Just broke ground on a fallow field of weed trash, now should I fertilize?

[thistlebloom]

This is my naive opinion and completely non scientific reply that flies in the face of good sense and garden wisdom. Use the stuff. Plant your garden, take notes. Don't miss out on a year of garden while you're waiting to build good soil. You'll only be another year older.
The amount of shavings may be huge compared to actual manure, but it may not either. If the stalls get picked daily then the manure pile is mostly that. Not every stable owner keeps scrupulously clean stalls, some clean when the manure has really built up, and then strip the stalls and start over.

My coop shavings go right in the garden in the fall. My horse manure too. I know, shavings take a lot of time to break down and tie up nitrogen while they're doing it. But I'm generally pretty happy with what's growing and it looks healthy, so to me it's not an issue.

I guess this means I don't get the model gardener award this year huh?

 

[seedcorn]

@thistlebloom I would do the same BUT I would use a nitrogen source to feed the microbes and hurry the process. Since he isn't going to, I would only use it as a mulch.

 

[MontyJ]

I would like to see a close up picture of it myself.

 

[bobm]

Unless you have money to burn when lighting your cigar while completely stripping each "ideal State Fair Horse Stall " daily
... as every day horsemen , most of us pick the manure piles along with a small amount of urine soaked wood shavings with a manure fork out of the stalls for a week or two ( depending on the weather conditions as well as how long the horse stays in it's stall per day ) until the rest of the shavings get some urine moisture to be of much good for the horse . I then take this "fresh" load of manure directly into the garden, around trees, and / or the pasture . Then I strip the stalls of urine moistened wood shavings once a week and spread it directly out into the pasture where the pasture grasses grow just fine too. I have done this for 40 +/- years in a row without any detrimental issues to the plants but they grow in leaps and bounds. Since I haven't read the book that advises to only use well composted manure only lately, but rely on my personal observations and experiences, my guess is like thistle's , I won't get the " model gardener " award of the year either.

 

[baymule]

raising hand..... I too am guilty of using fresh horse manure directly on the garden......not holding scoop shovel under the horse's tail.......but pretty darn close....

 

[seedcorn]

Horse manure is not loaded with nitrogen as chicken or hog manure would be.

@bobm I'm sure you agree spreading wood shavings on top doesn't bring same problems as tilling it into a garden you're trying to establish.

 

[MontyJ]

Let me be clear. I'm not against using horse manure in the garden. I'm cautioning against using manure from a stable that is so loaded with sawdust and bedding that it can actually do great damage to the soil for several years.

 

[bobm]

Horse manure is not loaded with nitrogen as chicken or hog manure would be.

@bobm I'm sure you agree spreading wood shavings on top doesn't bring same problems as tilling it into a garden you're trying to establish.

True ! The shavings that come from a stall that are either soaked with urine and/ or have at least quite a bit of urine in them, so they do not rob the soil of nitrogen unlike those folks that use the stall shavings for one day in a stall and then out the door. The former act as mulch for only a bit longer than the actual manure while they decompose , while the latter decompose at leasure.

 

[bobm]

Let me be clear. I'm not against using horse manure in the garden. I'm cautioning against using manure from a stable that is so loaded with sawdust and bedding that it can actually do great damage to the soil for several years.

So glad that you cleared this up Monty ! There is nothing wrong with using fresh horse manure since Mother Nature had used it every day for millions of years and all in her domain are thriving.

 

[bobm]

By the way ... There is a 72 stall horse boarding facility with riding arenas 13 miles from our ranch . They have a cleaning crew that removes just horse manure + urine soaked wood shavings onto a manure wagon then using a tractor hauls the manure across the road and spreads fresh manure out the back of the wagon onto a commercial vinyard ( with drip irrigation ) all day 365 days a year. Each day they only strip out 10 stalls of manure plus all shavings every 7 days on rotation so each stall is completely cleaned out every 7 days.