Feeding Tomatoes with Liquid Horse Manure

[Lorraine70]

I've been told that a great feed for tomatoes is to use liquid horse manure. As I've got two horses and therefore no shortage of muck, I thought I'd give it a go! The method I was given was to fill up a hessian sack with the manure, and leave to steep in a barrel of water. However, my friend didn't know how long to steep the manure for, and whether or not you can feed the tomatoes purely with the liquid manure. Has anybody had any experience with this?

[zazen999]

Hi Lorraine

You had posted this in Growing Techniques, which need moderating, and those other lazy mods haven't been at their desks and it went unnoticed. I've moved it and you should get some responses now.

Apologies.

[terrier]

Hi, Lorraine70, welcome to the forum. I usually feed my toms with an infusion of nettles and hopefully this year I'll have some comfrey as well. I've been told sheep manure is the best stuff to use but I don't know anyone who uses equipoo. I also keep horses but I compost the poo for twelve months and use it as a mulch in the Winter. Horses are very good at processing food and little is left by the time they've finished with it so I don't know how well equipoo tea would feed your toms. If you try it, be sure to let us know how you get on

[Snadger]

I would think hoss muck would be very potent stuff and may give tops a lot of top growth at the expense of toms? Comfrey tea apparently leans more towards potassium supply, whilst I would imagine hoss muck may be a bit Nitro rich?

One way to find out though........try it on a few!

[Two_Sheds]

Comfrey is higher in potassium than horse manure, which is what fruiting plants need.

Growing and Using Comfrey for Gardeners including Comfrey Liquid Fertiliser or Tea

I'm not saying that horse muck is no good though.

Nettles are very high in nitrogen, which will give you leafy growth at the expense of fruit.

http://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=...d=article&id=7

[terrier]

Comfrey is higher in potassium than horse manure, which is what fruiting plants need.

Nettles are very high in nitrogen, which will give you leafy growth at the expense of fruit.

I keep forgetting the difference between nitrogen and potassium.

[Lorraine70]

Thanks for all your replies. I've done a little more research into making equipoo and the method is to put a bucketful of manure into a hessian sack. Suspend it in a 200 litres/40 gallon drum and allow to soak. Use after a month or so by diluting it to the colour of weak tea. I have decided to use the equipoo on a portion of my tomatoes, beans, peas, courgettes, tomatoes and squashes. The nettle and comfrey infusion sound good too. Is it just a case of soaking like the equipoo? Do I need to dilute? I'm interested in trying all methods as this is my first full season of growing all of my own vegetables - yikes!

[maytreefrannie]

Comfrey is higher in potassium than horse manure, which is what fruiting plants need.

Growing and Using Comfrey for Gardeners including Comfrey Liquid Fertiliser or Tea

I'm not saying that horse muck is no good though.

Nettles are very high in nitrogen, which will give you leafy growth at the expense of fruit.

http://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=...d=article&id=7

What about borage, which I believe is also good for liquid feed - is it good mixed with nettles or better on its own (in water)?

[Lorraine70]

I've just read the link for comfrey growing and using - it's very interesting. Will have to invest in some plants I think!

[SlugLobber]

Equipoo! Love it! That's good to know about the nitrogen/leafy growth - thanks.