I came to this forum to ask a question and got sidetracked!

I have recently added a heap of horse manure to one of my vege patches and (as anticipated) have a rash of weeds to deal with.

I can deal with that, but it raises another question.

I seem never to have had the same weed problem (quantity and “quality”) with other manures (sheep / pig / poultry ).

That led me to wonder why is it that horse paddocks seem always to be paddocks full of weeds.
Is it only the ones that I see or is this a generally “fact” of horse life.

Do they just eat out all the regular pasture grasses until there are only weeds left? Paddocks with other grazing animals seem to quite different.

I think that they must eat the weeds (or at least the seeds) for them to be so predominant in the manure.

So far as I know they are usually fed lucerne hay, so that can’t be the source of the weeds I am seeing here (eg marshmallow).

IN the valley where I live people are complaining about the bike groups who periodically put it on their day-out route and it is nothing to have well over a hundred motor bikes roaring through.

To be honest though, they don’t bother me nearly as much as the horses pooping the length of the valley and so distributing their weeds.

(I know it isn’t the horse’s fault, but the owner’s)

I often wonder why their owners are not required to clean up their messes as dogs’ owners are.

It is beginning to seem that what I should be doing is only using the manure as a liquid manure.

Would other gardeners mind offering suggestions please?
I am on a bush block and my vege patch is at the top of the hill, so wind borne seeds are an issue and I need to reduce the risks as much as possible.
Thanks in advance (and I should say that most of the questions I do have for here have been answered in the past … for which I thank all those who titled their questions in ways that make my searching easier :))

Damn … add cow manure, I forgot that.
I know that much of the poultry manure would have included pellets, but the animals I am trying to compare with the horses are the regular farmland grazing animals whose manure has been collected from the paddocks (or under the shearing shed in the case of the sheep).

Hi jj. I find around here you get specific weeds from specific poo. I used to get straw and manure from a racing stable, and that always grew oats. Easy to pull out and lay across the top for digging in later. The sheep poo from under the shearing sheds is good, has a little bit of wool in it…..grows nettles. Lots of nettles. Pull and put into compost bin, although some people make nettle tea and stuff, I think. The most weedy poo was from the dairy cows, although really it was just pasture grasses and again you just have to be vigilant.

More recently I have been digging a trench and putting the manure in that and then filling in over the top of it. It can stew under there quite nicely for a few weeks, and then I plant lettuce or something on top. The manure settles before the roots reach it, if you time it right. Then it all just gets dug in at the next turning over time.

Although when I think about it, I scattered the sheep poo amongst the plants a couple of weeks ago…..so I guess there will be a crop of nettles before too much longer!

Oh, and by the way, it is a particularly good season for quality weeds this year.

:)

Thanks buffy .. now that you mention it, nettles and the sheep poo at the farm certainly did go together.

and it is a particularly good weeds year here too.

jj said:

I came to this forum to ask a question and got sidetracked!

I have recently added a heap of horse manure to one of my vege patches and (as anticipated) have a rash of weeds to deal with.

I can deal with that, but it raises another question.

I seem never to have had the same weed problem (quantity and “quality”) with other manures (sheep / pig / poultry ).

That led me to wonder why is it that horse paddocks seem always to be paddocks full of weeds.
Is it only the ones that I see or is this a generally “fact” of horse life.

Do they just eat out all the regular pasture grasses until there are only weeds left? Paddocks with other grazing animals seem to quite different.

I think that they must eat the weeds (or at least the seeds) for them to be so predominant in the manure.

So far as I know they are usually fed lucerne hay, so that can’t be the source of the weeds I am seeing here (eg marshmallow).

IN the valley where I live people are complaining about the bike groups who periodically put it on their day-out route and it is nothing to have well over a hundred motor bikes roaring through.

To be honest though, they don’t bother me nearly as much as the horses pooping the length of the valley and so distributing their weeds.

(I know it isn’t the horse’s fault, but the owner’s)

I often wonder why their owners are not required to clean up their messes as dogs’ owners are.

It is beginning to seem that what I should be doing is only using the manure as a liquid manure.

Would other gardeners mind offering suggestions please?
I am on a bush block and my vege patch is at the top of the hill, so wind borne seeds are an issue and I need to reduce the risks as much as possible.
Thanks in advance (and I should say that most of the questions I do have for here have been answered in the past … for which I thank all those who titled their questions in ways that make my searching easier :))

Largely and it should be clear that if the seeds pass through the horse then they aren’t being digested. The Horse probably wouldn’t normally eat these weed seeds but for the fact that the paddock they are in usually contains little else. It comes down to lack of care and maintenance of the horse paddock. Often horses are agisted in someone else’s paddock and the horse owner doesn’t see the paddock maintenance or the pasture maintenance as their responsibility. In many cases the horse paddocks contain little at all to eat and the horse would starve if no hay was given.

