This topic contains 3 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by charles 13 years ago.
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Ideally I aim to spread the manure before growing onions and garlic, in October for garlic and before Christmas for onions – so that it is mostly taken in by worms before planting autumn salad, after the harvest of allium bulbs. This helps to keep slug numbers down in those tender leaves. Through August I am planting salads into soil that has only a thin residual mulch of last winter’s compost and manure.
However, in a dry year such as this, you should be alright with compost or well rotted manure that has been spread this summer, and I would expect your autumn salads to grow well.
This post caught my eye and is relevant all through the year – see April’s post on harvesting parsnips, planting potatoes on the same day, then compost/manure on top.
Recently I finished harvesting from a bed of overwintered leeks. I trod the clean, dry soil sown as it had loosened a bit when leeks were pulled out, exposing some lumps; then I watered it and spread an inch of mushroom compost, prior to planting summer beans in the middle or end of May. I water dry soil before spreading compost so that worms and other soil life can move freely underneath. Then if the weather stays dry there is a downward movement of soil organisms to moister zones which often happens in summer, although the organic matter on top does help to conserve moisture.
A question from Bath, 25 April 2011:
I came on your day course on the 6th april and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you so much. We have since built a double compost bin and I’ve ordered some seeds. I’m in a dilemma over compost! We need to put 2inches of compost on our soil but I feel so unsure of where to get it. I’ve discovered Hinton Organics in Keynsham where the green waste goes. Obviously the green waste isn’t organic so will the composting process break down any ‘nasties’. Also, we could source compost from Monahan mushrooms. They aren’t organic so would that be suitable? We’d like to get some compost down this week of possible and would value your advice. (We live in Bath btw)
Charles’ reply:
It sounds like some good gardening going on. I recommend mushroom compost since you can source it, because, by comparison, green waste compost has more wood and risks using its nutrients to finish breaking down the woody bits, which can cause slower growth while that is happening, and we are now at a season when you want rapid growth.Regarding nasty residues, one can never be sure but the PAS 100 certificate for green waste composting, which I imagine Hinton Organics (and most other composting operations) adhere to, is a reasonable guarantee of clean compost.Mushroom growers use less pesticides and more biological controls than previously. Although the mushroom compost may be slightly strawy, depending how long it has been stacked after growing mushrooms, I would give it a go. (see also the forum post ‘compost’ by Sarah Bell)
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