# Horse manure as a good garden compost?.🤔🤔🤔



## jkim13 (Oct 22, 2022)

I have used horse manure as a garden compost for quite a long time.
No other commercial compost or fertilizer but only well rotten horse compost.
Definitely., I recommend rotten horse manure as a good garden compost.
Jkk


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## jkim13 (Oct 23, 2022)

Actually horse manure contains not only manure but rice straw and some dirt also that makes good compost once well-rotted especially nitrogen.


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## Ethobling (Oct 23, 2022)

I've always believed any manure, properly composted, is great. Use what you have available and it will enrich the ground.


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## jolj (Oct 23, 2022)

If you are using any compost for the first time, ask the owners if they use herbicides in their field or hay.
A few people had to move their garden until the weed killer was filtered out by rain from old garden.
The horse manure I use is rotted & the owner use it on his garden, so I have no problem.
I have used cow, pig, chicken, rabbit* & horse manures for years, with no problem.
I have used coffee chaff, hay, pine & wheat straw, leaves & grass chipping also.
I just want you to be aware of the small chance that your manure could be a bad thing.


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## Ethobling (Oct 23, 2022)

One slow, but very effective way to build your soil are wood chips. I get them for free from the electric company since they clear around the lines and need a place to dump the chips. It's usually mixed, but last time I got almost a whole truck of hardwood chips.

Let the pile naturally compose in the pile they leave. Then, lay it on a foot thick and let it break down further. Don't till it in until it has had a good opportunity to break down, or it will temporarily rob nitrogen from the soil as the microbes break down the wood. With wood chips, I've had the best garden soil quality I've ever had. The best thing is it's free and easy and it also helps keep the weeds away. Just watch out for the occasional ant colony they may chip up.


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## Del_ (Oct 23, 2022)

Leaves are great!

Till them in in the fall. 

Manures are good to. 

Rabbit manure can be used as a side dressing.


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## Lawless (Nov 12, 2022)

Last winter I put 20 yards of 3 year old cow poop on my garden. The area is 55x75. This was absolutely the best year ever. It almost worked me to death. I will be doing it again this year.


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## jkim13 (Nov 12, 2022)

Lawless said:


> Last winter I put 20 yards of 3 year old cow poop on my garden. The area is 55x75. This was absolutely the best year ever. It almost worked me to death. I will be doing it again this year.
> 
> 
> View attachment 1031527
> ...


Wow!!!
It looks so yummy.. 
Thank you for sharing


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## Mad Professor (Nov 12, 2022)

Hell yes.

I had a friend at a farm who never used "bad wormer", that wormer will kill earthworms.

He would dump loads of manure free. Springtime I'd use the tractor to put down ~6" on the whole garden, then plow/harrow it under.

Coop ext service did a soil test, said lots of organic matter and medium on nitrogen which will come up greatly as soon as spring and microbes let loose nitrogen. Nothing at all needed.


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## skeet88 (Nov 12, 2022)

Years ago we had a couple of horses and a donkey. I liked using the manure from the donkey since he pooped in the same spot whereas the horses pooped all over the field. Call me lazy !


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## Pepster (Nov 12, 2022)

Had a farmer tell me to try horse manure on my strawberries so I did.
I didnt like it at all!
I went back to whip cream!


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## jkim13 (Nov 13, 2022)

Making Kimchi from the garden grows napa cabbage and horse manure only for fertilizing.
Harvest the napa cabbages from the garden.

Kimchi is a fermented food that is naturally rich in probiotics (good bacteria for your digestive system).
It is the most famous Korean food for thousands of years.

kimchi is also a good source of many vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, folate, iron, and manganese.

Highly recommended 
Jkk


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## jolj (Nov 13, 2022)

jkim13 said:


> Making Kimchi from the garden grows napa cabbage and horse manure only for fertilizing.
> Harvest the napa cabbages from the garden.
> 
> Kimchi is a fermented food that is naturally rich in probiotics (good bacteria for your digestive system).
> ...



Is Napa hard to grow or harder to grow than European cabbage, which came first from the Middle East.


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## sand sock (Nov 13, 2022)

Not a fan of horse manure in wood shavings. It takes to long to break down, especially with heavy clay soil.

Right now I am using thick wet cow manure, mixed into used straw bedding. If you strive for a 50/50 mix of carbon to nitrogen and the weather temperature is right. I can compost down truck loads at a time in 30 days. Once it starts cooking down stir it up and add more.


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## Bill G (Nov 16, 2022)

There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.

Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and does not have weed seed issues.