Choosing the place where you source the horse manure amy be a smart move. I tend to try to get it from where I know what the horses are being fed. Otherwise composting the horse manure first may be the only option.

Yes, composting the horse manure if you don’t want weedy seeds is a good idea, liquid manure is ideal or, as Buffy said, bury it for a while until you’re certain the “seed burst” has run it’s course…

Unusual to get seeds in cow manure, it is in the cow’s gut for x number of days and is generally not viable when passed out in the cow pat.

I can’t speak for sheep (or roo) manure, I’m afraid, except it’s a “cool manure” (from what I can recall) and doesn’t need the composting to get the “heat” out of it that horse manure usually does…

Thanks.

The gypsies call the droppings of the ewe, gold. Yes the sheep droppings contain weeds but the rewards are worth it.

I’m a big fan of liquid manure.

Horse manure I always leave in the bags it was shoveled into to allow the vermicides to dissipate. Weeds are actually welcome here as another source of greens for chooks.
I like sheep manure best though, it seems to retain moisture better than the other manures. I use it as a mulch around fruit trees.
Cow manure gets dumped into an old compost bin and left to rot down, then dug into vege beds. Likewise, chicken manure gets mixed with old eucalypt mulch and left in a big pile until it’s composted down then used to fill raised beds

A combination of all the manures get stuffed into a large old nylon mesh mailbag and sat in a 220 lt drum of rainwater. < this bottomless drum of liquid manure self fills with rainwater that drips from a downpipe leak. After a couple months it’s full again and just keeps on keeping on. After 2 + years it’s very potent. Each month I draw off 6-10 × 3 litre pet plastic bottles of it and hand it out to other gardeners.

I like the sound of your set up Happy Potter.
I should also add that I had forgotten the basic knowledge about cattle and their longer digestive tracts!
Thank you all for your thoughts and I shall get back to my garden .

Cow manure is not a “hot” manure like stabled horse manure (horses tend to urinate on this more than they do in the paddock, this leads to a higher urea content). Paddocked horse manure is not as “hot” as the stabled stuff and may contain different seed types. I’ve let it age a bit in the paddock, about 4 weeks will do it, and then either thrown straight on the garden as mulch or into a 60 litre container for liquid manure…

Dry cow manure I throw straight onto the garden bed, it makes wonderful tilth of the soil…

I noticed at the race track yesterday a goodly scattering of roo poo, which is, IMO, very much like sheep poo…a dry pellet type…the grass is holding it’s own over there, possibly because of this roo poo…

The chicken manure I scrape from under the roost has had lime added from time to time (to cut down the mild smell and also to deter flies a bit), I put into the compost and NOW I turn it once or twice and after 6 weeks it goes onto the roses…they’ve bloomed madly this year so they must like it…

Dinetta said:

The chicken manure I scrape from under the roost has had lime added from time to time (to cut down the mild smell and also to deter flies a bit), I put into the compost and NOW I turn it once or twice and after 6 weeks it goes onto the roses…they’ve bloomed madly this year so they must like it…

I should add: these scrapings include the shredded paper / newsprint that I put under the roosts, it makes the droppings easier to collect…

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

It never has been …

But then the thing horse manure and urine is best at doing, is rapid composting of wood fibres.
er, if at first it is realised that in composting, so too do the weed seeds make humus.

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

It never has been …

But then the thing horse manure and urine is best at doing, is rapid composting of wood fibres.
er, if at first it is realised that in composting, so too do the weed seeds make humus.

…but they make more weeds if not composted…If I find my encyclopaedia of organic gardening I could add more to this debate….I don’t have it all in my head like you do, RoughBarked…

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

It never has been …

But then the thing horse manure and urine is best at doing, is rapid composting of wood fibres.
er, if at first it is realised that in composting, so too do the weed seeds make humus.

…but they make more weeds if not composted…If I find my encyclopaedia of organic gardening I could add more to this debate….I don’t have it all in my head like you do, RoughBarked…

wish it would all keep staying there.. my problem is that I need you and all of you. A big problem is that there aren’t more of you. If I didn’t have the stimulus of me reading something that someone writes, I’d lose why I thought I had a memory of something like that.. Has anyone ever watched Daphne on the eggheads, oon ABC @5PM weekdays?

roughbarked said:

wish it would all keep staying there.. my problem is that I need you and all of you. A big problem is that there aren’t more of you. If I didn’t have the stimulus of me reading something that someone writes, I’d lose why I thought I had a memory of something like that.. Has anyone ever watched Daphne on the eggheads, oon ABC @5PM weekdays?

I can relate…and I thought it was I’ve never recovered mentally from raising 5 kidlets?

If Daphne is on iView, I’ll have a look…hope it’s good for a laugh?

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

wish it would all keep staying there.. my problem is that I need you and all of you. A big problem is that there aren’t more of you. If I didn’t have the stimulus of me reading something that someone writes, I’d lose why I thought I had a memory of something like that.. Has anyone ever watched Daphne on the eggheads, oon ABC @5PM weekdays?

