topic Re: Cow Manure in Garden

Cow Manure

Biftu — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 17:53:36 GMT

My friends garden looks fabulous. I asked her for secrets and she says she feeds her garden twice a year but that what really works is cow manure. Has anyone used it?

Re: Cow Manure

ValuSkr — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:08:24 GMT

Presumably your friend is using composted cow manure, not the raw stuff. Fresh manure would burn or dehydrate plants. Composted cow manure is fine, but I've never used it or had a source.

Re: Cow Manure

Nightowlz — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:35:36 GMT

DH has used it to make some kind of tea with it to use in the garden.

He also has a compost pile

Re: Cow Manure

Biftu — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:37:25 GMT

She said she buys it at Home Depot.

Re: Cow Manure

PA Mom-mom — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:38:50 GMT

@Biftu We always turned in composted cow manure to our vegetable garden. As @ValuSkr stated, make sure it isn't fresh. It must be composted. The only downside might be any kind of seeds in the manure that survive the composting. Oh, and the smell.

Re: Cow Manure

Another new name Sue — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:40:14 GMT

Once years ago bagged cow manure burned our roses. Too much was applied, so be careful. In the fall here, lots of people apply it to their lawns (Calif.).

Re: Cow Manure

bigtraps — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:40:52 GMT

Cow Manure Tea is the bomb. You plants will go crazy when you feed them that.

Re: Cow Manure

Biftu — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:45:12 GMT

How do you make cow manure tea? I'm definitely going to give it a try. Don't know about the smell, but during these times I have plenty of masks to wear!

Re: Cow Manure

Scooby Doo — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 19:03:18 GMT

If it's already been bagged it's safe to use and not too hot for composting. I buy the stuff at Home Depot. I also use chicken manure from HD. Dried poultry manure is two to three times as rich as cow manure in inorganic fertilizer content. Poultry droppings are better manure than cow dung (or other farmyard manure) in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content. Depends on which kind of plants you have.

Re: Cow Manure

Harpa — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 19:25:35 GMT

Novice gardner that I was back then....

Not cow, but horse, since my sister kept horses. I made sure it was old -- composted -- but that year I had an atrocious amount of weeds in my garden.

Other than the weeds, the vegetables & flowers did beyond great!

The following year I made tea -- took cotton material and bagged the manure inside. Just tied it with string and then plunged it in buckets of water. Just a lot of work, since my garden was 50 feet long.

Re: Cow Manure

Mimi 1883 — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 10:05:17 GMT

@Biftu My husband always used miloganite on our plants and it worked wonders. The smell was obnoxious, but the results were great. We've both cut back on the amount of gardening we do now days, so haven't used it in several years.

Re: Cow Manure

lovesallanimals — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 22:29:51 GMT

Is there such a thing as using too much manure? I buy the composted cow manure from home depot, put it down on my beds in April and then plant end of May. My tomatoes did very poorly the last two years as well as my cucumbers. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I had tons of cucumber leaves and flowers but maybe three cucumbers, that was all. Hardly any tomatoes. I also added some good garden soil. I don't know if it was the heat (east coast) or what but I was so disappointed after working so hard.

Re: Cow Manure

JustJazzmom — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 23:22:05 GMT

@lovesallanimals Did you plant the tomatoes in the same spot? That could be one reason for them doing poorly. I feed twice during their growing season Epsom salts around them as they take magnesium out of the soil. I usually put the Epsom salts down in March ; sprinkled over the top of the unplanted soil. And I add it again to them in July. I also side dress with an organic fertilizer in July.

I know peppers are heavy feeders so they need fertilizer monthly during their growing season. Also yield increases with peppers if you plant more than 1 plant.

Re: Cow Manure

lovesallanimals — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 00:54:56 GMT

@JustJazzmom wrote:
@lovesallanimals Did you plant the tomatoes in the same spot? That could be one reason for them doing poorly. I feed twice during their growing season Epsom salts around them as they take magnesium out of the soil. I usually put the Epsom salts down in March ; sprinkled over the top of the unplanted soil. And I add it again to them in July. I also side dress with an organic fertilizer in July.

I know peppers are heavy feeders so they need fertilizer monthly during their growing season. Also yield increases with peppers if you plant more than 1 plant.

JusrJazzmom - do you rototill everything into the soil or just let it sit on top until ready to plant? Also do you mix any manure into the soil or just use the Epsom salts. Thank you so much.

Re: Cow Manure

JustJazzmom — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 04:09:53 GMT

@lovesallanimals

I sprinkle the Epsom salts on top of the soil & with rain it washes itself into the soil. With composted manure, I lay it on the top and as I plant the vegetables it gets mixed in with the soil.

This year with the pandemic, I didn't get to the store in time before planting, so was using Espoma Plant Tone until the stores ran out of that. Then I switched to sprinkling Rose Tone around each plant.

I figure with planting the plants, the manure gets mixed into the soil. I don't own a rototiller but a spade or shovel, turning over the soil with the manure works just as well. My veggie garden is small -- 20 sq. feet.

In July, I reapply the Epsom salts around those plants that need it -- tomatoes & peppers. I then do what is called 'side dressing' of the composted manure around the sides of the plants.

Re: Cow Manure

lovesallanimals — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:47:58 GMT

@JustJazzmom wrote:
@lovesallanimals

I sprinkle the Epsom salts on top of the soil & with rain it washes itself into the soil. With composted manure, I lay it on the top and as I plant the vegetables it gets mixed in with the soil.

This year with the pandemic, I didn't get to the store in time before planting, so was using Espoma Plant Tone until the stores ran out of that. Then I switched to sprinkling Rose Tone around each plant.

I figure with planting the plants, the manure gets mixed into the soil. I don't own a rototiller but a spade or shovel, turning over the soil with the manure works just as well. My veggie garden is small -- 20 sq. feet.

In July, I reapply the Epsom salts around those plants that need it -- tomatoes & peppers. I then do what is called 'side dressing' of the composted manure around the sides of the plants.

JustJazzmom: Thank you so much for all your help. You always give such thorough and extremely helpful advice. I will do what you do next year. Thanks again!

Re: Cow Manure

Growing — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:04:02 GMT

Such interesting replies! Where I live no one uses Epsom salts in the garden, not even the big organic guru on the radio. Corn meal is the big thing. I know soils are different in different areas. We have black clay so manure helps make it not so clay like. I can't stand the smell of bagged manure so I don't use it. I also use mulch on the top of the soil to help retain water in our summer heat. I am currently using two products: Garret Juice Plus which adds organic nutrition to the soil and Medina Hasta Grow in a spray bottle that you put on your hose. You can google these. I purchased the wrong Hasta Grow formulation, was for the potted plants, trees, or growing plants, and sprayed down the back lawn and some of my houseplants yesterday to use it up. You spray it lightly on the leaves to feed them. Then we got rain and I am noticing in one day every outside plant has shot up, the grass also. Could be the rain but I am going to get the Hasta Grow for lawns and use that next. It's still warm here.