Horse poo!

[Ness Hedley]

Hi there,

I've just moved back to England for a while and have built some new raised beds, which I'm now proudly filling with soil and manure.

Thing is I'm a bit unsure if the horse poo I've got is well-rotted wnough or not?
Is a good measure of this whether it still smells?

If anyone knows I'd be very grateful for advice! And also, what are the dangers of using manure that is too fresh?

Thanks,

Ness

[James Samuel]

Too fresh I wouldn't be concerned about, just don't apply too heavily or directly. I like to add my horse manure to my compost, it works wonders for the heap, and to my worm bin - they love it! If I use it directly it would be after a crop has come out and while adding mulch to the bed.

My only real concern around horse poo is I like to know when the horses were last "drenched" for worms, because if it is recent I could be carrying worm killing chemicals to my soil, compost and worm bin - not a good mix.

[Ness Hedley]

Thanks James. Most helpful!


James Samuel said:

Too fresh I wouldn't be concerned about, just don't apply too heavily or directly. I like to add my horse manure to my compost, it works wonders for the heap, and to my worm bin - they love it! If I use it directly it would be after a crop has come out and while adding mulch to the bed.

My only real concern around horse poo is I like to know when the horses were last "drenched" for worms, because if it is recent I could be carrying worm killing chemicals to my soil, compost and worm bin - not a good mix.

[Shona Cullen]

Hi Ness, Just remember to always wear gloves when handling horse poo as it has tectnis sprurs in it, but its great and I use it too.

[Robyn Wolfe]

I have bought a large rubbish bin from Bunnings ($15.00) and put the poo in there and filled with water. Leave for a fortnight to kill the seeds. Use the water - about 2 inches in the bottom of the watering can and water on.
Actuall I got an interesting bug in there which I found was a rat-tailed maggot which turns into a hover fly that eats aphids. A bonus!

[Shona Cullen]

Thanks Robyn I'm Going to try your way! Shona

[Ness Hedley]

Thanks for this tip. I'm definitely going to do it!



Robyn Wolfe said:

I have bought a large rubbish bin from Bunnings ($15.00) and put the poo in there and filled with water. Leave for a fortnight to kill the seeds. Use the water - about 2 inches in the bottom of the watering can and water on.
Actuall I got an interesting bug in there which I found was a rat-tailed maggot which turns into a hover fly that eats aphids. A bonus!

[Alison Gygax]

I use horse poo all the time too. We add it in large quantities to our compost heap then let it stand for 12 months to kill weed seeds. Also add it to raised beds as a BOTTOM layer over which I had a thick layer of topsoil/flourish into which we plant. Having great success with this. The thick layer smothers the weed seeds. Havnt tried it in my wormery but will try that and I had read about teh hazzards of worm drench in the poos.