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United Kingdom

Just a thought !
I was outside my house last night thinking about all things pumpkin related when something occured to me.
I live in England and the victorians used to use a method to grow exotic fruit and veg in our (not so warm) climate
They would dig a pit about 4 feet deep and place about a foot of fresh manure in it, Followed by soil and then plant bananas, pineapples in it.
The manure as it decomposed would heat up the entire bed.
I`m not talking nutrition here. I know about fresh manure versus aged but was wondering what people thought about this.
Could it be a worthwhile exercise to heat up a mound with this method prior to planting ?

ps,Just in case I don`t post again before. I hope you all have a great and peaceful Christmas and a succesful new year.
PJGOLF (Pete)

12/19/2007 7:14:23 AM

Rhode Island

pete

thats a good old fashioned method if you have no other means of warming the initial plant area during cooler early season planting.

we dont use fresh manure anyehare in the patch ,even during fall prep because while the breakdown of fresh manure will create some heat? it also ties up all the nitrogen in the area while its breaking down. which can hinder healthy plant growth

we would rather use a inground heating cable and/or articicial heating device inside the protective mini greenhouse

12/19/2007 8:04:30 AM

Little-TON - Colorado

Hey PJ

Sent your Bubble out Monday. Grow'em BIG

12/19/2007 8:25:03 AM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Pete,

Alun Jones used to do that check out his old diaries.

12/19/2007 8:29:24 AM

Minnesota

Put any question you have in the site search in the top right corner of this page, theres all kind of valuable information there.

12/19/2007 9:01:06 AM

Farmville, Virginia ([email protected])

Yeah, if we all do that we can do away with the message boards! Sure would open up some space on the site.:<(

12/19/2007 4:30:02 PM