Well rotted or not well rotted? That is the question…

[Al Kaline]

Hello, me and my wife are in the ever rewarding process of turning an over grown strong hold of weeds allotment into a no dig paradise.

Progress has been good. We managed to get a load of what we have been assured is 100% organic well rotted horse manure but instead of the crumbly easy to spread stuff I imagined well rotted horse manure to be, it is sticky, bit like mud and has straw still in it. It does not however have any pungent smell which i know is a good sign and there are some worms present.

I am wondering if this stuff is good to plant into and if there are any special proceedures to get the best out of it. I will attach some photos. Thanks !

[Al Kaline]

Here are the photos. The first is of how it looks straight out of the bin liner the pile came in and second picture is how it looks after some hard work!

[charles]

Al it’s almost ok. If you had got that on before Christmas, it would be soft and friable now.
However it’s still sticky and will probably go hard as it dries, so not ideal. You can plant larger plants in and through it, but not sow seeds direct, yet.

[Al Kaline]

Thanks massively for your response and help Charles. I currently have many brussels, various salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, etc. all growing in modules almost ready to go in. Is there a certain thickness of ground compost that I should be aiming for when it comes to this almost ready stuff? I am thinking a 6 inch mulch may be too much as the bottom of the plugged plants should touch the ground beneath the compost in order to avoid their roots getting “stuck in the mud”.

Also as the weather turns hot and this stuff turns hard is there anyway other than constant watering to keep it from becoming rock solid and unworkable? (I previously had some compost of similar composition in the back garden that turned almost to rock during the scorching months).

and finally, I am wondering if anyone knows or has had experience with whether mixing something like mushroom compost or some kind of other dry compost in with this stuff may help?

[Don Foley]

Hi Al,

I have had the same issue in the past where I was very late putting the Horse Manure on the bed, too late for mother nature to fully break it down.
The only way I found to deal with this situation was to break the lumps down by hand around each planting hole.
A lot of work, I know, but served as a lesson to me to make sure I get this particular form of compost down on the beds as early in autumn/winter as I can.
I’m just wondering now as I write, if mixing leafmould with it might slow the drying out and prevent it becoming so hard? Any thoughts anyone?

Don.

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