Horse manure and Courgettes

[Marb67]

I was cycling up the country lane and as we have a lot of horses around I took it upon myself to pick up dried horse muck from the road, bag it and spread it over my courgettes as I know they are big feeders. Ditto for rhubarb, sunflower, runner beans.

Has anyone else had success with it ?

[Penellype]

Courgettes like horse muck. The only issue with picking it up from the road is that you have no idea what the horse has been eating. Some horse muck can contain residues of aminopyralid weedkiller which won't do your courgettes any good at all. The standard test is to grow a few beans in it - if the beans look healthy then it is fine, if they come out sickly and twisted then the manure could be contaminated.

[Marb67]

I am sure anything that has been through a horse would not be weed killer.

[WendyC]

Unfortunately this weed killer can persist even going through a horse's digestive system. Is there not a danger of scorching if the manure was fresh?

[PyreneesPlot]

Unfortunately not Marb - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=477

I only ever fed my courgettes once and they then grew far too much and we couldn't keep on top of the production. I keep them mean

[Marb67]

I had a feeling this would have to be poo pooed here (excuse the pun) Too late, It's been put on them. I have heard of gardeners using horse manure on rhubarb etc and no warning of this.

[Penellype]

You can use horse manure - its a good fertilizer. If it is very fresh it can get hot as it rots down, and this can burn delicate young foliage. As long as hte horse has not been eating aminopyralid, there should be no problem. This is a fairly recent problem, and not all horse manure is affected - it depends on what has been sprayed on what the horse has eaten.

My Mum has been mulching her shrub borders with fresh horse manure for years, and the only problem she has is with keeping the shrub growth in check.

[bearded bloke]

Can you go & look at the pastures that horse has been grazing in ? Also can you find out where the owner get the horses hay/haylage from? If the manure does contain aminopyralid it would go a long way to explaining quite a lot of your growing problems.

[Scarlet]

I think he's only just collected it BB.
I always use manure, mostly cows muck, though I have used horse and alpaca. My best courgettes was when I asked my boys to collect some from the field. They used to get paid by the bucket anyway son no1 came trudging back with his bucket with a load of flies around him it was so fresh I dug a hole, chucked in the muck and topped with the soil. I got sick of courgettes that year.

Although we have had a case of aminopyralid this year on the vine ...I'll try to find it.
This is it! Bario had trouble with his spuds it was from contaminated manure.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...mal_85335.html

[Potstubsdustbins]

Marb weed killer can and does pass through a horse. One member on here had to remove the top level of her patch and buy in new.

Its not a guess its a fact!!!!!

[Marb67]

Well about 6 years ago I got a couple of tubs full of manure that had been rotting down in a pile at a local horse riding farm. After that I seemed to have no end of trouble with pests and leaves distorting and bubbling. Surely 6 years on it should be gone from the soil if it was weed killer.

Anyway, removed most of the manure. Just left the roses.

[Guest]

Whilst most of the time horsey poo is fine I would be absolutely devastated at the one time it isn't. Its nice that grapes care enough to warn others,it is the old 'learn from others mistakes' . If it is only the odd bit then worse case scenario is you lose your courgettes.

Courgettes and squash are greedy feeders and love poo and compost heaps. I know there are a lot of thoughts and opinions on fresh poo. However, I tend to use fresh as a thin mulch in the belief that it only affects the top of soil and nutrients leech through, by which time they are sufficiently diluted to not harm plants. It is best to keep it away from the main stem as this is the part of the plant that tends to suffer if anything

[Penellype]

Some info here on how long aminopyralid takes to break down:
Herbicide Carryover
It can take as long as 3-4 years to degrade in the field and apparently it is very slow to decompose in piles of manure or compost heaps.

[Snadger]

Orrible stuff Aminopyralid ! No idea why it hasn't been banned. Horses don't necessarily have to eat it. If the hay or straw is used for bedding and gets trampled into the poo thats enough to do four years of damage to plants.

[Marb67]

So can't Ieven compost it ? I have no idea which horses or field it is from as there are so many and I found it in the road.