Horse Manure - good or bad?

[brandonozz 168]

OK guys and gals,

I have been putting in a garden for about three years with good success and am making the garden even bigger this year. In the past I have used a little bagged fertilizer before the season and a little miracle grow a few times during the plants growth. I have seen some use horse manure in their gardens but some people I know won't use manure because of the weed seeds that are being introduced into the garden. What is your experience with using manure? If you have used it before, did you notice more weeds that next year?

Thanks for your experience!

[Tim 97]

horses do not break down what the ingest as completely as a cow will

there will be more seed. around here horse manure is plentiful and free. you have to pay for cow manure

if you have space and time get the horse manure and "sit on it" for a couple of years. it will degrade further and weed will not be as much and issue

[JimmyJam 542]

Cow Manure is better because their stomachs really breakdown weed-seeds. You can use Horse Manure if it has "aged", or added to your own compost pile to "heat-up" and kill any weed seeds.

[Rock farmer 41]

It depends on where your starting from.

It your soil is really poor, than anything is better

If it's pretty good, than, you don't want horse manure.

Horses have one stomach, cows three, you will see a lot of weeds!

At least that first year. It will decrease in following years.

I have put a lot of horse manure on my place. It was free and,it did improve things

Now I only use cow manure.

Joe

[rydogg 186]

Only well composted aged horse manure goes in the garden usually when I clean out the horse stalls I put the manure back on the hay meadow that was cut and baled to feed them. I am able to get cow manure for $20 a truck load and they load it so that is what I usually use I have also used pig manure but that has to be applied in the fall so it has time to mellow or it will burn plants.

[6wheeler 641]

No animal can break down the weed seeds unless the seeds are cracked in some way. I use alot of horse manure and yes I get lots of weeds, but horse manure is really good cuz it has alot of nitrogen. what I do is pile it up for a year and let it break down a bit. Ryan, I can't remember if you bed with shavings or not, but just pile it behind your shed there and let it sit for awhile and it will work better because it seems to mellow a bit. I use chicken manure too. But, as Ryan said, it also has to go on in the fall or it is too strong also. I use horse manure with shavings and let it break down a bit . When the shavings compost awhile and you either plow it in or till it, it really seems to mellow the ground and the drainage is great. Plus brandonozz if you let it sit awhile it seems to kill off alot of the weed seeds. :twocents-02cents:

[MaineDad 85]

I have been using horse manure for many years. www.gardentractorgardening.com

Horse manure is a hot manure so you should never put fresh manure on a garden you plan to plant in soon. I only use aged composted horse manure and always in the fall. It has more nitrogen than cow manure so you have to learn how to use it effectively.

[Jim_M 178]

I prefer cow manure but horse manure is easier to come by. I always put it on in the fall and till it in if the ground is dry enough, otherwise I till it in as early as possible in the spring, then again just before planting.

You'll get weeds with any kind of manure you use, but the extra weeding is worth it when you see how much better your garden produces.

A healthy dose of manure every year can turn even poor clay ground into rich top soil after a few years.

[brandonozz 168]

Thanks for all the advice. The place I got the manure from pushes it out of the stables and I picked up a truck load of the manure that was the farthest from the barn. It looked fairly well aged and had some shavings and straw mixed in. most of what I got was broken down pretty well. I guess we will see how it goes as I have already added it to the garden and spread it out. I plan on tilling in when it dryes out a bit.

We will see - maybe we will have a garden or maybe a jungle!

[Butch 194]

I've used horse manure and love it. The only problem is you grow whatever the horses were eating!

[953 nut 56,186]

The best way to deal with the weeds is to let them germinate in early spring, plow or till them under, let a second germination take place and then prep the planting area for your garden. This will take care of most of the weeds. If you mulch with cardboard and leaf mulch you will have a clean weed free garden and be able to incorperate this into the soil in the fall.

Good Gardening :)

[brandonozz 168]

Nut, That is kind of what I planned on. Multiple tillings for the month and a half before planting. Never used manure before so we will see how it goes. This will be my fourth year of gardening. I do have to say, I have been fortunate to have better success than I expected and production has been good for a smaller garden.

My grandfather grew a very nice garden when I was a kid and what I wouldn't give to have some of his knowledge - of course that experience is gone now. One of those things - as we get older we start to love the same things our parents/grandparents loved so much. Just something satisfying about getting your hands dirty and eating what you grow!

Thanks for all the pointers.

[Keith 21]

^{Its a good idea to compost any manure.} Less pathogens. Decomposition requires water, whether it occurs in the planting soil or the compost bin

[Terry M-(Moderator) 2,177]

When I was growing up, every spring we would clean-out the horse barn and the horse pen and distribute it through out our 1/4 acre garden, turn over the soil and disc it, then plant it a couple weeks later. Always had an excellent yield of veggies and the corn always grew out of control. I believed that the years of horse and pony manure is what made that garden grow.

Our neighbor( who hadn't any animals to create manure) had manure brought in from the local animal stock yards and hadn't the best luck and even developed a case of cut worm in the soil. not sure if that was related to the manure he used but I know we never had problems or got any bugs/ pathagens in our garden. :handgestures-thumbupright:

[Prater 75]

I tilled in fresh horse manure last year, it was steaming when I picked it up from the stables. I had a few weeds in that part of the garden but I kept it tilled often and have not had anything come up yet. I have two garden spots and I only tilled the manure in one of the gardens. I plan to go back and pick up the composted manure as soon as I get a chance. I can notice a very distinct difference in the soil already between the two garden spots. The one with the manure is richer looking and the soil is fluffy(best way to describe it). I just planted on the manure side so I will see how well it works out for me.