This topic contains 8 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by BigR 11 years, 3 months ago.
-
Posts
-
Gosh, five allotments is a big area, and straw is a possible source of organic matter once composted to become reasonably dark and crumbly. Mushroom compost is mostly straw for example. But tcomposting it takes time and needs space, maybe use part of one allotment for doing it.
The problem with applying fresh straw mulches in our damp climate is slugs hiding and breeding underneath it. I tried hay and straw mulches once in 1983 and quickly realised their limitations! But composted straw is good and if you can find a little manure and green matter to add, that will improve the speed of process and quality of your result.
Last growing season I started no dig and having watched numerous permaculture youtube clips I did a straw mulch over all my fruit and veg plots. As Charles says I had a huge slug problem especially on potatoes, I hardly had any undamaged spuds.
The straw doesn’t rot down in one season either so I have now had to rake it all off and put it into the compost heap.
The only successful use of straw was on my soft fruit beds as a weed supressing method but I still used well rotted muck first, I’m not sure I’ll add any more straw this year if I can get hold of some well rotted muck instead.
How about getting the manure in bags (old feed bags). It’s labour intensive I know, but often horse owners and stable yards are only too pleased to get rid of their manure!
I concur that manure in bags if at all possible is the way to go. I have dug about 3 cubic meters each of the last 2 years, limited mainly by my time and it was a bit of an obstical course. climb gate in to friends barn and shovel in to feed sacks, lift over gate and in to back of car with the help of friendly cows (I was using old feed sacks and they clearly recognised them. Drive half a mile to alloments load in to barrow then tip on to allotment where needed. I try to do 2 trips per week over 2 to 3 months. It has produced some excelent crops this year an made a noticable differenct to both the soil life and water retention in my light sandy loam so well worth the effort and a lot cheeper than gym membership
hi ya, my local riding school sells large bages of manure for £1, it is well rotted wood shavings and manure, a few plot holders have advised against it why ? i have found that 6 bags cover a 8ft x 4 ft bed, is this manure ok or should i look for a supply with staw in it………pete
Hi Pete,
I asked a similar question a while back
http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/content/rotted-down-sawdust-and-horse-manure
Darren
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.