Okay, call it a sense of green. The turgor isn't what I would expect of a perky, happy plant. You say it yourself, "it's probably still settling in". No sign of nutrient problem, but not quite "shoosting up into the sky", either.

The bad actors are auxins which are growth regulators.
If there are problems they will show on new growth first.
I would say if you get a full set of new leaves that look normal you are good to go.

this is why sowing beans is a fairly reliable indicator of the presence of any significant amount of herbicide in a soil sample, they germinate and emerge quickly but are very sensitive to herbicide and you can see right away if there is any deformity.
KarenO

That looks really good considering it's all manure. I guess that 2-2-2 rating is bs then. I should increase my dosage lol.
I don't think that is contaminated, probably would have shown by now.

Anybody raised on a farm knows that plants can grow darn fine right around an animal pile.
The stuff to look out for is stuff like hogs dogs humans and so on, it is nasty.
2-2-2 is nothing for fertilizer.

Worth

[QUOTE=dmforcier;644009]Okay, call it a sense of green. The turgor isn't what I would expect of a perky, happy plant. You say it yourself, "it's probably still settling in". No sign of nutrient problem, but not quite "shoosting up into the sky", either.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it wasn't really a fair test because there was something wrong with that plant to begin with. It just wasn't growing and didn't have much root on it either when I put it in the puckey. Another week later it's still about the same size but has opened flowers on it now. I think the problem was the plant rather than the manure, at least it is staying healthy.

I am very close to the end of my proper container fixins and greenhouse spaces are full, so now contemplating how to do some puckey pots... whether to squeak them into the greenhouse space for a few days of adjustment, or just boldly plant them outside. :?!?: I guess the biggest question, do I have anything suitable left to mix with the puckey. :roll: Or top it with. I like that 'heat from the bottom' idea .... I need more peat but I don't want to haul it.. :(

I'd just top dress a few at this point... If you're already loaded with plants, there's no point in more manual labor. Use the energy to hunt 'shrooms.

:twisted: Actually, I should be planting other things. :panic: Got a bed for carrots... got a bed for peas... need to get the most basic lettuce and greens planted yet and could use that last bit of potting mix to get them started.
But tomatoes rule. :cry: They want it all, all the space, all the mix....
Mushroom hunting is later. :D

Horse manure, like rabbit manure, can be used fresh. If you used fresh manure and it burned or otherwise harmed the plant, your manure is not from a clean source.

The issue with horse manure is 1) what were the fields in which they were grazing sprayed with? and 2) what medication have the horses been treated with?

If you don't know the answer to both questions, definitely do not use fresh manure. My family sold our farm a few years back, we boarded horses and had our own. Our horses were 100% pastured in the summer months, supplemented with some hay and minerals. Nothing sprayed on the fields. Tomato plants thrive on fresh horse manure as the sole amendment. But I was always careful to avoid collecting manure from any animals treated with dewormer or other medications.

We sprayed the fence lines with glyphosate annually, late summer. I would not collect any more manure for the rest of the year.

Your best bet for a quality source is a private family farm with a few horses. It's better than anything you can purchase commercially.

Fresh manure is ideal as a top dressing. Well-aged manure can be used in containers at 1/3 the total volume of soilless mix (1/3 each peat, composted manure and structure). It's fantastic stuff. The best watermelons I ever grew were planted right in a giant pile of horse manure.

Just an update - I decided to try some manure as a top dressing on outdoor container plants. They perked up and liked it at first, but this particular manure had a lot of grassy bedding in it that was not rotted at all. So the happiness of 'manure' soon gave way to the discontent of 'grassy stuff not breaking down''. Those plants turned a paler green ie N deficiency was the result of not breaking it down first. Obviously not the same as having plain fresh manure.:|

A friend gave me a great tarp for covering the manure to rot it completely: black on one side. We used the black side out for this to get as much solar heat into the pile as possible. The tarp also prevents rain from washing all the nutrients into the ground. I haven't looked at the manure recently but the size of the pile has shrunk a lot, so I expect it will be in great shape when I'm ready to apply it in the fall. 8-):wait:

Yup, all of these thing offer benifits. But if you ever totally know what some mix companies put in a " profesional mix" you would puke. Uera ? Really ?

Do you mean urea?
What is wrong with urea?

Worth

I've been digging the manure into my garlic beds the past week... and I must say the tarp really did the job, it is looking much better than this spring and is really well rotted. It also broke down better under the tarp than the less rotted stuff which I dug into some beds in the spring.

I am sorry that I won't be repeating the 'tarped manure' plan on account of the rats that set up housekeeping in the pile. :shock:
OTOH, I guess I have to wonder how much work the rats did for me, eating the grass seeds in the pile. And adding urea, no doubt. :roll:
It's a shame that rats have such a bad history, we can only hate them. :(

urea is a nitrogen source. you excrete urea every time you empty your bladder of urine.