Worth, thinking about the debris found in a load of manure, the only thing remarkable in last year's was a large amount of plastic tags off of bread bags. Wonder if he feeds bread to the horses?
Anyhoo here is the starting pic for my cruel test. If anything is meaner than leaving a runty tomato for seven weeks in a 9 cell, it would be sticking that runty root directly into this stuff with no amendments or other ferts.
There is maybe more unrotted hay in it than I thought, very grassy and not a good texture on its own, for sure, although worms in every handful, so it won't be grassy for long if we get some warm days. The unfortunate plant is now put in the rainy day greenhouse so a bit of simultaneous hardening off in store. No 'controls' in this experiment, but at least there's a pic! If the leaves green up or the plant grows it can be judged a plain miracle.
I often have seen a bit of leaf curling on tomatoes when their roots encounter a cold and clammy bit of raw kelp just after transplant. They recoil and throw their leaves in the air with as much drama as they can muster. However they soon get over it. We shall see if this is worse.
