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Buffalo, Minnesota

Hi all i have been dibating wheather i should use chicken manure that is readily available to me, since i raise chickens, i must have about 4 to 5 yards of the stuff, im thinking of just using this stuff this year because it is gonna be hard for me to get large amounts of horse manure, since we got rid of our horses last fall, (they were taking up to much pasture space, which could be valuable pumpkin turf space,lol just kidding), anyway what do you all think about using streight chicken manure? of course with the amendments of leaves too?

3/12/2001 11:41:06 PM

Deer Park WA

Wildbill, hi! The chicken manure is super high in nitro. If you have had horses near the patch zone in the recent past you probably have lots of manure/NPK in the planting site already. My Grandfather (in the Wa. Okanogan) always spread around 1' to 2" of chicken manure/nesting straw over his garden plots, and plowed it all under about 1 month before planting. Biggest tomatoes you ever saw!
P.S We ate all the Curcibites.

3/13/2001 12:19:47 AM

Buffalo, Minnesota

Well i guesss i will just have to pour the chicken manure on then, i mean dump it on, ~Bill

3/14/2001 1:37:34 AM

PA

I attended the Ohio Valley Pumpkin Growers seminar last weekend and learned alot, chicken manure is fine, as are the other non meat eating animals manure. I would be cautious though about adding fresh in the spring. At the seminar they said its hard to put on to much manure but the key is to pile it on in the fall. I know I sort of ran out of time last fall, I did get some on but I'm going to add some old manure and alot of mushroom soil this spring, these things have already broken down a bit. I guess the question is how old is your chicken manure, I hope some of the more experienced growers can help you out with deciding how fresh is to fresh. hope this helps

3/17/2001 10:05:31 AM

Connecticut, USA

Be sure to check out the new article in the "How To" section about manure.

3/17/2001 1:11:10 PM

Dagsboro DE

i know that chicken manure has some kind of magic power b/c you can grow anything in that stuff. i got 8 chicken houses of that stuff. Also i grow howden pumpkins for wholesale market. Chicken manure is all i have ever use and i always have great size and green leaves thoughout the patch. Anybody wants to place orders for wholesale email me at [email protected] plantin 40arces

3/19/2001 10:26:46 PM

CT

Everyone seems to be touting the benefits of chicken manure. We have also see horse, beef, dairy, and swine mentioned. Here's our question -- Has anyone used goat or rabbit manure. We're hoping there is something good to be found in it since that is what we have access to. The person we will be getting it from uses a product called "Woody Pet" for bedding. It is an absorbant extruded wood product. Of course, that means this will be mixed in as well. We can get either aged or fresh manure. BTW, we also enhanced our planting site with topsoil, peatmoss, composted cow manure, and limestone last fall. We planted a cover crop of winter rye which has just started to peak through. Any insight would be appreciated.

3/20/2001 3:49:16 PM

southern MN

I have never written a manure management plan for rabbits so I have no idea what the nutrient content would be. However, goats manure content would be 4% N, 2% P, 4% K of straight manure with no bedding. Be careful of woody bedding such as this because as it decomposes it will tie up a large portion of your nutrients and release them at a later date. So if possible go for the aged (already composted) material. Otherwise you will have increase your fertilizer rates to compensate for the uptake of nutrients by the breaking down of the woody products (mainly Nitrogen)

Rabbit manure will give benefits I just don't know how much.

Another option would be to start a compost pile with the rabbit/goat/bedding mixture and sidedress the plant with the compost later in the year.

3/20/2001 5:16:09 PM

southern MN

Here is another thought to think of when you have a choice of manure. Viability of weed seed in the manure. Cattle are the worst when it comes to allowing weed seed to pass through the digestive tract. In some cases up to 25% of some weed seed will remain viable in cattle manure.

Hogs are the next worst offender, while poultry does a fairly good job of destroying weed seed (only up to 2% will remain viable).

So if you are stuck with only cattle manure try to get it from a dairy and then only from the "milked" cows instead of the "dry" cows because they tend to get the better quality hay.

If all else fails; compost and maintain a temp of 130 degrees in your pile for several days this will destroy most of the remaining seed.

3/22/2001 11:48:29 AM

Commack, NY

acutally, horses are the worst offenders. i'm pretty sure horses dont chew there cud like cows do, so alot of it passes through. cows chew there cud, so i think alot of it gets digested. i've used cow in the past and didnt' notice a large increase in the amount of weeds i had

scott

3/22/2001 1:42:01 PM

walton n.y.

i think any well rotted manure is good for soil tilth it's the fresh stuff you've got to watch in the fall a local farmer sprays cattle slurry on the garden it releases it's nutrients quickly and a horrid oder as well but does little to add organic matter

3/23/2001 10:12:38 AM

southern MN

For Riverview School Kids: After some research, Rabbit manure contains 1-2% N; .6-1% P2O5; and .3-1.5% K2O. All of the percentages are based on the total weight of the manure (ie ten pounds of manure will contain 1 to 2 pounds of N)

3/29/2001 11:44:23 AM

Rush, NY

Riverview School Kids: Watch out for Wango's Math. When I went to school many years ago, 1 to 2% of 10 pounds 0.1 to 0.2 pounds.

3/29/2001 11:54:43 AM

southern MN

Oops I meant 100 lbs of manure, fingers don't always type what brain is thinking

3/29/2001 4:17:53 PM