Question about Horse Poo :)

Okay Soil People, I have a question. LOL My SIL gets free aged horse manure every year and loads it onto her garden. She gets it from a relative. He has a nice really aged pile and also the new stuff. I know as far as the cow stuff, I normally buy the aged so it won't burn the plants and I till it in. Can anyone tell me how good the horse poo would be and if it is safe to use? If I use it, it would be for veggies and flowers. My SIL swears it doesn't have weed seeds. I would till it into the veggie garden and probably top dress the flower garden with it. Anyone use horse poo?
Thanks :)
Michele

Yes horse poo is fine to use and if you can get any FYM without weed seeds its a good thing.

One thing about using horse dung is that over the years it can make the soil more acidic, this isn't a problem for a good 5 years or more but it might be a good idea to get a mix of FYM (farm yard manure) after that time.

Michele,

this link should answer ur question... http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0212.html HTH... ma vie

we get horse compost free to fill our raised bed. growth rate is outstanding. yes mine has seed and grass in it but i think it is worth the extra effort to weed because it is BLACK GOLD and FREE.

As Farmgirl said "blackgold and free". Carol has mentioned in her posts, our ground here is fine gravel, so our dirt is either bought or made.

We get a couple of pick-up loads every summer. After it's unloaded, we cover the pile with a tarp and let it spend the winter doing its thing under the snow.

The following summer off comes the tarp and the manure is sifted through a 1/4 inch screen. ( I made several of these framed screens out of treated 2"X4"'s and 1/4" "hardware cloth", made the frames to fit on top the wheelbarrow.

Then we put it in large garbage cans or totes to keep it until we have another raise bed to fill or other project.

Dennis

Wow you guys are great! Everything I ever wanted to know about 'dung'. LOL My SIL told me some of it was mixed with sawdust and now I cannot remember why. I told her the only reason I could think of that, that could be bad is if it was from treated lumber. As for the weed seeds, I get plenty of weeds in the veggie garden but I am working on that. The front flower beds are pretty much weed free but the plants are fairly packed in. I guess I better get more pushy about going to get my free gold. :) I have to wait for her so we can go.
Thanks you all!!
Michele

Michele, the sawdust was probably from the shavings/bedding used in a stall. I'd wait 'til it rots reeeeal well as the wood can tie up nitrogen in your soil as it's breaking down.

As far as the NPK values, it's about the same as cow, but a little higher on the N (and maybe the P?). I've found the weeds are worse than with cow manure (cows have multiple stomachs so not so many weed seeds get through still being viable), but, come to think of it, the manure I used came from my free-ranged mustang pasture ornament I have out here. Chances are if your SIL has used it and not had a problem with weeds, the horse was kept on a good pasture with not so many weeds or it's diet was controlled in some other way that kept it away from browsing on weeds.

Whatever you do, atleast get it and let it sit 'til it's real black gold!

I think I have given up all hope of actually getting the horse poo! Two months later and there still has not been a good time. Some people plant stuff and others are gardeners. LOL I think I have resigned myself to the fact that, if I want some poo, I'm going to have to go buy it by the bag! My SIL has puchased some flats of annuals to do her pots and such but hasn't decided whether or not to do a real garden this year. Hence, she is a person that plants! LOL
Poo-less in Cincy :(

My experience with poo has lasted many years. I can't remember how many years ago it was, but at least 8 or 9. I decided that aged cow poo would be a good thing for the veggie garden. There's a dairy farmer close to us that piles up his cow poo. DH talked to him, and we got from the oldest pile. He said it was 20 or so years old. I have been fighting bindweed since. What a nightmare! I've since learned that bindweed seed lives for 50+ years. I wish I would have known that before I dumped a truckload on the veggie garden.

Personally, I won't do that ever again. I'll buy it by the bag first.

We got a rabbit. I can control what he eats, therefore I can control what comes back out and into the garden. LOL I feel much better about that. Plus, I am a great "compost pile" person. I pile up everything compostable into two or three piles all season long. Let it sit over the winter, then scatter it out in the spring. Then I start all over again. Takes longer, but I'm happier with that. I have better things to do than fight noxious weeds.

I brought, from an old sheep shed, very dried manure that had not seen an animal for almost 50 years, and it was almost a foot deep. Maybe because it was under a roof and not exposed to the elements, but I think there were seed from every form of vegetation ever known to grow in these parts. And they all germinated. I know they must have all done so, because I had beds full of weeds and grasses and even ornamental vines I had only heard about in the country. For five years, I battled, then I gave up and just accepted it as the price of the nutrition. But I agree, buy it in bags, hoping it has been properly aged and heated or whatever is necessary to kill the seeds. And good luck. Many times, I find seedlings in my houseplants.

I'm with you Aimee! I bought top soil to line the floor of my little hoop house. Sometimes I am bad and too busy to plant things before they grow through the bottoms of the cells so the dirt helps. Anyway, I have all sorts of stuff coming up in it. There are grasses, weeds and a few things that look like marigolds and cosmos! LOL I will have to pull them all before I dump the soil and till it in.