manure

[globalart4u]

will over the next few weeks buy and lay a layer of manure over the garden and leave it on top. so that when the spring comes then when i dig over the garden the soil underneath with all the nutrients will be at the top ready for planting

[Riz]

i will have to really "till" the soil in march i have chalky lumpy soil, 2 seasons ago i ordered a tonne of top soil and spread it across a patch i was cultivating along with that i sprinkled a generous amount of chicken pellets all over the patch and raked it in and then covered with 2 inches of top soil,

the p.h level in the soil was around 7.0 which is near to neutral eh ?

[dawud_uk]

does anyone use 'night soil' as a fertiliser? my brother who swears by it, and the chinese have been using it for thousands of years.

[Te'oma]

Never heard of night soil but a couple of comments on using manure. If you are using fresh manure, it is essential that you apply it in the fall and allow it to sit over the winter to compost a bit before you try planting. Otherwise it will go into it's nitrogen cycle and can actually cook the roots of plants that are planted in it too early.
If you are using products like mushroom manure or composted manure, these can be applied right at the time of planting to ensure that nutrients don't leach away before the plant gets a chance to use them. They have already gone through their nitrogen cycle and are ready to use as a soil supplement.

[globalart4u]

if you are in the uk be careful of the manure and compost you buy as it is contaminated so you'll find nothing grows at all and it takes at least 2 years for the chemical to leave the system.

here is the link to it - thank you defra for admitting it into the system

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

we had to throw away all the compost last year and this year as it nothing grew in the flower patch as we worked out it must be contaminated with something but did not discovered the reason why till some research as i was fed up wasting money to chuck out compost.

[~Obsidian~]

What the heck?!?! :eek::eek::eek:
How do we know if we've been affected?? Everything seems fine so far alhumdulillah, a couple of tomatoes have been consumed and they don't seem to be affected....

I don't know what to think :(

[Te'oma]

aminopyralid is a particularly persistent broad leaf herbicide but it's really not that toxic to higher organisms...at least according to the studies done by the chemical companies(we can trust them, right?) Anyway, if your plants are healthy and doing well then chances are, they haven't been exposed

[~Obsidian~]

aminopyralid is a particularly persistent broad leaf herbicide but it's really not that toxic to higher organisms...at least according to the studies done by the chemical companies(we can trust them, right?) Anyway, if your plants are healthy and doing well then chances are, they haven't been exposed

The bold sentence not particularly inspiring confidence in me.....

Well I've had a couple of oddities amongst the toms, but ratio of them compared to the normal ones is about 95:5, I thought it was normal :confused: well the potatoes seem to be affected the most, I'll see what happens when they come out! Dunno if I can wait that long to consume the toms though, they're gettin pretty ripe!