Rule of thumb for horse manure is to stack it fot a minimum of a year. Also, one of the worse things about horse manure is all the grubs you'll find in it. Put that in your garden and you won't be smiling too wide.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the owner said bedding straw is hay without the nutrients. If so that makes sense that it wouldn't compost well. Thanks for the link. I read about herbicides as well. He says his poop is carted away and made into fertilizer by some rather large company. I do know that he buys his hay in bales wrapped in plastic bags - he doesn't grow/process his own. I'll ask where it came from. Also will "season" the poop for as long as I can.....planning, for now at least, to plant in May 2021. Ah ok. The owner told me that his father used to have all the local folks beg him for the poop....back in the day when more people than not managed their own gardens and depended on them. Now it's just "easier" to buy it at the supermarket. It's not good to use it raw because it's too "hot" - too rich in nitrogen and can burn the roots of the plants you are trying to grow. Based on what I have read. Yeah, I was thinking "Man look at these nuggets of gold right here!" as I was mixing it in. That is a beautiful and ginormous tomato! I thought the rule of thumb was to compost it for 6 months.....or perhaps you are talking about just stacking the manure by itself.......I will do my best to turn it over regularly and keep it moist. I even went as far as to attach my garden hose to the spigot that has unchlorinated water (albeit I only thought of it when I was almost done).........but now that you mention the grubs perhaps I should have left it on the chlorinated line. I think I'll definitely water with non-chlorinated city water when I plant.
Oh and 2 yards is just about what I got - my truck bed is 50 cu ft filled to top of the sides and plus they mounded it up in the center a bit above the rails...... I'm going back tomorrow to take another truckload to work into my 3rd pile and maybe start a new pile as well.
There is not enough chlorine in city water to make any difference...as soon as you spray it on the ground (or poo pile) it is "used up" almost instantly...any that isn't is soon dissipated by sunlight...
You should see the difference in the water before and after my 5-stage filtering setup. 100 micron spin down, 20 micron pleated, 5 micron pleated sediment filters, a large GAC Fleck 5800 LXT backwashing filter, and then another 100 micron spin down to catch any carbon chunks after a backwash. I drain the first 100 micron spin down filter every week. I have a jar here that I've had for months and it smells horrendous. It smells horrendous enough when I filter it out - I can smell chlorine instantly - but there's something rotten in our water for sure because it smells like pure arse. Barf. Hahahahahahahahaha! I had a Mini Cooper forum buddy refer to me as "LordOfTheFleas" during a meet.........and I was like "Dude!!!!"
Also perhaps it hasn't been long enough or maybe because the weather has cooled a bit but I didn't see any flies!
Yup, I work in water treatment, so no surprise to me. Depending on where you are in relationship to the water treatment plant, your chlorine levels may be higher than some...it has to be high enough going out to maintain a minimum residual at the far ends of the lines.
The village I live in has an exemption for turbidity laws of the state as well. So our water is TERRIBLE. This is what the spun filter looked like after two few weeks. I've since switched to pleated filters so I rinse them out and reuse them.
Ive put a lot of things in my PU bed and doubt id doo doo that. Couple of people i know that owe me money and id like to "dump" a load in their driveway.
Straw is supposed to be the waste product from any grain product, what's left after the grain has been removed. Hay is the whole enchilada. Horses usually won't eat straw but they can. Usually, if they have better grains in their bucket or raw grass in the field, they aren't interested in it. It has almost no nutritional value so an overweight hungry horse might eat it and it could be a way to slim down an overweight nag. Straw can also cause digestive problems so some use sawdust/shavings/wood pellets for bedding. Being careful of course as some wood products can be detrimental to the health of the horse as well.
I believe the minimum of a year. From my own limited experience Fall, Winter and part of Spring is absolutely not long enough. I didn't burn any plants but the pile certainly didn't get hot enough to kill seeds. I ended up introducing a whole new set of weeds to my garden I never saw before.
Yes, my only experience is with stacking and not composting. However, it should be about the same because it gets pretty hot in the stacks.
With the wood chips mixed in I don't hardly smell anything unless I stick my nose 2" away from the pile. Very happy with the results thus far. Mixed in real easy and the nuggest disintegrated easily when sprayed directly with the hose. Laid out the wood chip floor for the garden area today. Woo hoo.
