Garden Fertilizer

[stano40]

Around our backyard farm I have lots of fresh rabit, goat & mini-horse manure.

I was wondering if the veggie plants, especially my hot pepper plants, in the garden would get the benefits of nitrogen and other nutrients from fresh manure if once its laid between the rows off veggie's and then rototilled into the soil.

bob

 

[Jared77]

Rabbit & goat manure are considered "cold manures" and can be directly applied near your plants fresh and allowed to break down. Friend of mine has both goats & rabbits and regularly tosses/scatters it on their garden to work it's magic.

From what I understand horse manure needs to broken down if your going to use it on your garden. I've used it in the past and it makes a big difference but I dug down into the pile before I used it. A coworker of mine spreads it on her garden after the growing seasons over and let's it breakdown all winter long then tills it under in the spring for next years planting with very good results.

Hope this helps &

 

[stano40]

Thanks and yes it does help. Hope others respond to let me know how they used and if it was successful.

I really want to use for the hot pepper plants seeing they need nitrogen,

bob

 

[so lucky]

I'm thinking of getting a rabbit just for the black gold.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't use the horse manure directly. It's too high in nitrogen; it needs to break down first so compost it. Plus it is probably full of grass and weed seeds. Again composting will kill a lot of those.

I know rabbit manure is OK to go straight on the garden so use that. I wasn't aware goat manure was that way too but I trust Jared. He generally knows what he is talking about.

 

[Jared77]

Thank you Ridgerunner I appreciate that.

From my understanding goat, sheep, rabbit llama & alpaca are all safe to be directly applied. Horse, cow, and pig need to be composted because the nitrogen content is too high.

The thing is yes they need it but if it's too rich your not doing yourself any favors either.

 

[bobm]

For what it is worth... I had 33 head of horses , 12 were in stalls, the rest of the mares and foals out on pasture. I cleaned the stalls every day, then spread their little apple offerings ( together with a few wood shavings mixed with horse urine) out in the pasture. Pasture grasses grow 2-3 times as fast and as green as can be. I also spread that manure around all of my ornamental as well as fruit trees, not to mention all over the garden. It seems to give the crops a huge boost in vegetative growth and then produce yield. So, I must have done something wrong ? There is also a pretty large Throughbred breeding facility ( 106 horse stalls) that breeds 250- 300 mare per year about 10 miles away. Crew cleans the stalls every day, placing the manure into a manure spreader, then when full, spread it out onto the next door neighbor's vineyard / their own pastures. I guess that this practice is also a no no ?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different manures have different strengths of nitrogen. Some can burn certain plants. I've killed tomato plants with chicken manure, trying to put it near as a side-dressing but not touching. It somehow got too close.

Different manures can, maybe, possibly, sometimes kill plants or stunt them. Some plants are a lot more susceptible to being burned by manure. I find cucurbits are really risky and obviously tomatoes are not safe. If you can keep the manure in between the rows it is not as likely to cause problems as if it is closer to the plants. How thick you put it makes a difference too.

Spreading manure on a pasture field anytime has been a standard practice for thousands of years. With a pasture the grass may be burned a little (you can sometimes see yellowed grass where a cow drops a load so it can harm even grass) but that grass comes back so fast with all that good nitrogen you're not likely to notice even if you pile it pretty thick. Spread it anywhere in the fall so it has time to break down is standard practice. Many of us empty our chicken coops in the fall directly in the garden. By planting time it has broken down.

The question was not about grass or a vineyard. It was about a garden, specifically peppers. Certain manures can and do kill certain garden plants. Peppers are one you need to be careful with. The simple uncomplicated answer is to not use a hot manure in a garden on peppers. There are places where you can use hot manures. There are places you can use cold manures. There are times and places you should not use hot manures. With most of the plants in garden hot manures are risky.