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Rotted Down Sawdust and Horse Manure
Hi Charles,
I've managed to find a heap of horse manure/stable sweepings that I have free access to. I'm told that part of the heap is over 3 years old. I can see from the newer parts of the heap that the stable sweepings consist of lots of sawdust as well as manure. The old stuff is light and fluffy. It's very well rotted down and is a lot like multi purpose potting compost but not as Black - there's a bit of a brown tinge to it. It's quite dry at the bottom of the heap and there are very few worms, I guess they've moved on to the newer stuff.
Does this sound like rotted down horse manure or saw dust? If it is mostly rotted down saw dust with some horse manure in there, would it be suitable to use for my annual 2 inch surface application?
Thanks,
Darren
Hello Darren
It sounds good even if there is more sawdust than you might like. Spreading on the surface allows air to help it finish decomposing and I came across an old book where the gardener, James Gunston, was successfully using large quantities of sawdust as mulch in a no dig garden. A lack of worms is more to do with dryness than anything else and the colour will probably darken when moisture reaches the manure. So I would use it.
Thanks Charles
If the 'manure' is predominantly rotted sawdust, should I be concerned about it not being balanced, e.g. very low in Nitrogen, very high in Carbon etc. or does this balance out as it breaks down into the soil?
Darren
It is not a worry but bear in mind that there are less nutrients when amounts of bedding are greater than the animal excretions. Sawdust is good soil food, especially when well rotted, by which time a lot of the carbon has passed its 'hungry phase' of using nutrients from soil and air to break down into whatever it breaks down to! The fact that your manure is old AND has some animal droppings suggests it should give good results.