new allotment need advice chicken pellets

[Saraheliz]

Hi

this is my first allotment, I have half a plot and am going to grow peas, potatoes, brassicas, onions and at home tomatoes and cucumbers in pots.

I have got some chicken manure pellets for the first time but have no clue where it is best to use them and how to use them. I have heard not to use them for peas because of nitrogen.

I also have very poor soil on the allotment and cannot afford much so if this could be useful it would be great,

many thanks foryour help!

from
Sarah

[Flummery]

I'd rake in a slack handful per square yard when planting out. I use them and find them very good. They won't do your peas any harm - but they aren't needed. Legumes (peas/beans) fix nitrogen in the soil on small nodules on the roots. The pellets are very clean to use and a little in any soil you've just harvested from will help when you want to plant another crop in the same space.

[Saraheliz]

many thanks Flummery I will do that!

from
Sarahx

[Alison Adams]

How different are bought pellets from actual chicken manure ? I have access to the latter (from happy and groovy free range, volunteer chickens) but wouldnt know how to use it. eg does it have to rot down for a year, be mixed with something else, could it be put fresh into the bottom of a new bed or used as a mulch... As much as I dont fancy filling my car with sacks of fresh chicken poo, if its good for the garden I could tolerate it !

[Eyren]

It needs to be rotted down for at least a year and preferably two if you want to use it directly on plants like pelleted manure; alternatively you can scatter it fairly thinly over the soil in autumn to weather down, or use it as an activator in your compost heap. It's not really suitable as a mulch, as it's too strong.

[Alison Adams]

Thanks for the quick reply Eyren, better stick to just the occasional bucket into the compost then.

[NOG]

Add the manure and bedding to your compost bin. I will speed up the process.

[Becca]

I've been known to use the 'fresh' chicken coop clearing out mess straight on beds as a mulch, I figure it's mostly sawdust and straw with not much more poop than if the chooks were scratching around on the bed in person (well bird) and that doesn't do any harm.. I read the other day, I can't remember where unfortunatly, that the manure from backyard chickens is likely to be less damaging to plants when fresh due to the more varied diet.. I still wouldn't stick it on in a more concentrated form but with all the bedding and feathers and other detritus of a weeks worth of chicken living it seems to be safe enough.. only downsite I've spotted is that any leftover corn/grain will start growing!

[HayleyB]

Potatoes love chicken manure pellets and are very hungry, I'll be throwing some each time I earth up the bags

[Spiderling]

A warning about fresh "bird manure" We used some a couple of years ago and I had an asthma attack every time I went near the part we had used it on. I'm allergic to feathers but can't see how muck would have the same effect! I have no problems with chicken pellets, it's brilliant stuff.

[nilling]

Every season I buy a tub of chicken pellets which I use on everything: veggies, flowers, shrubs and trees

[snohare]

Ooh, thanks for posting that Hayley, I was wondering if that was why my tatties did so well last year and now I know for sure !
Spiderling, bird muck of any sort is full of all sorts of microbial nasties, and not only may aspirating (breathing in) these cause an instant immune response, but also there are sometime astronomical levels of dust mites, whose dessicated carcasses and faecal proteins will do the same thing. If you are sensitive to these things, then steer well clear, lest you end up with a kind of farmer's lung.
As you might have guessed, I have access to a lot of chicken poo (I clean out sheds for a friend who is sensitised) and I usually try to leave it a year at least before putting it into the soil. This year though I have very fresh, high-ammonia stuff that I am going to put in trenches under my peas and beans, see what they make of that....

[Matt.]

Ooh, thanks for posting that Hayley, I was wondering if that was why my tatties did so well last year and now I know for sure !

I had quite a weak crop of spuds last year and I thought that was down to the use of chicken pellets. I'm sure Two_Sheds advised me not to use checken pellets but I can't remember the specific reason. Something about the balance of the mix. I also can't check my previous posts because the site mixes up IDs. If anyone has any more ideas please post as I've deliberatly not used pellets this year. I'm going with blood,fish bone and nothing else.

[womble]

I'm guessing, but I wouldn't use chicken pellets with potatoes at this time of year, they are full of nitrogen, you don't want lush green growth due to frosts being around.

[Matt.]

Ok I seqrched around and found previous info on this subject which is worth a read: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ied_25752.html

The suggestion is that chicken pellets can be alkaline and spuds like acidic soil. The nitrogen fact is also mentioned again suggesting you'll get a lot of foliage and few tubers.