Any way to recover from this error?

[Honeybee]

It was sort of an error of necessity. We had a big fence line taken down by a neighbors hungry herd of cows just before the snow fell and couldn't fix it in time. We ended out having to put two weaning foals and 2 goats and a cow in our garden space for the winter which equals lots of fresh manure.

Do you think this will ruin my garden for the year?

Is there anything I can do to improve the situation short of hauling in dump truck load of top soil in?

Garden is aprox 80'x90'

All suggestions appreciated

Till it in and be thankful for the fertilizer. It would have to be pretty deep to do any harm.

.....Alan.

[Honeybee]

Thank you Alan, that's the best news I've had all day.

[steff bugielski]

I would only add that it is best to wait 3 months from animal to plant with fresh manure.

[chamoisee]

What is the problem? Except for possible ground compaction, it sounds like a wonderful error to have.

[Paquebot]

No carrots or potatoes. Other than that, till it deep to loosen it up and you're probably set for nutrients for several years.

Martin

[mnn2501]

I wish I had some fresh manure -- til it in real good and thank the cows that broke the fence down.

[mommagoose_99]

Check the soil Ph after you till the garden . You may need to lime the soil.
Linda

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by mommagoose_99

Check the soil Ph after you till the garden . You may need to lime the soil.
Linda

With that much manure, I seriously doubt if a drop of lime could possibly be considered. Fresh manures are over 8.0 pH.

Martin

[Honeybee]

Thank you all very much. I had heard it might be too hot for veggies and might kill them. Fortunately we feed on one side and we had so much snow this year they pretty much stay to that one side to hang out, the rest of the garden has a thinner layer of manure from last fall.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it.

Now if I could just get this snow to finish melting so I could get started - LOL

[Paquebot]

The "hot" part comes mainly from the 5% or more salt in most manures. Cow manure may be much higher. In addition to raising the salt to plant toxicity levels, the soil pH may be raised above where plants can obtain nutrients. They would actually starve while growing in a vast excess of food. By deep and thorough tilling, you stand a good chance of diluting it long enough for some of the salts to leach out and bacteria to break down any excess nitrogen.

Martin

[Honeybee]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

The "hot" part comes mainly from the 5% or more salt in most manures. Cow manure may be much higher. In addition to raising the salt to plant toxicity levels, the soil pH may be raised above where plants can obtain nutrients. They would actually starve while growing in a vast excess of food. By deep and thorough tilling, you stand a good chance of diluting it long enough for some of the salts to leach out and bacteria to break down any excess nitrogen.

Martin

So nice to know who/why this would happen, thank you. I think the ground has been pretty compacted so we may just hire a neighbor to disc or plow the ground for us before we till so we can get good and deep with the tiller.

I am learning so much here in this garden forum, it's great. Thank you.

[Honeybee]

The ground is finally thawed enough yesterday to till and we were fortunate enough to have a neighbor till our space for us very thoroughly.

However, we still have a couple of corners where the manure was thickest and what i was wondering is are there veggies that would do best there? I mean real heavy feeders that would benefit from the heavier manure content? Also, are there some veggies I should plant farther away from those areas?

Martin mentioned potatoes and carrots, I'm curious as to whether it's bad for them or for us and does that mean I should keep all the root veggies out of those more heavily manured areas?

[Paquebot]

If you plan to grow squash or pumpkins, they can handle a lot of manure. Somewhere between your heaviest and lightest application can be reserved for the cabbages and their kin. Most other surface crops would also go into that zone. Potatoes and carrots would go on the lightest side.

Martin

[Honeybee]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

If you plan to grow squash or pumpkins, they can handle a lot of manure. Somewhere between your heaviest and lightest application can be reserved for the cabbages and their kin. Most other surface crops would also go into that zone. Potatoes and carrots would go on the lightest side.

Martin

Thank you so much Martin, this helps a whole bunch!