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Eveleth MN

I've been using aged horse manure from my parents farm for my garden for several years, Next year will be my first year tring AG's. Just recently my parent have started using Medium sized sawdust for bedding in the stalls which comes from a local sawmill which makes rough cut lumber so it all organic. How will the saw dust effect the qualitly of the manure, its mixed in pretty decent at probibily about 10-15% sawdust 85-90% manure. The chips are about 1/4"x1/4" in size and pretty thin.

10/21/2003 11:09:13 AM

Bemidji, MN

Ranch, good to see another Minnesotan on the line. I also use sawdust for horse bedding and have been using it in my pumpkin patch for 7 years. It does help greatly in moisture retention, and adds great humus to soil after breaking down. It does take alot longer to breakdown than most organic items applied to patch. It will also drain your soil of nitrogen in the breakdown process, so if you are adding large amounts, you'll want to also add a supply of nitrogen to balance out. Watch out for pine sawdust which can be acidic. I use kiln dried aspen/cedar for bedding, and generally won't have that problem. Happy Growing! Steve

10/21/2003 11:31:27 AM

Cape Cod

Hmm.......I added horse manure with chips/sawdust in it, had pathetic pumpkin growth the first half of the season and blamed it on the cedar I thought might be in it, after hearing from a real knowledgeable gardner that cedar oil is toxic to some plants. What you say seems to disprove that notion. Do you know if there was a lot or a little cedar in yours?

10/21/2003 9:39:51 PM

Bemidji, MN

dderat, We generate 4 wheelbarrow loads of manure/bedding each day with our horses. 90% of the bedding is aspen/poplar with 10% being cedar . We generally just top dress the cedar to get the aroma in the barn. Also, our shavings are kiln dried, so would have little oil. Steve

10/22/2003 8:14:52 AM

Bemidji, MN

I should also add, generating this much manure/bedding, gives me some major piles each year. I will let each pile breakdown atleast 1 year before using it on the patch. I turn piles every 20 days, so they breakdown fairly well in a summer. I also add nitrogen to the pile as it's turned. Steve

10/22/2003 8:18:10 AM

Eveleth MN

My father make a new pile every year, I usually get the 2-3year old stuff to use, its worked great for my Pie pumpkins and this year I had 2 Big max plants and got 2 over 100lbs. I've only got a 7 HP manure maker ;)

10/22/2003 10:03:32 AM

Ontario

I live on a dairy farm and a lot of saw dust ends up being mixed in with the manure pile. I used this on my patch this year and it didnt seem to bother anything. Then again it was only my first year, so I dont have anything to compare it with.

10/22/2003 11:20:03 AM

Cape Cod

Thanks Steve. I think I had a problem because the manure was only a few months old when I added it in the fall. By mid summer the plants seemed to have gotten over whatever it was that was interfering with their growth.

10/22/2003 4:07:22 PM

New Brunswick

I have always used manure with cedar shavings on our gardens. I add all the manure to the garden patchs in the spring, regardless of age...it is all mixed together. The only problem with fresh manure, is it attracts tiny flies. My hubby started putting fresh stuff around my pumpkins and I had to move it on account of the flies. Otherwise, it did no harm.

10/26/2003 6:34:20 PM