Horse Manure & Weeds

[superweeder]

How can I limit weeds coming in with fresh Horse Manure ?

I have easy access to free Manure from local stables, but fear the weeds this brings in will wipe out the benefits of the manure.

Would longer storage at home before use help .... but if so, for how long ?
And might I just multiply the weeds ?

Or is there a better low cost fertilizer with less risk ?

[muddled]

Is it a big pile at your stables?

Dig out the stuff from the very middle of the pile. Here it will have been heated enough to kill almost all of the weed seeds.

[Nicos]

I think chicken poo -if you can get hold of it- contains the least viable weed seeds?

[Nicos]

I would have said that cows digest their food better than horses, and so cow manure might be better to try.....

But then I found this article just now!

http://www.extension.umn.edu/agricul...ck-systems.pdf

It's an interesting read!

[Ovce dom�c�]

We'll be doing it with sheep droppings. From what Ive gathered we need to compost it for 6 months to kill all the e coli and stuff like that, the hotter it gets the better for this so we'll have it in a warm spot in a plastic compost unit. Going by what Muddled says that should kill the weed seeds too.

All advice points to using "well rotted compost".

[Aberdeenplotter]

The victorians used to use horse muck as a heat source for their greenhouses and for heated beds. A big enough pile of the stuff in raw condition with plenty straw through will generate enough heat to kill any weed seeds or pathogens. I use cow dung because it does tend to be cleaner andit's not too fiery. Chicken muck is very high in nitrogen so beware if using it. if your muck is very weedy, the chances are it hasn't had a good heat.

[alldigging]

If you have room for a big stack of it then get some and stack it for a few months. Else use it in layers in your compost heap.

[bearded bloke]

There is a lateral advantage to seeing weeds growing from horse muck ......It shows that they have not been grazing on pastures that have been sprayed with "selective" weed killers & thus your crops will not suffer from aminopyralid poisoning

[Penellype]

I would have said that cows digest their food better than horses, and so cow manure might be better to try.....

But then I found this article just now!

http://www.extension.umn.edu/agricul...ck-systems.pdf

It's an interesting read!

Very interesting - thanks for the link.

One of the things about horses is that they are messy eaters. Hay contains a lot of grass seed and this can easily drop to the floor while they are eating and be swept up and put on the muckheap. I estimate I probably put about a cupful of hay seed onto the muckheap from every stable I muck out. As has already been said, it pays to collect muck from the middle of the pile where it is likely to have got hot enough to kill most seeds.

Some seeds are extremely tough. I noticed tomatoes germinating in my potato buckets which contained only compost which had come out of the hotbin!

[Snadger]

I get a lot of weeds using hoss muck but I do get it for free and weeds once cleared become a good mulch! The good it does to the soil structure outweighs the extra work involved weeding, in my view anyway! If I had a choice and was paying for it I think i would opt for cow muck.