Horse Manure (Trail Gold)

[flowerbug]

that looks beautiful!

i know! the only improvement you get on those for your own situation/requirements of reseeding a prairie would be if you made some seed bombs with them. it would be a fun project for the kids.

take your prairie seeds and mix them with the manure and some clay and then form them into chunks that can be tossed around.

it's always nice to find a good use for extra clay...

 

[baymule]

that looks beautiful!

Our first year here, the garden was so bad, that I felt like running behind the horses with a basket to catch the manure. In stead I called a horse event center nearby and we hauled load after load of pine shavings and horse poop, dumping it on the ground and spreading it.

​

My husband on the left, neighbor Robert on the right. We hauled load after load after load. They went after a load, I spread what they just dumped. The dump trailer was borrowed from a friend. On a good day, we could get 5 loads. We dumped loads on our place and on Robert's place. We had to go on Monday's after the weekend event.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

To help improve the clay, plant long root radishes, like daikon. Let them grow, bloom, and die. The roots will bust the clay apart, when decaying, will add humus and food for earth worms. The decayed radish roots will leave openings in the clay, helping rain to absorb instead of running off. Plant rings of long root radishes around your trees, it will help a lot.

Are daikon those ones that are the size of babies?

 

[baymule]

Are daikon those ones that are the size of babies?

Some are, they make soccer ball sized radish’s. What you want are the long ones, plant and forget. Rinse, repeat. I was raised in Houston, lived around the area for years. The soil is black clay. Sticky gooey goop that sticks to your boots, getting bigger with every step. When dry, it is harder than concrete and splits open in wide enough cracks the hang a foot in and twist an ankle. Yeah, try tilling that mess! Great stuff for expanding, contracting and cracking house slabs.

You want to improve your clay? Keep adding horse manure and stall clean outs on top, and plant long root radishes for depth and breaking up the clay.

 

[bobm]

To help improve the clay, plant long root radishes, like daikon. Let them grow, bloom, and die. The roots will bust the clay apart, when decaying, will add humus and food for earth worms. The decayed radish roots will leave openings in the clay, helping rain to absorb instead of running off. Plant rings of long root radishes around your trees, it will help a lot.

San Juaquin Valley, Cal., high desert , circa 50+/- years ago ... sandy - clayey soil with hardpan ranging from on top to 5 feet below surface , tumble weeds, jack rabbits and coyotes galore ... to make the Desert bloom ... Dam was built in the Sierra Nevada mts. to catch snow melt, irrigation canals were built to criss cross the valley. Orchard and Vinyard farmers started to improve their lands using tractors with 2" hole drills to drill down to their hilt leangth to plant orchard trees and grape vines. Next, they dropped in dinamite charges down these holes, then blew up the hard pans , next they used land plains to fill in the new holes so that they could plant orchard trees or grape vines. Followed by chemical fertilizers by the truck load. Brought prosperity that rivaled the gold rush. I owned 20 acres of land there without the benefit of irrigation, but I had a very good water well that allowed me to raise 30+/- horses that pooped a lot. I spread the manure at the rate of 6 inches deep onto my garden and fruit trees resuting in great yields. I also did the same onto the pastures... the new greass would grow up to a foot taller than the areas that still awaited manure.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

San Juaquin Valley, Cal., high desert , circa 50+/- years ago ... sandy - clayey soil with hardpan ranging from on top to 5 feet below surface , tumble weeds, jack rabbits and coyotes galore ... to make the Desert bloom ... Dam was built in the Sierra Nevada mts. to catch snow melt, irrigation canals were built to criss cross the valley. Orchard and Vinyard farmers started to improve their lands using tractors with 2" hole drills to drill down to their hilt leangth to plant orchard trees and grape vines. Next, they dropped in dinamite charges down these holes, then blew up the hard pans , next they used land plains to fill in the new holes so that they could plant orchard trees or grape vines. Followed by chemical fertilizers by the truck load. Brought prosperity that rivaled the gold rush. I owned 20 acres of land there without the benefit of irrigation, but I had a very good water well that allowed me to raise 30+/- horses that pooped a lot. I spread the manure at the rate of 6 inches deep onto my garden and fruit trees resuting in great yields. I also did the same onto the pastures... the new greass would grow up to a foot taller than the areas that still awaited manure.

I remember reading all about that somewhere. Thanks for bringing that back to mind

 

[flowerbug]

arid/alkaline hard pan forms in low rainfall places with mineral soils because what little rain they get washes the dissolved minerals down only so far where they reform.

this is why arid climates can have such difficult soils on top and poor drainage below.

once you understand that life loves pH about 6-7 then learn about what tree roots and other plant roots do to bedrock (they give off acids to dissolve rock) you can begin to understand how to regenerate any climate on this planet where people can live. plant things, grow things, harvest things, but make sure you don't remove organic matter from the surface. keep it covered, keep growing things. the best plants to break through hardpan will be those with the deeper roots. alfalafa can put roots down a long ways given enough time. grape vines too. start with small trees, legumes, when they get so far chop them back, pile that around them and let them regrow, keep at it. in 5-10yrs you have shade and a windbreak and these trees will flower and attract wildlife, birdies bring in seeds and fertilizer of their own. next thing you know you have a food forest. in an arid climate where you manage your water you can perpetuate this system indefinitely.

just make sure you don't over pump your aquifer.

in MN, you're in no danger of that in most places. in Mid-Michigan we're not in danger of that either. we hardly touch the well most of the day for months a time when the rains and snows are coming down.

diakon radishes and turnips are great worm food, and i like the turnips as people food. parsnips, carrots, etc. all root crops will help put some holes down. fill them full of organic material and those are worm homes which give the worms places to hide during the hotter part of the summer and coldest parts of the winter.

any time you can chop and drop any green cover plants growing to encourage worm life then that pays off for future fertility.

if you are trying to restore a prairie it is often a good idea to do this once in a while just to make sure any dry standing grasses left over get a chance to be digested. kinda like a wildfire without the flames. if you time it you can do it to benefit the plants you want to encourage and to discourage weeds you don't want. it also can help out some bird species that may nest or forage in the grassland.

nature is so interesting, i can't ever get over how much more there is to learn...

