My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)

--
Chris Green

wrote in :

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)


I think I am right in saying that fresh horse manure is great for 'woody'
plants, shrubs and trees because they are, well, woody.
A vegetable has less than that, in fact tender stalks, and the fermentation
of manure can reach high temperatures and kill or at least burn them.
I would urge you not to put any veg in there until a more knowledeable
gardener from this group advises otherwise.

I envy you for your very local supply. It needs composting/rotting for at
least a year though IMO.

Good luck and my best wishes Chris.
Baz

Baz wrote in
:

wrote in :

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)


I think I am right in saying that fresh horse manure is great for
'woody' plants, shrubs and trees because they are, well, woody.
A vegetable has less than that, in fact tender stalks, and the
fermentation of manure can reach high temperatures and kill or at
least burn them. I would urge you not to put any veg in there until a
more knowledeable gardener from this group advises otherwise.

I envy you for your very local supply. It needs composting/rotting for
at least a year though IMO.

Good luck and my best wishes Chris.
Baz


Please forget my words above, Sacha(who knows about these things)replied
during the time it took me to write.

Same best wishes Chris.
Baz

On Mar 23, 10:54*am, Baz wrote:
Baz wrote :





wrote :

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? *We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! *:-)

I think I am right in saying that fresh horse manure is great for
'woody' plants, shrubs and trees because they are, well, woody.
A vegetable has less than that, in fact tender stalks, and the
fermentation *of manure can reach high temperatures and kill or at
least burn them. I would urge you not to put any veg in there until a
more knowledeable gardener from this group advises otherwise.

I envy you for your very local supply. It needs composting/rotting for
at least a year though IMO.

Good luck and my best wishes Chris.
Baz

Please forget my words above, Sacha(who knows about these things)replied
during the time it took me to write.

Same best wishes Chris.
Baz- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Just go ahead and plant as normal, things like potatoes, beans cabbage
etc will be fine, just don't plant root crops such as carroots
parsnips. Onions will be OK.
David @ the normally wet end of Swansea Bay where we are heading for
de-hydrated mud.

On 23/03/2012 10:36, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-03-23 09:46:41 +0000, said:

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)

As it's been in since September, it's probably rotted down by now,
especially if you've had frosty weather. What you need to check with the
owners of the field is whether they use herbicides and if so, which one.
This is why:
http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-d...killing-crops/
People are very aware of the problem now but there may still be some
using weed killers containing aminopyralid


Does the group know about similar treatments? We dug in some alpaca poo
around October and it's still very recognisable as what it was when we
dug it in. I was hoping it would dissolve into the soil and fade from my
memory. I'm not very good at removing the association of poo and food.

Thanks, Rob

wrote:

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it always be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)

What's the best thing for those of us that are a little less prepared
and would like to grow some veg (potatoes, beans, some other root veg)
in an area that's been left a bit unattended?

I was thinking of digging it oever with a bag or two of manure from the
garden centre but now, having read this thread, I'm not so sure this is
the best thing! Is multi-purpose compost OK, or is there something
better?

--
Chris

Sacha wrote:
On 2012-03-23 09:46:41 +0000, said:

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)

As it's been in since September, it's probably rotted down by now,
especially if you've had frosty weather. What you need to check with
the owners of the field is whether they use herbicides and if so, which

I didn't make it clear, they're my fields and horses, no herbicides.

--
Chris Green

Sacha wrote in :


I know very little about growing veg, Baz so don't hesitate to jump
in!
Afaik, onions like fertile , well-prepared soil but not heavily
manured just before planting. That's why I think that sincethe manure
was dug in in September, it should be okay if it's rotted down. Very
fresh manure can be a problem for many plants because it 'burns' them.
I understand that chicken manure is one of the worst offenders here
and therefore many people dilute it in a bucket of water before
applying it as a feed to plants.

BTW Sacha,
I managed to get some International Kidney's. 2.5kg. for £2.99.
They will be going in this weekend, 2 or more per hole because the seed
is quite small and I have limited space now that I have extra potatoes
to grow. It was a lucky find! I am chuffed so good.

My potato patch is going to be so damn good this year.
Baz

On Mar 23, 1:36*pm, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-03-23 12:16:13 +0000, said:

Sacha wrote:
On 2012-03-23 09:46:41 +0000, said:

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it *always* be
rotted down? *We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! *:-)

As it's been in since September, it's probably rotted down by now,
especially if you've had frosty weather. *What you need to check with
the owners of the field is whether they use herbicides and if so, which

I didn't make it clear, they're my fields and horses, no herbicides.

