Can duck sludge be used for fertilizer on gardens safely?

[Roothawg]

I have a couple of ducks and we are looking into the duckponix deal. I was just wondering if it is safe to use the sludge froma small duck pond for fertilizer on crops to be consumed by humans?

The reason I ask is, my daughter is in a biomedical program in HS and she tested the duck water to see what is in it. It was off scale with ecoli bacteria. I know that a few years back, that is what was causing a lot of problems with lettuce coming up from Mexico.

What say ye?

[geo in mi]

National Organic Program Standards: (USDA ORGANIC)

Any raw manure(which this should be considered to be) should be applied to your garden soil no earlier than 120 days before touching any edible plant part(carrot, lettuce, celery, onion, potato).--no later than 90 days before making contact with any plant part which will not be eaten.(green bean, brocolli, sweet corn)


Compost made with raw manure should be heated to 160 degrees, turned, and heated and turned two more times before using.

Hope this helps.

geo

[Maura]

Start out your garden with the duck sludge diluted with plenty of water. Just after you've seeded/planted. I've had plenty of duck and chicken manure in my garden from the critters bug hunting. The problem is getting the effluent on the part above ground that you eat, which has been a problem even in the US when it is used to irrigate green leafy vegetables as a spray. The plants will not bring up bacteria from their roots to the fruit or leaves.

[dkhern]

no way would i use it knowing it had ecoli. ecoli can be killed by heat but it cannot be washed off. splash some on your lettuce and possibly make everyone sick or dead. the lettuce outbreak was from calif due to wildhogs and there were several deaths through out the us primarily in at risk persons

[Danaus29]

Use the duck sludge on your lawn. Use the grass clippings to mulch your garden.

Duck sludge can safely be used on fruiting shrubs and trees if applied to the root zone and not used as a foliar spray.

ETA; can also be applied to the root zone of taller crops like corn and okra. Root zone application only. I wouldn't use it to spray on the crops.

[LittleRedHen]

I wouldn't without composting

[Roothawg]

I wasn't planning on sprayng it. I was just thinking of putting a drain in their "pond" to be able to remove the solids. I figured if it were directed to the garden, it might work ok. I think I may just bypasas the garden and aim it at my hedge row.