to add dried chicken manure to our organic veggie garden? We have an egg farm near us and have gotten the dried manure in the past but not for several years, and we're later than we would have hoped for adding it to the soil. We usually plant our summer seeds in early May as we are at 700 meters. We want to plant cool weather crops now but can we do that right after adding the manure? or do we have to wait some amount of time (how long) before planting anything once we add the manure?
-Sada Sat
-www.yogaborgo.com

Depends how fresh the manure is. If absolutely fresh, it will need at least six months before the danger of burning your plants passes. Twelve months would be ideal. You also need to be careful of using only chicken manure to enrich the soil. You can end up with potassium level problems. Best, if possible, to add a mix of chicken and horse or cow. I prefer horse because it's easier to work with than cow. And neither horse nor cow need to age as long as chicken before it's usable.

Thanks Graeme,

I don't know how old the manure is, only that it's dry as opposed to fresh. So we may just wait until next fall...
-Sada Sat
-www.yogaborgo.com

Provided it's not fresh - and as this is dry, maybe it isn't ? - then Spring is the very best time to add poultry manure to the garden.

It has high nitrogen content and this provides a kick-start to initial growth as it stimulates leaf production. Best not add poultry manure in Autumn because the nutrients get washed away. Autumn's the time for heavy farmyard manure - horse, cow, pig.

Add poultry manure prudently - about a good shovelful per sq metre. Don't let it touch stems of young plants. Either gently fork it into the top 2-3ins of soil, or just water it, leave it, and the worms will do the job for you. (And even if they don't, leaving this manure on the surface provides a good water-retaining mulch and the nutrients will gradually percolate down into the soil).

If it's dried, it's not fresh. Maybe ask them at the egg farm roughly how old it is. Even if it's too fresh to use now, you can dig it into a long-term compost heap and use it next season.

Thank you all. We will check on how old it is. Adding the compost could be a good compromise. We always have a couple of bins going.

Re: earthworms. We don't have any! This makes me think that at one time this soil was not so good and they have not found their way back (?).
Do you know how we can buy some, either on line or in a garden shop? We're in the area of Citta di Castello/Sansepolcro. not too far from Arezzo or Perugia.

-Sada Sat
-www.yogaborgo.com

Good question. I used to get them by the small bucketful from garden nurseries in Australia. Haven't seen them available here. Are there any horse stables/properties in the area? Horse manure with some age to it is usually loaded with the little wrigglers.

Lombricoltura Cortonese San Lorenzo 52042 Camucia AR Tel 0575 692226.

We buy bagged compost, chipped bark and chopped pine cones for ground cover from this wonderful wholesale place (does retail). They may be able to assist re worms.

quote:

Originally posted by Sada Sat:

Re: earthworms. We don't have any! This makes me think that at one time this soil was not so good and they have not found their way back (?).

To quote a line from 'Field of Dreams' wildly out of context - 'Build it - and they will come'.

Or more prosaically, shovel on the chickensh*t and the worms will return.