[Zippy]

I haven't used manure old or well rotted for three years ont he plot I am currently working, but I do use green manure crops and one quarter gets the entire contents on my well rotted compost bin every year in rotation.

Why lug cartloads of manure onto your plot when it usually contains more water than anything else, compared to a packet of green manure seeds that will do the entire plot but fit in your pocket?

Someone will come along and say there must have been a reason why the early gardeners manured so that is why we contuinue the line, but surely the reason why early gardeners spread manure was because they kept animals and needed somewhere to bury the waste; just coincidental that the waste fed the soil so we have done it ever since.

In my opinion there is no need to spread manure or dig (apart from initially breaking a new plot's back). We've (some of us) moved on.

Alfalfa anyone?

[strangerachael]

I generally rely on compost and green manure. I did get a pile of horse manure in once and i can't say I noticed a difference from the produce in the area I manured. Then there's all that aminopyralid business - so I haven't bothered since.

[solway cropper]

Manure and compost are for improving the condition of the soil more than anything else. They don't contain a great deal in the way of nutrients. My current veg. plot was started from scratch three years ago from a lawn laid on heavy clay soil with a hard pan about a foot down so I bung as much organic matter as i can into it. Having said that I wouldn't go to the trouble of importing horse manure or whatever. I have two 'daleks' full of rotted kitchen and garden waste plus a big heap in the corner and about one and a half cubic yards of leaf mould. As somebody said, it's a good way to dispose of your waste and it certainly helps the soil.

[bonfire]

Advice also depends to some extent on your soil.

For instance My plot is in a river valley next to the chalk South Downs - so some alluvial soil but a ridge of chalk about two spits down - so liming for brassicas would be crazy, like pouring vinegar on pickles.
I use cheap, easily available very fresh horse muck as layers on my Indore (not indoor) compost heaps and get good compost a couple of months quicker than neighbours who don't - and everything I read tells me compost with much more in the way of nutrients and trace elements.
The Lawrence Hills Book recommended elsewhere and a few others have tables of the constituents of manures - Hills by the way was a great supporter of green manuring like others on here. I don't do it because I have this fear of a plot covered in green manure crops still not dug in by mid-July of the next year!

[Zippy]

Yes bonfire. The compost heap is the only place I put animal droppings as an activator, but I don't labour myself spreading or digging as neither are necessary on my sandy soil.

I like to know my animal manure's history though to make sure I am not bringing in any nasties I may regret later.

[Sandrav]

 

Thanks everyone for your comments, to be honest I am not so sure that i am any wiser!!  I get from what you are all saying is that i need to speak to some of my allotment neighbours to obtain information on the soil and go from there.

I think i will experiment this year and do a bit of all to see what works best.

Thanks again though - it is a world of new information that i am trying to take in x

[Sid]

Hi all,
I started my first allotment this August,and we had to clear and rotivate, prior to that, a pig had been on the plot so well fertilized.

We have already managed to get in some broad beans,overwinter onions,garlic, spuds and some brassicas.
The rest of plot I have been turning over ready for the spring... now the owner of plot keeps telling me that I have to dig in some well rotted manure, I'm not so sure especially after reading these posts, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, the veg that has been planted is doing well,considering all the rain we have had. 
Sid.