I can relate…and I thought it was I’ve never recovered mentally from raising 5 kidlets?

If Daphne is on iView, I’ll have a look…hope it’s good for a laugh?

I’ve never seen anyone who can carry off, it is a complete guess, like anyone I’ve ever otherwise seen.

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

wish it would all keep staying there.. my problem is that I need you and all of you. A big problem is that there aren’t more of you. If I didn’t have the stimulus of me reading something that someone writes, I’d lose why I thought I had a memory of something like that.. Has anyone ever watched Daphne on the eggheads, oon ABC @5PM weekdays?

I can relate…and I thought it was I’ve never recovered mentally from raising 5 kidlets?

If Daphne is on iView, I’ll have a look…hope it’s good for a laugh?

I’ve never seen anyone who can carry off, it is a complete guess, like anyone I’ve ever otherwise seen.

I’m at a loss to wonder why Nitrogen is mentioned as problem. Simply because that in the scheme of things it is vital. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/horse-dung-poses-threat-to-national-parks/5087908 Same goes for the P in NPK.

Management is the real issue. Horse riding should be carried out in areas not specified as environmentally significant in retaining the integrity of the aspect of the landscape.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

I can relate…and I thought it was I’ve never recovered mentally from raising 5 kidlets?

If Daphne is on iView, I’ll have a look…hope it’s good for a laugh?

I’ve never seen anyone who can carry off, it is a complete guess, like anyone I’ve ever otherwise seen.

I’m at a loss to wonder why Nitrogen is mentioned as problem. Simply because that in the scheme of things it is vital. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/horse-dung-poses-threat-to-national-parks/5087908 Same goes for the P in NPK.

Management is the real issue. Horse riding should be carried out in areas not specified as environmentally significant in retaining the integrity of the aspect of the landscape.

Probably what I am trying to say is that at best we can only hope to retain most of what falls from the horses’ arse from the stable.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

I’ve never seen anyone who can carry off, it is a complete guess, like anyone I’ve ever otherwise seen.

I’m at a loss to wonder why Nitrogen is mentioned as problem. Simply because that in the scheme of things it is vital. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/horse-dung-poses-threat-to-national-parks/5087908 Same goes for the P in NPK.

Management is the real issue. Horse riding should be carried out in areas not specified as environmentally significant in retaining the integrity of the aspect of the landscape.

Probably what I am trying to say is that at best we can only hope to retain most of what falls from the horses’ arse from the stable.

In reality, if no one has guessed, I am suggesting that a liquid manure made from composted horse manure would be a mostly beneficial bio-organic method of improving existing remnant native vegetative re-afforestation.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

I’m at a loss to wonder why Nitrogen is mentioned as problem. Simply because that in the scheme of things it is vital. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/horse-dung-poses-threat-to-national-parks/5087908 Same goes for the P in NPK.

Management is the real issue. Horse riding should be carried out in areas not specified as environmentally significant in retaining the integrity of the aspect of the landscape.

Probably what I am trying to say is that at best we can only hope to retain most of what falls from the horses’ arse from the stable.

In reality, if no one has guessed, I am suggesting that a liquid manure made from composted horse manure would be a mostly beneficial bio-organic method of improving existing remnant native vegetative re-afforestation.

What the horse has to eat is what it is all about.

“I came to this forum to ask a question and got sidetracked!”>

I came to read and got sidetracked..

sorry about that.

It may appear odd that in my music folder there comes up this.. ♫Remember the Future (Part 1) | Nektar | Remember the Future♪♩

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

get the riders to pick up after their horses.

bluegreen said:

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

get the riders to pick up after their horses.

ha.

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

Dinetta said:

Horse dung not appreciated in National Parks

get the riders to pick up after their horses.

ha.

Horse Diaper

bluegreen said:

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

get the riders to pick up after their horses.

ha.

Horse Diaper

Well spotted. :)

roughbarked said:

I’m at a loss to wonder why Nitrogen is mentioned as problem. Simply because that in the scheme of things it is vital. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/horse-dung-poses-threat-to-national-parks/5087908 Same goes for the P in NPK.

Management is the real issue. Horse riding should be carried out in areas not specified as environmentally significant in retaining the integrity of the aspect of the landscape.

Did they mention nitrogen? I just skimmed and saw about the weed seed issue…

roughbarked said:

In reality, if no one has guessed, I am suggesting that a liquid manure made from composted horse manure would be a mostly beneficial bio-organic method of improving existing remnant native vegetative re-afforestation.

Agree…

bluegreen said:

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

get the riders to pick up after their horses.

ha.

Horse Diaper

I could have done with that when the smart-erse baitch of a vet asked me to collect a urine sample from Gambler…her hint was that we weren’t “serious” horse people like most of her horsey clients and that’s why this would be an issue for us…hur hur hur…didn’t knock our money back tho’…