Was told to be careful using Humus/Manure

[tulsanurse1]

I purchased a bad of humus & manure to use in my container vegetable garden. I was in a feed store yesterday talking gardening and mentioned that I had purchased this, and the gentleman said to only place a small amount (about 2") in the bottom of the container because mixing it in could cause an quick influx of nitrogen in my soil, that would be too high and could damage my plants. Is there any truth to this?

[mensplace]

Originally Posted by tulsanurse1

I purchased a bad of humus & manure to use in my container vegetable garden. I was in a feed store yesterday talking gardening and mentioned that I had purchased this, and the gentleman said to only place a small amount (about 2") in the bottom of the container because mixing it in could cause an quick influx of nitrogen in my soil, that would be too high and could damage my plants. Is there any truth to this?

I do hope you bought the humus and manure after reading the back of the bag. here in GA, you find different grades and prices of bagged compost, topsoil, manure, etc. Sometimes they are over 60% "forest products", wood shavings, or pine bark mulch...NOT what the big letters say on the front. Not only does it then result in a graden or container full of nothing but wood and pine bark, but it results in stunted, spindly, yellow plants ...many of which will die. Trouble is the stuff requires a couple of seasons to break down while, as you were told, consuming the nitrogen and adding residual components such as pine resins...a la turpentine.

[korney19]

tulsanurse1, I see you posting a lot on what to use in containers. I grow in raised beds and maybe 60+ containers here, mostly tomatoes & peppers. I also usually use drip irrigation or drip fertigation (drip irrigation with a $50-$60 fertilizer injector that injects tiny, minute amounts of water soluble fertilizer into the lines EVERY TIME the plants are watered--2x/day.) Most of my containers are 4 or 5 gallons and as long as they are happily fed & watered, they do well and even grow some 2lb+ giants.

I don't know what you're planning to do for watering but I have found this setup works really well as long as they are watered and fed regularly. I water somewhere about 1/3rd to 1/2 gallon per container 2 times per day. You may need more in your climate.

For soil mixes, can you purchase municipal compost near you? In the suburbs maybe 10 miles away here, I can get compost from a facility for around $15/load. Or I can take rubbermaid containers and fill them myself there for around $2 each. Try calling around in your area for compost. Way out back in my yard, I literally added over a foot of compost to my pumpkin patch area--it's as high as my raised beds!

I usually use ProMix BX or Fafard's #2 soilless mixes. They are cheapest when bought in 3.8 cubic feet compressed bales. When uncompressed and fluffed up, they make around 6-7 cu ft per bale, or fill I think about 60 trade gallon pots.

I use a Harbor Freight cement mixer, it's a small investment if you plan on gardening for at least a few years. I think with sales & coupon it was around $189 for a 3cu ft mixer. I think this will be its 4th year of use.

For fresh mixes, I use about 1/2 to 2/3rds ProMix and the rest compost. I throw in about 3 buckets of promix, 2 buckets of compost, and a handful of a granular fertilizer like 4-6-4 (Walmart, $4 box) and a handful of osmocote or generic 14-14-14, or miracle gro time release 10-10-10 or For Roses (the roses I think is higher P, like 10-14-10 or something.)

I throw in about 3 or 4 shovels of the bagged Walmart manure, the cheap stuff, $1.67/bag. (about a shovel per container.)

All the while, the cement mixer has been mixing this all up for 3-4 minutes or more. I spray some water in with the hose to get everything moist but not too wet. On a tarp or piece of cardboard I place 4 buckets and then start tilting the drum downward to dispense the mix into the containers. Leftovers on the ground/tarp/cardboard are saved and put back into the mixer or used to top off the containers. I fill them to the top because they eventually settle a couple inches anyway.

When I plant the tomato transplants, I use a bulb planter. it cuts a hole about 3" round by however deep I insert it into the container (usually 6" or more.) I sprinkle in a little more time release fertilizer (10-10-10, 14-14-14, etc, but NOT higher-N versions than P & K), maybe just a teaspoon, and then set the plant. I kick or shake the container to fill in the top above the rootball.

When all are done, I use a hose end sprayer (Ortho Dial-N-Spray), and use some Maxicrop seaweed powder in water, at about 0.5 teaspoon rate, and saturate each container. Then I do a pH test, which is usually 6.0-6.5. The only thing left is a bamboo stake with velcro to fasten the plant to it to protect it from winds. They eventually get placed into a larger cage or pen for their final destination.

The following year, I reuse much of everything. I dump 1 or 2 containers into the cement mixer, ad more fresh Promix and more compost, and start the process all over again. Any extra old stuff goes out back into the pumpkin patch.

Hope this helps!

Mark

[tjg911]

while not familiar with what you bought, the concern about nitrogen would apply to fresh manure and too much aged manure, each causing different problems.

while rabbit and llama manure can be used straight from the animal, all other manure need to age. this is because they are too 'hot' when fresh to be used as fertilizer and can kill plants.

too much (aged and safe to use as it is not 'hot') manure puts too much nitrogen into the soil and nitrogen promotes vigorous green leafy growth. now if you are growing lettuce, chard, spinach, any greens then that's fine but for other crops you'll get a lot of green plant and not so much of what the plant is grown for. in this case, you'd have large leafy plants but get low amounts of tomatoes. i doubt you could buy 'hot' manure in a bag usually that would be gotten from a farm. in a 5 gallon pail aged/composted dehydrated manure i'd use about 10-20% mixed with whatever else you are using whether compost, soil, promix etc.

tom