We touched on this on another thread and I wondered what others thought about it. I kept riding mules for ten years and always had one or two in a corral at the house. Obviously I had quite a supply of manure to use up. I had a garden at the time and used a lot of the manure on it. It seems to have a lot of organic matter , more so than other types of manure. I think the gut of a horse doesn’t break down plant matter as much and also seems to have more weed and grass seed that passes through that is still viable. I was able to put it on thick and never burned the plants like chicken manure will do. It was suggested that composting would remove the weeds , I never composted any of the manure, just shoveled it out of the corral and hauled it to the garden.
I mostly get horse manure around here so that’s what I compost. I compost it for six months, but sometimes not that long. The only beds I avoid putting it down on is for root vegetables or any veg that could get touched by it.
Did the composting help with the weed seed?
I have given up turning my compost as much as I used to so the seeds may not be killed off. I mulch big time with whatever I can get my hands on. So it’s hard for me to say.
Did you fertilze your fruit trees with the manure? Ive been giving it to my trees for the last 6 months since I started my orchard. Curious to see how they will respond to it this spring. I just use the raw manure without composting.
I never put horse manure around my trees, I only used it on my vegetable garden
Too salty for my neighborhood.
I use horse manure around my fruit trees as well as my garden. It also has pine shavings in it as we use that for bedding in the barn.
I do not use strict composting guidelines, simply piling it all up, and waiting at least a year before using it. I have very minimal amounts of weeds growing from it.
