Horse manure as a fertilizer: how to apply, reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Without timely top dressing, it is impossible to get a good harvest of any garden or garden crop. Fertilizers when growing plants in a suburban area can be used both mineral and organic. Moreover, the last type of top dressing is the most popular among summer residents.

Gardeners fertilize garden crops and fruit trees mostly with manure. There are four main types of such top dressing. Manure for fertilizing horticultural crops can be cow, bird, pig or horse. At the same time, the last type of top dressing is considered the best.

Practically all summer residents periodically use horse manure as fertilizer. How to apply such top dressing correctly, we will talk about this later in the article.

Composition

This organic fertilizer contains just a huge amount of substances useful for plants. Horse manure contains:

• nitrogen;
• phosphoric acid;
• organic matter;
• potassium;
• magnesium and manganese;
• zinc, boron, etc.

When using this top dressing in the soil:

• increases in nutrients and carbon dioxide;
• beneficial microorganisms are activated.

In addition, the use of horse manure as a fertilizer can significantly improve the structure of the land on the site. The soil in the garden, when used, becomes much more suitable for growing plants. In land improved with manure of this variety, air and water balance is normalized first of all. Such fertilizer makes clay soil looser. In sandy soil, it retains moisture and prevents nutrients from leaching out.

Varieties by degree of decomposition

Horse manure can be used in suburban areas:

• fresh;
• half-rotted;
• decomposed to the stage of humus.

Of course, the most useful for garden and horticultural crops is horse humus. Such manure can be used for almost any plant. A semi-rotted fertilizer of this type can also be useful for some crops. For example, this manure is often fertilized:

• pumpkin;
• cabbage.

Besides this, this kind of horse manure is very often used to fertilize flowers, including roses. If desired, semi-rotted fertilizer of this type can be applied to other crops. But in this case, manure is used mainly only as an infusion diluted with water, which must be prepared according to a special technology.

Fresh horse manure:application

Unfortunately, it is impossible to feed garden crops with this type of fertilizer that has not rotted. The introduction of such a mass into the beds can lead to plant disease and even to their death. The fact is that during the overheating of horse manure, a very large amount of heat is released. Therefore, fresh fertilizer of this type can simply burn the roots of plants.

In addition, fresh horse manure contains a large amount of weed seeds. Therefore, after using it, the beds begin to grow very strongly. Also, fresh manure may contain harmful microorganisms and fungal spores that can cause diseases in garden and horticultural crops.

As a fertilizer, such a substance, therefore, is not used. But with benefit on the site, you can also use fresh horse manure. Summer residents use such a mass, for example, very often in greenhouses in the spring. Heat during the overheating of manure of this variety is actually released a lot. Therefore, its use in greenhouses allows you to protect plants from the cold as reliably as possible.

Types by litter type

The characteristics of this fertilizer, among other things, depend to a large extent on what kind of bedding was used when keeping the horses in the stable. In this regard, horse manure is distinguished:

• with cereal straw;
• sawdust;
• peat.

Overheating, this fertilizer promotes accelerated decomposition, including bedding. As a result, the mass is additionally saturated with various kinds of useful forplant substances.

Manure with peat is considered the highest quality. Using this fertilizer, you can get the highest yields. Manure with straw is also considered a very good top dressing. This fertilizer contains a lot of nitrogen.

The composition of horse manure on sawdust includes the least useful substances. But even such a fertilizer can significantly improve the characteristics of the soil in the beds and enjoys well-deserved popularity among summer residents.

Greenhouse applications

In summer, fresh horse manure is very often used to increase the yield of cucumbers in greenhouses. To do this, a barrel with an infusion prepared from such a mass is simply installed in the middle of the greenhouse. The carbon dioxide released during the fermentation of manure has a very beneficial effect on the development of pumpkin. In the greenhouse, it is recommended to mix the infused manure daily for best results.

Adding fresh horse mass directly to the beds is allowed only in autumn, after harvest. During the winter, she will have time to overturn and saturate the soil with useful substances. In this case, manure is scattered over the beds and the earth is immediately dug up. This application method prevents nitrogen from escaping.

How does it affect garden crops

When using semi-decomposed horse manure and humus:

• significantly increases the yield of garden and horticultural crops;
• plants get sick less.

In addition, when using such a fertilizer, the taste qualities of fruits grown in the garden andvegetables, as well as their keeping quality. A very good solution can be, for example, feeding onions and radishes with horse manure. When using this fertilizer, bitterness disappears from bulbs and root crops.

How to prepare an infusion

Various kinds of vegetables and root crops are usually fed not directly with horse manure, but with solutions containing it. A concentrated infusion of such a fertilizer is prepared approximately according to the following technology:

• an old barrel or some other container is thoroughly washed and dried;
• pour dry manure into it;
• fill the mass with water at the rate of 5 liters per bucket;
• infuse manure for 2 weeks, stirring occasionally.

To enhance the effect, you can add a little hay or tree leaves to the infusion at the stage of its preparation.

