confused over compost, manure and feeding help!

lindseykim13

have been growing veggies at home since last year and all i ever did was buy some compost and pot them up did feed the toms with some fertilliser, but i want to have a go properly this year as i have my new allotment. I have earthed up a patch and added some manure then planted my potato seeds, will they be ok? do i need to feed them anything else now before i harvest.

What about my other patches will raking in some manure be enough to give the seedlings/crops the nutrients they need or should i also be adding compost and feeding reg?

Does manure do the same thing as compost? i thought i could save myself the cash of buying compost by making my own which i am and adding manure to it (which is free lol) is that the right thing to do or are they completly diff things?

thanks

mrs_baggins

I am no expert but will say what I think! compost and manure CAN be the same thing but it depends what you mean by compost! do you mean the stuff you make yurself or sometimes people refer to compost as the growbag type stuff which isnt the same thing. If you have horsey poo then thats great but it has to be stored for about 6 months first cos if you put it on fairly fresh it will burn the plants and probably kill them off.

Some plants like manurey type stuff but some plants prefer no manure. For instance I am going to grow some squash and they will have as much poo as you like !

lindseykim13

i pick up horse manure when i can and have dug it into the ground in prep it's already been rotting for a while as it looks pretty composty itself. I also have a compost bin at home which gets the kitchen scraps etc. I'm really after soe advice on what i should be putting in my allotment patches (i'm digging in small patches/plots) should i be digging in manure or compost or both? or would one be ok without the other if that makes sence? i want stuff to actually grow after all the digging i've done so far. is it a good idea to spray anything on during growing like plant fertilliser etc, at the mo i have pototos down there and want to plant onions next. Prob is i have only just taken the plot on so how can i get the soil ready quickly for planting?

A._Badger

As mrs baggins says, it depends what you mean by 'compost'. If you mean the rotted down remains of organic material then, yes, it does have some nutrient value, but mostly what you are adding with compost is humus - which is incredibly valuable, but not necessarily enough to help your crops to grow at their best.

Much the same is true of manure, though it often has a higher nutrient value. Then again, you need to be aware that, as an organic material, it can be hard to know what the exact components of a particular batch are.

If your soil is good, you might be able to get away with adding very little in the way of fertiliser (as opposed to compost or manure) for flowers, but most heavy crops, such as vegetables or fruit, will require something extra. If you are of the organic persuasion, there are various organically-based fertilisers on offer (pelleted chicken manure, for example, and - though not strictly organic - blood, fish and bone). For those less bothered about such things a good, cheap, compound like Growmore, or Vitax Q4, will do just fine.

If you ever decide to specialise, you may want to look into the weird and wonderful world of individual fertilisers, but for the most part, the use of good compound fertiliser in addition to the source of humus of your choice will be needed to get the best results.

Hope that helps.

htjo

The whole idea of adding manure or whatever variety and HM compost is to improve the quality of your soil, increase its water retain qualities and help it become much more crumbly. It will also add some nutrients but probably not quite all you need.

Nettle/comfrey tea work well as an all round fertilizer and its free! Just put some nettles/comfrey in a bucket/water buut and leave it for a few weeks - there you have some free fertilizer! (if you are doing it in a bucket, you'll need to dilute it).

On my plot the soil is highly variable and very heavy (clay) the areas that have had 2/3 years worth of manure/HM Compost/soil improver are much better than the areas that have had only one dose. I now its going to take years to look anything like the chaps that have been on the site 'forever' - but I will keep trying and every year it will improve.

all the best

lindseykim13

thanks think i've got what i'm going to do, turn the ground and dig in some well rotted manure then use my compost as a feed throughout their growing, hope it works ok like that.

Zazen999

Hi Lindsey

Don't want to stop you in your tracks; but if you want to grow carrots/parsnips; they don't like manure at all. They'll fork if you put manure in. Most other stuff is ok with well rotted manure.

Make sure any manure that you do use is well rotted; and use your compost as a mulch. I'd say you might still have to fertilise esp if we have a particularly wet spring/summer as the goodness can get washed away.

i use manure for soil prep; compost for mulching and bulking up beds, and fertilise every fortnight.

note: compost and the stuff in growbags are not the same thing; growbags have a large amount of manure in them; which is why a small bag can sustain toms/cukes on it's own.

A._Badger

Zazen is right - perhaps if your soil had had barrowloads of manure added for many years, you'd get away without adding extra fertiliser (though, even then, probably only for a while if you are growing vegetables).

You might get crops without, but you would get much better ones if you added fertiliser as well - organic or not, is up to you - but something extra will be required to get the best results.

vfairbrass

Zazen999 wrote: »

Make sure any manure that you do use is well rotted; and use your compost as a mulch.

Our allotment has a weekly delivery of fresh straw/horse manure from the local stables. I imagine it is cleaned out of the horses's stables and not rotted down at all.
What can this mixture be used for? Looking at other allotments around my site the mix is just being placed directly on top of the soil but are the owners using this as a mulch?
After the last delivery I collected some for my own site and am now not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions gratefully received.
Valerie

Zazen999

vfairbrass wrote: »

Our allotment has a weekly delivery of fresh straw/horse manure from the local stables. I imagine it is cleaned out of the horses's stables and not rotted down at all.
What can this mixture be used for? Looking at other allotments around my site the mix is just being placed directly on top of the soil but are the owners using this as a mulch?
After the last delivery I collected some for my own site and am now not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions gratefully received.
Valerie

chuck it in a pile and wait for it to rot down; if you already have a compost heap; put it on there. It will heat up and speed up the full compost process.

Lotus-eater

I doubt they are using the hot manure directly on top of veg beds, if they are I'm not sure at all what they are using it for. As Zazen says composting for a year is best and it will really make your compost super dooper

Found this for you
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/faqs.php?id=103