Organic Manure

We had a truckload of organic manure delivered the other day. Several years ago we started buying organic beef from farmer Mike whose farm is a few towns over in Lyman, Maine. Farmer Mike pastures his cows in summer and feeds them organically in winter. He has recently acquired a dump truck so that he can deliver loads of valuable cattle by products. A large pile of this precious stuff now resides at the top of our driveway.

Earlier we had gotten manure from a non-organic farmer, and we've noticed a big difference between this manure and that from farmer Mike. The veggies have become more productive, the lilacs have more flowers, and all of the perennials look better than they ever have before. We’ve written about the challenges of converting forest land into garden-able soil, and it turns out that using organic manure might be just the trick.

Because we always want to know more about things, I googled “organic manure.” Some good info was found at the Organic Trade Association site. We were already aware that in its current form, fresh manure is too strong to use on plants, and could kill them. The Trade Association let us know why: raw manure contains soluble nitrogen in the form of ammonium. This is the wrong form of nitrogen, and the manure also contains the wrong form of bacteria for gardening use. 

The ever-helpful Murphy checks out the manure

Organic standards for raw manure, according to the Organic Trade Association, call for allowing it to age for 120 days before applying it to soil where plants for human consumption are in direct contact with the soil. For veggies not in direct contact with soil, the waiting period is 90 days. Composting the manure is even better. 

We’ve posted about compost earlier, click here for the post. Composting occurs through a mixture of brown and green materials. Raw manure is green, and high in nitrogen. To create a maximum balance, it needs to be mixed with brown materials like leaves or straw. These contain carbon. The carbon and nitrogen combination make a potent elixir for garden productivity. E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens can exist in manure. Composting creates temperatures that kill most pathogens. 

Our project right now is to make compost piles out of the manure. We’re making layered stacks alternating leaves that were raked up last fall with wheelbarrow loads of the raw manure. It’s a big pile of manure, so when we get bored of making compost piles, we’ll leave the rest to age. The compost will be used later in summer to side dress plants, and the aging manure will be spread on the garden beds after the plants have been harvested in the fall. -G.H.