Horse Manure & Pine Shavings: Nitrogen Thief

[DAP]

At our place, we have a number of compost piles cookin. One is manure/shavings from the barn stalls. The other is pure manure, removed straight from the paddock(s) via a vacuum/shredder into a fine almost powder like form. The latter is used for gardening and is good as gold.

Rather offhandedly last week, I was talkin' to a neighbor who said that the pine shavings in the stall muck will zap the nitrogen from the manure content.

Is this valid?

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[rozett]

Your neighbor is correct. I have a large pile in one of my fields (and getting larger by the day). /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif What you should do is trim the pile down to 3-4 feet tall and turn it over several times during the summer and fall. It will 'compost' much more quickly that way. It really needs the oxygen to cook.

I will be using mine as a mulch on 250 highbush blueberries. Spreading a little bone meal down before the mulch will insure that the blueberries get the nitrogen they need.

 

[jimg]

Ive heard this too. In my case I have a large amt of shavings/straw mixed w/ goat manure and urine (lots of this). Im wondering whether the urea will add enough N back into the mix so its not a total loss, break even or a plus. What do you think? The best N Ive ever added to my garden was the chick manure. Wow, that stuff was amazing!

 

[Bird]

It seems that everyone agrees that decomposing wood chips draw nitrogen out of the soil, so I assume that's right. In my case, I put all the wood chips I could get directly onto my garden and tilled them in; let them compost there. I not only ran lots of oak and cedar directly through the chipper onto the garden, but when the crews were clearing the power lines, I got two big truck loads from them. But I also had a couple of truckloads of old manure I cleaned out of a calf barn that hadn't been cleaned out in 4 years, and I had a dozen breeding does (rabbits) that produced a fair amount of fertilizer. So I sure wouldn't worry about the savings and straw mixed with the goat manure.

 

[5030]

Dap:

I got one for you. If you have pine trees in your yard or property, the pines love metal turnings. Not non-ferrous, but steel turnings.

I spread mine under the pines. They love them.

 

[cowboydoc]

Do you have any research for this? I spread alot of manure and shavings every year on my pastures. In the spring after spreading all winter the places where I spread manure is much greener and grows twice as fast as the areas that weren't spread on. I'm not so sure this isn't one of those old wives tales.

 

[Junkman]

I always wanted to know how to grow iron wood.. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Egon]

Put the steel shavings under spruce to get Blue Spruce.

Egon

 

[5030]

I feel you guys are making fun of me, but it works. I think the metal leaches into the ground as it rusts and acidifies the soil. Pines like the acidic soil.

 

[Junkman]

Now I know why the pine tree that I used to park my Ford under grew so well!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif We wouldn't make fun of you, and you know that. Why you are one of us, just a big Kubota Huggy Bear! I will tell you that I did take the advise from you on how to straighten out the Maple tree that was leaning. It took 3 of those new pills inserted at the base overnight and in the morning it was straight as an arrow!!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif