[Ed Mashburn]

Good evening to all- I got tired of replanting my broccolli after the damned yard bunnies ate the young plants, so I bought enough plastic wire and stakes to go around the broc patch and fenced it all in. when I walked out to the garden at dusk a bit ago, the bunnies- three of them- were sitting and looking at the barrier around their previously free food and being confused.
I hope they starve to death.
tomorrow, I will make up a big five-gallon bucket of chicken-poop tea and pour the mix around the broc plants- they do love that burst of nitrogen.
Have any of you had good results from such hot manure tea? My broc and cauliflower plants love it.
good digging to all- Ed Mashburn

 

[mzgarden]

That's a funny visual - no more broccoli for bunnies.

 

[geo in mi]

If your reference to hot manure tea means manure straight from the bird, I wouldn't recommend it. Salmonella, and E. Coli come to mind. Fresh, uncomposted or unaged manure will not have had long enough for the potassium and phosphorus salts to leach away yet, and you will be pouring them directly onto your plants. Most tea makers will use composted or aged manure, steep it for a week, then cut it four to one with additional water. The nitrogen in chicken manure is mostly NH3, then with water, will volatilize, or evaporate into the air and be lost. It has to go through the mineralization process; that is, eaten by soil bacteria, which will die and decompose into NO3, which is water soluble and taken up by the roots.

In other words, the nitrogen already in your soil from previous fertilizations should do the trick of helping your chewed on plants to grow back. What you put on now, will be helpful in the future, but not as an immediate remedy.

geo