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

arid/alkaline hard pan forms in low rainfall places with mineral soils because what little rain they get washes the dissolved minerals down only so far where they reform.

this is why arid climates can have such difficult soils on top and poor drainage below.

once you understand that life loves pH about 6-7 then learn about what tree roots and other plant roots do to bedrock (they give off acids to dissolve rock) you can begin to understand how to regenerate any climate on this planet where people can live. plant things, grow things, harvest things, but make sure you don't remove organic matter from the surface. keep it covered, keep growing things. the best plants to break through hardpan will be those with the deeper roots. alfalafa can put roots down a long ways given enough time. grape vines too. start with small trees, legumes, when they get so far chop them back, pile that around them and let them regrow, keep at it. in 5-10yrs you have shade and a windbreak and these trees will flower and attract wildlife, birdies bring in seeds and fertilizer of their own. next thing you know you have a food forest. in an arid climate where you manage your water you can perpetuate this system indefinitely.

just make sure you don't over pump your aquifer.

in MN, you're in no danger of that in most places. in Mid-Michigan we're not in danger of that either. we hardly touch the well most of the day for months a time when the rains and snows are coming down.

diakon radishes and turnips are great worm food, and i like the turnips as people food. parsnips, carrots, etc. all root crops will help put some holes down. fill them full of organic material and those are worm homes which give the worms places to hide during the hotter part of the summer and coldest parts of the winter.

any time you can chop and drop any green cover plants growing to encourage worm life then that pays off for future fertility.

if you are trying to restore a prairie it is often a good idea to do this once in a while just to make sure any dry standing grasses left over get a chance to be digested. kinda like a wildfire without the flames. if you time it you can do it to benefit the plants you want to encourage and to discourage weeds you don't want. it also can help out some bird species that may nest or forage in the grassland.

nature is so interesting, i can't ever get over how much more there is to learn...

Nice answer. Thanks. The daikons are certainly a new though that gave me a laugh. I've put down seeds for about 40 different species of prairire grasses and flowers, including deep rooted ones like leadplant and big bluestem, and am excited to see it change over the years.

I'm planning on building more garden beds this year and filling them in with compost and manure for with use this summer or next, after it sleeps for a winter.

Again, thanks for the post

 

[ducks4you]

horse manure tea recipe:

To get started, you need a 5-gallon bucket, a generous shovel full of pure manure and water. Put the manure in the bucket, then fill with water and mix vigorously. Allow it to sit covered for three days, stirring once each day. This allows time for nutrients to infuse the water and all the solids to separate.

The result is a liquid enriched with all but the organic matter from the manure. At this point, it may be too strong to apply to plants. Thin it with fresh water until the color is similar to that of iced tea, then apply without concern for burning. Till the residual organic matter into the soil or add it to your compost heap.


Avid organic growers with large gardens make their manure in 50-gallon drums. They keep the drum in the garden all the time, adding manure and water as they use the current supply. With such a large container, a gardener can dip a smaller bucket to water down the strong stuff. Repurpose an old, long-handled saucepan to ladle your tea from bucket to plant.

As the growing season rolls along, you may find your vegetable garden slowing down. This is because the original organic matter and fertilizer you tilled in have been used up. Manure tea is the perfect way to refuel your garden so it's geared up to take advantage of the cooler fall days.

If well fed, you can coax many plants, especially greens, to put on enough growth for a second harvest season. With a simple cuppa tea, they'll fill your salad bowl and stew pot until the first hard frosts.

Thought your might be interested.
I need to make some, but you don't have to have Fresh manure to do so. Horses will poo in the corners and edges of their pastures so that they can eat the middles. Therefore, the lushest grass is in the corners and the fencelines, and the middle suffers from lack of ferilizer. MY horses seeded their north pasture, that is, the original ones I brought to this property. It Had been a corn field. Right now, there is too much clover. I intend to create a manure dump site in my "inner sanctum" in front of the barn, so that I can till it up and fertilize with it. I kick my horses off of their pastures in the winter bc they tear them up running when the pasture are muddy. I am hoping to amply fertilize the north and south pastures early this winter, then overseed with pasture grass seed when we have some snow.
I intend to buy the seed end of season, when everything goes clearance.

 

[ducks4you]

Anyways, so every tree I plant I surround by a layer or two of cardboard, then i cover it with a few inches of manure. I also did the same for our raspberry and blueberry patches

I totally agree. My experience with cardboard is that exposure to elements breaks it down faster than I would have thought, and it certainly keeps weeds from sprouting. Adding manure on TOP, where it can seep down slowly after rain/snow is a great idea.
Dunno if it was Your idea or somebody else's, but I find that some of the best ideas I come up with really do work in the garden.
I have never been a "Garden Nazi"! You never know how something will work until you try.
I also believe that we garden for the sheer enjoyment of it, and should only comment if a fellow gardener is not happy with gardening, and might want to find a new hobby.
It's nice to think that we can Always get the plastic tape off of the boxes we use. I find that if you don't, you will be able to remove it later pretty easily.