Horse manure as a good garden compost?.🤔🤔🤔

[sean donato]

There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.

Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and does not have weed seed issues.

We compost the pine shavings and straw from the chicken coop, whatever green waste from the kitchen, wood junk from splitting ect. Takes a long time for it to start to break down, but turns out some nice compost. I used some horse manure the other year from a neighbor, but I'll likely get cow manure this spring off my cousin. We're slowly getting the nasty red clay broken up into some nice black dirt. Chicken have been the biggest help. The scratch and poop all over.

 

[jolj]

Best tomatoes I grew in sixty-one years were in a eight foot X eight foot pen we kelp finishing pigs in.
The next spring, no pig, so I planted the tomatoes in eight inches of rotten pig manure.
The second best was where the cow would pull hay out between slats & drop half of the hay then walk it in the mud & manure.
Next year I planted a 6 foot X 30 foot bed of vegetables, tomatoes did best, was picking tomatoes in an Indian summer in November. Then I read a article on putting to much compost in your garden & had to laugh.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I use to use a lot of horse manure in my garden. My brother raised racking horses and always had plenty. I never let the manure completely compost. , sometimes a 100 loads or more, and use my tractor to turn the piles whenever the mood struck me. I would pour the wood mulch between the rows, 6 or 8 inches deep. Keeps the weeds down. In the fall, everything got tilled into the soil. I have grown taters big as footballs, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I have grown taters big as footballs, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.

i'd be skeptical, but this one grew so big they made a hotel out of it!!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.

who am i to say a bit of a stretch... lol

 

[muddstopper]

i'd be skeptical, but this one grew so big they made a hotel out of it!!

View attachment 1033529

I didnt actually put a tape measure on those taters, but that little one in your picture is about half the size of what I grew
.

 

[muddstopper]

who am i to say a bit of a stretch... lol

View attachment 1033530

German Johnson ?

 

[John Lyngdal]

We have two horses at home and the garden is the end location for the aged compost.
If you have an equestrian center nearby, they often have an excess of compost and due to the nature of the business, the compost will have a high sawdust content which helps keep the ground loose for root crops.

 

[jolj]

I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.

 

[psc1947]

Years ago we had a couple of horses and a donkey. I liked using the manure from the donkey since he pooped in the same spot whereas the horses pooped all over the field. Call me lazy !

Lived two places, one neighbor had donkeys another had horses, best source of fishing worms ever!

 

[muddstopper]

I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.

I had to give up trying to grow water melons. I live on a hill and the melons would get loose and roll down to the highway and block traffic.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

German Johnson ?

?

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

We have two horses at home and the garden is the end location for the aged compost.
If you have an equestrian center nearby, they often have an excess of compost and due to the nature of the business, the compost will have a high sawdust content which helps keep the ground loose for root crops.

i used to get some from the polo center... take all u want!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I had to give up trying to grow water melons. I live on a hill and the melons would get loose and roll down to the highway and block traffic.

 

[farmer steve]

I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.

The guy I used to buy peaches from when I had my market stopped one day. Wanted to know if I had room in my cooler to put a watermelon in. He said he had a big one to enter the fair in a couple of weeks. Sure. Took both of us all we could do to carry it in and out. Right around 150 lbs IIRC. Him and his brother also grew them whopper pumpkins.

 

[muddstopper]

?

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/grow-german-johnson-tomatoes-42880.html

 

[muddstopper]

 

[jollygreengiant]

There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.

Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and does not have weed seed issues.

This is actually false. I can show you many instances of where hog or poultry manure has introduced weed seeds into places where they didn't exist before. Velvetleaf is a prime example.

Manure is probably the best additive you can use but you need to be careful about where you get it. If you get it from a farm that is using a lot of imported feed ingredients, your likely going to have weed issues.

 

[muddstopper]

This is actually false. I can show you many instances of where hog or poultry manure has introduced weed seeds into places where they didn't exist before. Velvetleaf is a prime example.

Manure is probably the best additive you can use but you need to be careful about where you get it. If you get it from a farm that is using a lot of imported feed ingredients, your likely going to have weed issues.

I dont know if I want to agree with you about the weed seeds or not. All my horse poop came from my brothers barn. His hores are racking horses he shows all summer so they are kept in stalls. Store bought feed and local grown hay are all they see. I seem to have more weed problems from cow manure than I ever do from horse poop. CuckleBurrs is the worst culprit.