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Syracuse, NY

so here i am coming into my SIXTH growing season
and i am still lacking in soil-smarts.
i can just never seem to get myself around to doing
three or four soil tests and getting them sent out/received
in an appropriate time frame to be useful.
anyway, the manure i had delivered on Sunday was smoking
as it was getting spread onto the patches.
i had THOUGHT that this stuff had been basically
sitting around composting for all winter long, but it was not from the better of the two piles, from two different sources. i decided too late that the manure i WANTED was not the stuff coming off of the spreader;
i failed to specify which pile to get the stuff from.
never look a (gift horse) manure deliverer in the mouth;
he will not appreciate it!

sooooo, my question to you today is;
should i put fertilizer in my soil that has a higher
N content (available to me are: 27-0-0, ammonium nitrate?, and UREA, 46-0-0) than the other two constituents?
i do not HAVE to go nuts with this;
my patches have had manure added every spring (a mistake on my part) and my assumption is that the nutrients that have been in the soil since LAst year are now basically available to my plants, but i may be causing some problems by not using genuinely AGED manure 100%...
i can use as little or as much as is suggested,
at any rate or concentration, granular in nature----eric
PS---i am adding Ironite at probably twice the normal rate, unless suggested against, lol, and a couple areas may get the Bio-Grow Endo Plus mixed-in and probably two areas will get Mushroom Compost....everybody (4 patches, 8600 SF total) will get 10 lbs./1000 SF dried molasses and
probably 20lbs./1000 SF cornmeal. i just hope there are no deficiencies anywhere. any opinions appreciated! eric g

4/12/2006 5:44:28 PM

Billerica,Massachusetts

smoking means it's working! manure/compost piles heat up when they are being broken down by the microbes

4/13/2006 8:13:18 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Alot of time also if the manure was in a big pile. When they load it into the spreader they are allowing it to get air and it heats up fast.

4/13/2006 9:13:05 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Ditto...the pile was compsting (hot). Older manure won't do this since the compsosting process is largely complete.

Was this cow or horse?

The ammonium Nitrate should be 34-0-0 unless buffered with some calcium or similar. No matter....It is faster under cool soil conditions so this would be my preference over Urea.

Just go EASY with the added N. This smokin' manure you hda applied will be liberatinbg N all summer once the soil warms up. So you want the soluble stuff to be GONE by the time the manure N starts releasing.

4/13/2006 10:10:41 AM

Syracuse, NY

perhaps i will apply the 27-0-0 (if that is what the
concentration is) at half? the recommended rate?
like 5 lbs. per 100 will now be 2.5 lbs per 100 SF.
i agree---i do not want to add too much, and
it would be a bummer to have really late pollinations if
the N was too high for too long. i am hoping to have my patches till middle of next week, so that'll give the
soil a least a little time to do its thing. once i get the soil TILLED, also, i can then put up a sprinkler over each plant, enabling me to water the heck out of the immediate area around each plant---each plant would probably be
shielded a little to keep it from being watered too much itself. not only this, but i know Joel Holland actually puts calcium nitrate all around the planting site (20 ft. circle?) probably TO facilitate a rapid plant growth, but only up until the plant reaches that diameter. by then
it might be pollination time. so, i guess i am not terribly worried just yet, and thanks for your inputs! eric g
BTW---it is Horsey Poo, lol.....

4/13/2006 7:50:11 PM

Syracuse, NY

tilled

4/13/2006 7:50:44 PM