Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] Re:Horse manure in garden - safety?

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re:Horse manure in garden - safety?
  • Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:48:44 -0500

Craig wrote:

I got enthusiastic and went to the stable and dug from their pile old manure. I can not tell you the age, but it was visibly steaming and was a rich black color. No evidence of the wood chips and poop which it was formed by.

I would use it, but you've got genuine horse people on this list, so I would go by what they say.  My primary source of manure is a horse boarding stable and after you've done this for awhile, you can tell what in the pile is compost and what is a bit too young to be sure.  Since I use a boarding stable, the ratio of straw to horse apples is a bit higher than if the horses are all owned on-site as the clients want to see that the stable that *their* horse is in is "clean."

If you are going to play with horse manure, you do need to have your tetanus shots up to date -- my doctor has me on the 7 year plan, rather than the 10 year plan since I use so much of it.

 
I lightly top dressed my garden which now has leeks in it which I still wish to eat, and has garlic in it which was fall planted and are perhaps 4 - 6 inches high. I will harvest the garlic in June. With the latest health scares, I am wondering.... are the leeks safe to pull and eat now. Should I wsh with soap and water or just rinse? 

Well, I wouldn't have put the "new to you" manure on the leeks this late, so I defer to the horse people again on eating them now.  However, considering that I grow leeks in a trench filled with manure that eventually becomes a straw hill to blanch them, I always use soap and water to clean my leeks before eating them -- too many things can get stuck in those layers as they grow.

Winter leeks aren't going to grow all that much -- you're storing them rather then getting them to grow -- I wouldn't have bothered to put the manure on them unless you were growing for seed, in which case, of course, you wouldn't be eating them, so you wouldn't be worried, etc. Winter leeks for eating really don't need any more nutrients (which is a shock when you're dealing with alliums, since they ALWAYS like to be fed) -- you've just got them in the field because it's easier than taking up space in the frig -- much as you might like them to, they probably aren't going to grow any fatter.

Need I worry about the garlic. 

No. (I do know something about garlic)  The garlic won't be harvested until beyond the USDA regs AND it's such a heavy feeder that it will suck nutrients out of the manure which will drastically change its composition such that other microorganisms will move in, etc. When I form my garlic beds in August/September, I don't worry about how fresh the horse manure is because time, soil microorganisms and hungry garlic will break it all down.  Unless you are harvesting garlic greens in April, I wouldn't worry too much about any application before the end of March.

Hope this helps!



Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA  19460


Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page