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## jolj (Nov 16, 2022)

Bill G said:


> There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.
> 
> Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and does not have weed seed issues.


The horse manure my son chopped into the soil at his rent property, has grown all the vegetables he planted without mulch or a flurry weeds. Matter fact, I saw very few weeds in the bed, but the tomatoes where massive & could have shaded out all the weeds in one end of the bed. He only used one trailer load in the 4' X 16' bed. Maybe the horse manure was well rotted & the heat killed the grass & weed seeds. I like poultry manure, but rabbit is best I have every used.


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## jkim13 (Nov 17, 2022)

jolj said:


> The horse manure my son chopped into the soil at has rent property, has grown all the vegetables he planted without mulch or a flurry weeds. Matter fact, I saw very few weeds in the bed, but the tomatoes where massive & could have shaded out all the weeds in one end of the bed. He only used one trailer load in the 4' X 16' bed. Maybe the horse manure was well rotted & the heat killed the grass & weed seeds. I like poultry manure, but rabbit is best I have every used.


Correct.

I don't use any fresh (raw) horse manure for compost but let it rot for more than 1 1/2 years or so with good heat.

I don't have much of a weed problems.


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## farmer steve (Nov 17, 2022)

jolj said:


> If you are using any compost for the first time, ask the owners if they use herbicides in their field or hay.
> A few people had to move their garden until the weed killer was filtered out by rain from old garden.
> The horse manure I use is rotted & the owner use it on his garden, so I have no problem.
> I have used cow, pig, chicken, rabbit* & horse manures for years, with no problem.
> ...


This is one of the things that are talked about in my vegetable grower meetings. Some horse people are picky and want weed free hay. The hay growers use some herbicides that take up to 3 years to break down even when composted. Look up N-P-K values for different types of animal manure to see what you are getting for nutrient values.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 19, 2022)

i have a sidewalk border project going on. this area seems to not encourage the border plants growth, despite being hardy. some other areas grows like weeds. so i am using a mixture of full composted bios, black cow and the orig top soil... i had thot of all compost as i have a lot of it. but trying the 1/3/1/3 1/3 mix.


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## muddstopper (Nov 19, 2022)

I use to use a lot of horse manure in my garden. My brother raised racking horses and always had plenty. I never let the manure completely compost. Once fully composted, the npk will be around .5/.5/.5. Of course, the manure was mixed with wood chips in the stalls so a little high nitrogen green manure worked just fine. I always would side dress on plants already growing and only mixed the manure into the soil at the end of growing season. I also used a lot of right of way mulch. I would let the power company dump on my property, sometimes a 100 loads or more, and use my tractor to turn the piles whenever the mood struck me. I would pour the wood mulch between the rows, 6 or 8 inches deep. Keeps the weeds down. In the fall, everything got tilled into the soil. I have grown taters big as footballs, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.


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## sean donato (Nov 19, 2022)

Bill G said:


> There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.
> 
> Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and does not have weed seed issues.


We compost the pine shavings and straw from the chicken coop, whatever green waste from the kitchen, wood junk from splitting ect. Takes a long time for it to start to break down, but turns out some nice compost. I used some horse manure the other year from a neighbor, but I'll likely get cow manure this spring off my cousin. We're slowly getting the nasty red clay broken up into some nice black dirt. Chicken have been the biggest help. The scratch and poop all over.


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## jolj (Nov 20, 2022)

Best tomatoes I grew in sixty-one years were in a eight foot X eight foot pen we kelp finishing pigs in.
The next spring, no pig, so I planted the tomatoes in eight inches of rotten pig manure.
The second best was where the cow would pull hay out between slats & drop half of the hay then walk it in the mud & manure.
Next year I planted a 6 foot X 30 foot bed of vegetables, tomatoes did best, was picking tomatoes in an Indian summer in November. Then I read a article on putting to much compost in your garden & had to laugh.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 20, 2022)

muddstopper said:


> I use to use a lot of horse manure in my garden. My brother raised racking horses and always had plenty. I never let the manure completely compost. , sometimes a 100 loads or more, and use my tractor to turn the piles whenever the mood struck me. I would pour the wood mulch between the rows, 6 or 8 inches deep. Keeps the weeds down. In the fall, everything got tilled into the soil.* I have grown taters big as footballs, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.*


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 20, 2022)

muddstopper said:


> I have grown taters big as footballs, Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.


i'd be skeptical, but this one grew so big they made a hotel out of it!!


