A trial, NOT a recommendation, of growing in fresh horse manure with straw and a bit of hay, from the neighbour’s heap.
I shall add the final results here in November 2017 with details of harvests, including a comparison with the kohlrabi planted into composted manure in the nearby heap. Currently they are four times the size of those in the fresh manure.
In contrast, see how I use this same manure in a hotbed. Then after three months of its heating in a heap, the weed seeds are all dead, and I use it as compost after a further six months:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhPh4sYCW5Q
More on making compost in this video – I add some of the same weedy manure to my compost heaps, where the heat kills all the weed seeds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6CGj7xpFE
More on using well decomposed manure (i.e. compost) to grow great plants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJhGIrqKs1k
Filmed 6.9.17 at Homeacres, Somerset, U.K., and edited, by Edward Dowding https://edowding.net.
Hi Charles, I found this experiment very interesting but can’t seem to find the final results. I’m probably just being thick, so could you point me in the right direction please. Also you mentioned pig manure in one of your replies, I wondered if you could elaborate on this? I keep free range, rare breed pigs . I could poo pick some manure off the fields if you think it a good component for composting ( but life and other materials are too short to collect all of it 🙂 ) on the rare occasions a pig is brought indoors the ‘waste’ is mainly urine with straw and some poo, would this be worth collecting as a compost activator/nitrogen? I would like to take this opportunity today thank you for all your invaluable advice , I am a devoted follower. Sue, Battlesbridge, Essex, UK
I couldn't any video on it but what do you think about growing plants in container filled with nothing but compost?
Do you ever have any garden plot that go unused during the winter? If so do you place anything over them so they don't lose their nutrients?
This video made me feel colorblind.
This is a great video as I have taken on an allotment in Feb of this year I didn’t dig any weeds just spread horse manure like that on the top about 6 inches deep i started all my seedlings in doors then transplanted them out into the ground
Amazing results and not a lot off weeds
I purchased what I was told was compost and every single one of my previously healthy plants is now yellow once planting into it. They were well hardened off. Does this mean it was too hot? I've also lost the battle against rabbits with quite a few plants. Takes a lot for me to want to shoot them. Feeling pretty discouraged compared to a month ago with a grow room full of beautiful plants….
Charles the Irish method of growing potatoes with fresh dung is to lay the dung down and put soil on top, say around 6 inches and plant the potatoes into the soil, the potatoes will be in the soil on top of the clay
I have been using well composted animal manure which is full of weed seed. I suspect the pile doesnt get hot enough because all that is tossed on the it is animal waste, straw and soiled hay. There are almost no greens thrown in, though the top of the pile is a mass of weeds. I dig in from the side to an old part of the pile. Do you have any experience with this?
Hi Charles
Thank you for a great video, could you please advice me whether or not I can use fresh or 1 or two month old horse manure under the bed topped up with multipurpose compost, I did not use any top soil.
I put likes even before finish watch the video.
Arg! Great information but a bit hard to concentrate with the music
I agree with the comment on the music. Distracting!
Hi Charles, I've had some manure in a pile for about 3 months, it got up to about 70°C. I have just laid some cardboard and then about 3-4 inches of the manure today on a bed that didn't grow well this year (new bed made by scalping grass off an existing lawn). Tried growing potatoes which got scab and didn't grow large and sweetcorn which only grew about 3 feet tall with 1 cob from 9 plants. Would you expect better results next year with this mulch? Also I was thinking of not growing anything that grows in the ground given the manure is relatively fresh, should I be concerned about any nasties? Thanks
Very interesting, as usual, Mr Dowding. Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if the November 2017 film with results is available, because apparently I could not find it in the list. My question is: if I am able to receive enough fresh manure now in February (location Italy, South Sardinia, 160 sea miles far away from Africa coast) and I distribute say a 5-6 cm on top of undig soil (clay + stones prevalently) these weeks and I start putting in the seedlings of tomatoes and other summer plants end of March-first April (depending on weather), do you think it can be worth the try? I have just started earthworms breeding and they are now beginning to produce gourgeous material but it will need several months before I can use it effectively. Thank you for any clue.
Hello Charles, I could get 10 year old cow manure. Does it still make sense to take it or all the good things already out of it? It was lying around uncovered.
This is exactly what I was wondering about, thank you!
Your background music is too loud in this vid, against your soft spoken voice. Otherwise love ALL your no dig gardening advice
I love your voice and the music background isn’t loud enough to deter me to hear what good you have to say ..thank you, useful informations !
I agree totally. Some gardeners here in Ireland say there is anecdotal evidence that wireworm problems are caused or made worse by the use of very fresh uncomposted manure , including cow manure.
Put the manure under the soil.
As a horse owner and gardener, I've found weed growth depends on when the manure was collected, and even more importantly when the hay my horses ate was cut. The seed has to be in the feed for it to be in the manure, so manure collected in spring, before many weeds and grasses have formed seeds produces hardly any weed growth. With hay, June cut has very few seeds heads in it while later cut hay is full of seed, especially grass so is a nightmare if you spread it on the soil!
Would fresh horse manure tea work ok on feeding the garden
Hi Charles, what would you think about using fresh horse manure without any kind of bedding in it? Just straight up scooped from the land onto the garden beds.
I get no weed seeds from spreading fresh horse manure on my plot and wonder if is because the horses are bedded down on wood chip. If the cereal crop had a lot of grass weeds in it and the seeds were blown out of the combine with the straw and baled, it's hardly surprising that you get grass weeds. Just a thought!
I get horse manure from a horse farm and use it right away my plants and veges love that stuff
What about horse manure that isn't completely fresh but also not composted yet? It's called "burnt horse manure" ("brunnen hästgödsel") in my language, and the manure has been buried in the pile and the straws become black from heat, it stinks and got a lot of worms in it… Is that type of manure okay to grow things in for the no dig method until the compost is done? (my compost won't be ready until fall)
I only ever add horse manure straight to my garden beds without composting, I usually plant with a leafy green initially like silverbeet with great results then the subsequent crops are root crops with good success, weeds for me are a problem only in winter due to rain which I see as an asset as I pull them then compost or feed back to my horses.
There may be another reason. Aminopiralid