Hi there;
Pig farms galore in my neighborhood. Could ask for some and will receive tons… of pig slurry. Is it a good idea to put some on my new orchard:
Could I also put some on the grass of my established orchard?
I desperately want to play with my new toy!
Big thanks for any advice!
Marc
I would be careful applying that to fruit trees, I assume it’s high in Nitrogen. May be too much
A little maybe good ,
Probably best on sod , hay , garden , crop land.
If they are well composed, I would bury deep or side dress the fruits tree. Better than chemical fertilizers
I will dilute the slurry for sure. I still haven’t found the proper dilution ratio… If I don’t find anything about it, I will dilute to 75%.
Thanks!
Marc
I would think that pig slurry would clog your sprayer.
If there is a lot around, would a farmer come knife it in to your new orchard? Or if you could get them to bring a spreader, you could always disc it in before you plant.
Two questions come to mind, does it contain the best balance of nutrients for fruit trees? Peaches generally require about double the N as apples in ratio to K, incidentally and pig slurry apparently has a wide range of nutrient concentration.
2nd question, does it provide the nutrients when you want it to? Fresh slurry has a certain amount of available N, if it is used in compost that changes. I don’t know how much slurry has of unavailable N- that is how much OM is mixed in to the liquid that would be unavailable before it is broken down in the soil. That is a question you probably need to have answered.
I don’t mind slow release N when I’m establishing fruit trees because I want a consistent release during the entire growing season, but once they begin to bear, organically bonded N tends to release at the wrong time of the season to serve fruit and inspires more vegetative growth instead. Fruit growers want only moderate vigor form their bearing age trees, at least with pears and apples.
Too much vigor tends to lead to low sugar, poorly colored fruit. Where it doesn’t rain during the growing season this problem can be handled by reducing irrigation as fruit approaches ripening (last month and half) but in the humid regions rain can stimulate excess vigor if organic matter in soil is too high.
