FRESH MANURE

There is a very important drawback to using fresh manure: the rapid increase in bacteria robs nitrogen from the soil and plant growth can suffer .This is why it is not a good practise to add the manure directly onto your plot, and very important to the busy grower its full of weed seeds.

THE [MATURED] HUMUS MAKER

This is an organic material which has been composted [partly or completely broken down by bacteria action] or is free from fermentable starch or sugar. Examples are well rotted manure and garden compost. The advantage of using a [mature compost] is its long life in the soil and its preservation of soil nitrogen .A ‘raw’ humus maker is transformed into a ‘mature’ humus maker by composting. There is still need to add fertilisers to the soil as humus makers alone do not have enough plant food to sustain heavy feeding crops.

Average plant food in manure is around ½% nitrogen ¼% phosphates ½%potash . The usual time to apply manure is with the autumn digging one barrow-load per 10 sq yds.

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Comment by Darren Blick on October 9, 2012 at 22:26: Like you have noted Tony, the nutrients in Manure is minimal and is mainly only good for a soil conditioner

I always use well rotted manure but a friend used fresh and it killed all is tomatoes

Comment by Catherine on October 11, 2012 at 0:06: I got a load of fairly fresh horse manure about 6/7 months ago, I transferred smaller loads into my old compost bin(plastic) and covered the manure with an empty multi-purpose bag. It seems to have broken down very well as today I wanted to spread it on beds for over-wintering beds in the tunnel, and it just fell through the fork. I had to scoop it out with a bucket. Does this seem o.k.?

Comment by tony southall on October 11, 2012 at 12:50: Nothing wrong with that Cathrine,plus it has a few extra months before you sow or plant into it.