Manures and the garden

[Mrs. Mucket]

Can anyone give an idea of how various manures can be used in the garden? Like which ones should never be used, which ones need to age first, which ones can be put directly in the garden?

I'm especially wondering about pig manure, as I have heard that it should never be used and also that you can plant right after taking a pig out of the garden area.

 

[patandchickens]

AFAIK the main knock against pig manure is that it is more likely than others to carry parasites/pathogens that can be shared by humans. But, I do not know anything whatsoever about it from personal experience.

Most people would say "never" to use dog or cat droppings in a food garden (or, for the finicky, any garden), as again they share parasites/pathogens with humans.

As for OTHER manures, for sure horse manure is apt to be the weediest unless the horse(s) were eating ONLY pure alfalfa hay and/or pellets (not grain). A lot of seeds go thru the horse still viable, and also some actual hay tends to be often mixed in with the manure. I try real hard not to use horse manure in the garden unless it is either buried beyond a depth I'd normally disturb the soil, or has composted fairly hot and for AT LEAST a year.

CHicken manure is never weedy but is one of the most unbalanced of all manures in terms of nitrogen content vs other elements, so needs to be used a bit thoughtfully and generally composted first with some high-C content material to "take the edge off it" so to speak.

Rabbit, goat, sheep and camelid manure can by reputation be put directly on the garden as they are pretty well-balanced in C:N content.

Cow manure, it depends what the cows were eating but it generally is composted first with some additional high-C material.

Fishtank water is good for plants when you do a gravel vacuuming and water change, if that counts as "manure"

Pat

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

a great resource is Gene Logsdon's book, Holy Sh*t (you read that right)

here on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-****-Managing-Manure-Mankind/dp/1603582517

and his spectacular blog:
http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/

good luck!