How to use for tomatoes

Of course, many summer residents would probably like to know how to use horse manure, for example, for tomatoes. This crop using such a fertilizer is fed for the first time approximately 20 days after planting seedlings in open ground. At the same time, 0.5 l of concentrated manure infusion is mixed in 10 l of water. Water the tomatoes with such a liquid at the rate of approximately 0.5 liters per plant. Before fertilizing tomatoes, the soil under them is abundantly moistened with water.

Water plants with a solution of horse manure should be as careful as possible. When performing this procedure, it is imperative to ensure that the liquid does not fall on the leaves or stems. GreensTomato tissue is quite delicate. And therefore, the fertilizer solution can simply burn the leaves and stems of tomatoes. It is best to feed tomatoes with this infusion in the morning or evening.

The second time with horse manure, tomatoes are fertilized during the blooming of brushes. Then the tomatoes are fed during fruit set. Both of these times use the same composition as in the spring. However, at the same time, the infusion consumption is reduced to 0.5 liters per 1 m 3 2.

In the same way, peppers are fertilized using horse manure. This scheme is also used to increase the yield of eggplant. Potatoes with such manure are usually fertilized only once a season - during planting. Top dressing in this case is most often simply thrown directly into the holes in a dry form.

How to use horse manure to fertilize cucumbers

Cucurbits respond particularly well to this type of feeding. Fertilizing cucumbers with such manure allows not only to increase productivity. When using the top dressing of this variety, bitter greens never grow on the lashes of this crop.

The first time such a fertilizer is applied to the beds prepared for cucumbers, usually in the spring, for digging. The second time this culture is fed at the beginning of the flowering of the culture. The third time cucumbers are fertilized with horse manure during the fruiting period. After another couple of weeks, the fourth (last) top dressing is carried out.

Fertilizer is prepared using horse manure for cucumbers according to the same recipe as for tomatoes. According to the same scheme, if desired, you canfeed during the season and zucchini, as well as pumpkins.

Rules for the use of dry manure

Most often, garden crops are fed in this way with horse manure diluted with water by irrigation. But, of course, you can use this fertilizer in a dry form. Manure of this variety is most often covered immediately with the entire area of that part of the site that is used for growing garden crops.

In this case, the rotted or fresh mass is simply spread on the surface of the soil with the most even layer about 5 cm thick. Next, the manure is buried in the ground with a pitchfork or a shovel. This method of feeding is usually used on already depleted land, which has long been used for growing garden plants.

How to apply for trees and shrubs

Of course, horse manure can also be used as a fertilizer for feeding apple trees, pears, plums, etc. In this case, this fertilizer is usually also used in dry form. The rotted manure is simply scattered around the tree trunks, and then the soil is dug up.

At the same time, 5 buckets of such fertilizer are usually applied for adult fruit trees, and 3 buckets for young ones. Immediately after manure is applied, trees and shrubs are watered. Such an operation is performed in most cases in the fall.

Reviews of gardeners about fertilizer

At least once in their suburban area, horse manure was used, probably, by all summer residents. And, of course, this fertilizer deserved very good reviews from gardeners. The use of suchmanure, according to gardeners, makes work on the earth much more rewarding. Yields with the use of top dressing of this variety increase significantly. And gardeners who use horse manure have to deal with plant diseases less often.

Sometimes there are negative reviews about horse manure on the Web. But they usually concern purchased, not very high-quality humus. The use of such top dressing from unknown suppliers, according to summer residents, can even harm plants - slow down their development and stimulate an outbreak of any disease.

Buy horse manure in bags, according to gardeners, should only be in stores with a good reputation. Also, before buying, experienced gardeners are advised to inspect the fertilizer. Good horse manure does not contain visible residues of straw or sawdust. It also does not emit an unpleasant odor. The color of well-rotted quality manure is usually dark.

Interesting fact

Reviews of horse manure as a fertilizer from summer residents, thus, there are exceptionally good ones. Of course, most often such a mass is used precisely as a top dressing for garden and garden crops. But once our ancestors used manure of this variety for medical purposes. After all, this substance actually contains just a huge amount of various useful trace elements.

What was horse manure used to treat in ancient times? In the old days, such a mass was used, for example, to alleviate suffering in diseases of the joints. Of course, horse manure can be used for this purpose even today. For this you need:

• pour 2/3 buckets of manure into a large basin;
• fill the mass with hot water;
• leave the solution to infuse for a couple of hours;
• dip your feet in the solution for a few minutes.

For the treatment of joints, this procedure should be repeated daily for 40 days.

What else was horse manure used for in ancient times? The "clods" left by horses in the field were also once collected in order to be used as fuel for stoves. From horse manure, as well as from cow manure, they made "bricks" and put them in high pyramids for ventilation. In winter, they were laid in the oven. They used horse manure instead of firewood in the old days, of course, mainly in the steppe areas, that is, where wood was in short supply.