Wonderful - you should be fine.
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.comwww.hillhousenurseryt earoom.com
South Devon

Baz
Don't plant 2 to a hole, better to plant them as singles but a little
closer, say 12 inches, thoug I'd stick to normal planting, small seed
will do just as well.
When I was young we would never plant anything larger than a hens egg,
if it was bigger then it would be cut in half or even 3.

Re the manure, think about this for future years

Three Year Crop Rotation
http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetabl...p-rotation.php

Or a Four Year Crop rotation

David @ the normally wet end of Swansea bay

On 23 Mar 2012 11:55:13 GMT, "CT" wrote:

wrote:

My wife dug in some fresh horse manure into a bed last September or
so, would it be OK to put some onions in the bed now?

In general is this a sensible thing to do or should it always be
rotted down? We have horses on our land adjacent to the vegetable
plot so it's always somewhat tempting to 'go direct'! :-)

What's the best thing for those of us that are a little less prepared
and would like to grow some veg (potatoes, beans, some other root veg)
in an area that's been left a bit unattended?

I was thinking of digging it oever with a bag or two of manure from the
garden centre but now, having read this thread, I'm not so sure this is
the best thing! Is multi-purpose compost OK, or is there something
better?

Bags of manure sold at garden centres are, IME, always well rotted
down (and usually labelled "composted ..."). In the past I've used
that without any problems save that some root crops like carrots don't
seem to like overly fertile soil and develop forked roots.

At one time I used to use a product called "6X" that was essentially
well rotted and supposedly sterilised manure. Was a fibrous sort of
stuff that you could just dig your hands into and chuck about by the
handful. Looked for some last year and the price was beyond
astronomical compared to what I used to pay. However it was really
good stuff though it stank to high heaven and the neighbours always
complained a bit.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay.

Jake wrote:

Bags of manure sold at garden centres are, IME, always well rotted
down (and usually labelled "composted ..."). In the past I've used
that without any problems save that some root crops like carrots don't
seem to like overly fertile soil and develop forked roots.

OK, ta. Looks like that's probably OK for what I'm after.

At one time I used to use a product called "6X"

Me too - produced by Wadworth )

that was essentially
well rotted and supposedly sterilised manure. Was a fibrous sort of
stuff that you could just dig your hands into and chuck about by the
handful. Looked for some last year and the price was beyond
astronomical compared to what I used to pay. However it was really
good stuff though it stank to high heaven and the neighbours always
complained a bit.

The veg patch is a bit too close to our back door for that, I think!

--
Chris

On 23 Mar 2012 14:12:52 GMT, "CT" wrote:

Jake wrote:

At one time I used to use a product called "6X"

Me too - produced by Wadworth )

I think I pre-date you (gives age away) as I remember it sold by
Organic Concentrates Ltd, a family run firm, literally from their
kitchen table. I once phoned in an order and was asked to ring back in
an hour as the Mrs was cooking and they'd had to clear the paperwork
from the table while she did her bit.


Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay.

Jake wrote:

On 23 Mar 2012 14:12:52 GMT, "CT" wrote:

Jake wrote:

At one time I used to use a product called "6X"

Me too - produced by Wadworth )

I think I pre-date you (gives age away) as I remember it sold by
Organic Concentrates Ltd, a family run firm, literally from their
kitchen table. I once phoned in an order and was asked to ring back in
an hour as the Mrs was cooking and they'd had to clear the paperwork
from the table while she did her bit.

Err, I thought the smiley might have been a clue!

http://www.6xale.co.uk/

--
Chris

On 26 Mar 2012 07:54:16 GMT, "CT" wrote:

Jake wrote:

On 23 Mar 2012 14:12:52 GMT, "CT" wrote:

Jake wrote:

At one time I used to use a product called "6X"

Me too - produced by Wadworth )

I think I pre-date you (gives age away) as I remember it sold by
Organic Concentrates Ltd, a family run firm, literally from their
kitchen table. I once phoned in an order and was asked to ring back in
an hour as the Mrs was cooking and they'd had to clear the paperwork
from the table while she did her bit.

Err, I thought the smiley might have been a clue!

http://www.6xale.co.uk/

D'ya know, I've never heard of that before! I knew Organic
Concentrates had sold out but didn't realise that someone had found a
way to brew the stuff.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the east end of the totally
dry and sunny Swansea Bay.

Jake wrote:

On 26 Mar 2012 07:54:16 GMT, "CT" wrote:

http://www.6xale.co.uk/

D'ya know, I've never heard of that before! I knew Organic
Concentrates had sold out but didn't realise that someone had found a
way to brew the stuff.

There's probably nothing organic that someone hasn't tried to make an
alcoholic drink from!

--
Chris