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 20, 2022)

muddstopper said:


> , Maters that would cover a paper plate, and green beans by the bushel in a 20ft row.


who am i to say a bit of a stretch... lol


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## muddstopper (Nov 20, 2022)

Backyard Lumberjack said:


> i'd be skeptical, but this one grew so big they made a hotel out of it!!
> 
> View attachment 1033529



I didnt actually put a tape measure on those taters, but that little one in your picture is about half the size of what I grew
.


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## muddstopper (Nov 20, 2022)

Backyard Lumberjack said:


> who am i to say a bit of a stretch... lol
> 
> View attachment 1033530


German Johnson ?


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## John Lyngdal (Nov 20, 2022)

We have two horses at home and the garden is the end location for the aged compost.
If you have an equestrian center nearby, they often have an excess of compost and due to the nature of the business, the compost will have a high sawdust content which helps keep the ground loose for root crops.


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## jolj (Nov 20, 2022)

I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.


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## pasc1947 (Nov 20, 2022)

skeet88 said:


> Years ago we had a couple of horses and a donkey. I liked using the manure from the donkey since he pooped in the same spot whereas the horses pooped all over the field. Call me lazy !


Lived two places, one neighbor had donkeys another had horses, best source of fishing worms ever!


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## muddstopper (Nov 20, 2022)

jolj said:


> I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.


I had to give up trying to grow water melons. I live on a hill and the melons would get loose and roll down to the highway and block traffic.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 21, 2022)

muddstopper said:


> German Johnson ?


?


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 21, 2022)

John Lyngdal said:


> We have two horses at home and the garden is the end location for the aged compost.
> If you have an equestrian center nearby, they often have an excess of compost and due to the nature of the business, the compost will have a high sawdust content which helps keep the ground loose for root crops.


i used to get some from the polo center... take all u want!


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 21, 2022)

jolj said:


> I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Nov 21, 2022)

muddstopper said:


> I had to give up trying to grow water melons. I live on a hill and the melons would get loose and roll down to the highway and block traffic.


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## farmer steve (Nov 21, 2022)

jolj said:


> I guess now the time to talk about my hundred pound Watermelon.


The guy I used to buy peaches from when I had my market stopped one day. Wanted to know if I had room in my cooler to put a watermelon in. He said he had a big one to enter the fair in a couple of weeks. Sure. Took both of us all we could do to carry it in and out. Right around 150 lbs IIRC. Him and his brother also grew them whopper pumpkins.


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## muddstopper (Nov 21, 2022)

Backyard Lumberjack said:


> ?








How to Grow German Johnson Tomatoes


How to Grow German Johnson Tomatoes. The German Johnson tomato is an heirloom variety from West Virginia that turns deep red-pink as it ripens on the vine. This open-pollinated tomato takes 78 to 80 days from the time it is transplanted out in the garden to produce its tasty one-pound beefsteak...




homeguides.sfgate.com


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## muddstopper (Nov 21, 2022)

Backyard Lumberjack said:


>


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## jollygreengiant (Nov 30, 2022)

Bill G said:


> There are some factors that have not been brought up. What do horses eat? Of course primarily grass during the growing season and hay on the off season. Many horse owners are picky about the hay they feed but no matter how picky they are hay still contains some grass and weed seed. Horses are not great digesters and the manure will contain weed seed. Manure from cattle that are fed hay is even worse. They will both work but you may have greater weed pressure.
> 
> Hog and poultry manure is higher in nutrient value per pound and* does not have weed seed issues.*



This is actually false. I can show you many instances of where hog or poultry manure has introduced weed seeds into places where they didn't exist before. Velvetleaf is a prime example. 

Manure is probably the best additive you can use but you need to be careful about where you get it. If you get it from a farm that is using a lot of imported feed ingredients, your likely going to have weed issues.


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## muddstopper (Dec 4, 2022)

jollygreengiant said:


> This is actually false. I can show you many instances of where hog or poultry manure has introduced weed seeds into places where they didn't exist before. Velvetleaf is a prime example.
> 
> Manure is probably the best additive you can use but you need to be careful about where you get it. If you get it from a farm that is using a lot of imported feed ingredients, your likely going to have weed issues.


I dont know if I want to agree with you about the weed seeds or not. All my horse poop came from my brothers barn. His hores are racking horses he shows all summer so they are kept in stalls. Store bought feed and local grown hay are all they see. I seem to have more weed problems from cow manure than I ever do from horse poop. CuckleBurrs is the worst culprit.


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## jolj (Dec 4, 2022)

Cuckleburr is a bad one seeds can live in soil for years.


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## olyman (Dec 5, 2022)

jolj said:


> Cuckleburr is a bad one seeds can live in soil for years.


well over thirty,, ask any farmer,,,,,buttonweed also


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