Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

A garden is only as good as the ground that it's planted in. Discussion forum for the many ways to improve the soil where we plant our gardens.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old February 5, 2007   #1
mresseguie
Tomatovillian™
 
mresseguie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Oregon
Posts: 159
Default LLAMA MANURE for compost

Hello, all.

Last summer I met a llama breeder in my area (Oregon) who has a herd of 55 llamas. Oddly enough, these animals produce voluminous amounts of manure. The breeder is eager to rid himself of much of the manure, and has gladly offered to give me some. (approx. 8 pickup loads so far)

Prior to my meeting, I had done some reading on how great llama manure is for the soil. Since August I have been adding this stuff to my beds. I am eager to start planting in this soil to see just how great it is.

So.....my questions........

Has anyone out there tried llama manure or llama manure compost before? Is it all that it is cracked up to be? Do some veggies perform better than others? Are there any problems associated with using it?

I look forward to any and all replies.

Best regards,

Michael in OR....zone 8
__________________
Learning to speak tomato!
Got compost?
mresseguie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 5, 2007   #2
garnetmoth
Tomatovillian™
 
garnetmoth's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: cincinnati, oh
Posts: 492
Default

well, they have 3 stomachs, so Id guess they should be closer to cow manure than horse manure?

http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/mg/southeast/Apr03.htm

this says llama poo is less smelly, and can be added over the winter to condition for the spring.

I dont know what pathogens llamas could harbor, but in general its safer to compost manure (except worm casting, theyre pretty safe as-is)

good luck!
garnetmoth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 5, 2007   #3
landarc
Tomatovillian™
 
landarc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Left Coasty
Posts: 964
Default

My sister's garden is llama poo based and is fabulous. She started with really bad silty clay and has been amending with llama poo for three years now. Her garden grows fabulous veggies, and the flavor is better than anything I grow, despite the fact that the seed is the same. I will say that she also cover crops clover and fava beans in the winter.

The was no real composting process and llama is known for not requiring composting as it is not as hot, and is fairly well processed fresh from the factory upon release.
__________________
Lets see...$10 for Worth and $5 for Fusion, man. Tomatoes are expensive!

Bob
landarc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 5, 2007   #4
Ruth_10
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: MO z6a near St. Louis
Posts: 1,349
Default

Llama manure is fabulous! Get as much as you can get your hands on (use your shovel. The previous owners of our place raised show llamas and left behind a nice-sized pile of llama manure. The top of the pile was fresh stuff, below was well composted. We used it heavily on the area that was to be our melon patch, and we went from clay to beautiful loam in one season. The cantaloupe and watermelon loved it.

Llamas belong to the camel family and as such extract a lot of moisture from their poops before pooping (pardon the technical language here). Llamas like to poop in the same spot and the poops are more or less pelleted. They will take up water if left out in the rain and the stuff will get slippery (I got our lawn tractor stuck while hauling some ).

I'm not aware of any pathogens that one should be concerned about. Most people who have llamas take pretty good care of them.

So go for it!
__________________
--Ruth

Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.
Ruth_10 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 6, 2007   #5
PaulF
Tomatovillian™
 
PaulF's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Brownville, Ne
Posts: 3,276
Default

How about alpaca poop? My brother and his wife raise alpacas and I am sure with 15-20 of the animals they would have a ready supply.
__________________
there's two things money can't buy; true love and home grown tomatoes.
PaulF is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 6, 2007   #6
mresseguie
Tomatovillian™
 
mresseguie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Oregon
Posts: 159
Default

Awesome replies! Thank you very much for your enthusiastic replies. Despite there being llamas in this area, local gardeners <apparently> have yet to discover their 'contributions'.

Garnetmoth,

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that one in my search. I experimented with the dry pellets last year by adding a mulch layer of pellets to one of my tomato beds. They did an excellent job of retaining moisture. Unfortunately, I didn't make side-by-side comparisons using different mulching materials, so I can't claim the pellets are superior in that respect.

Landarc,

We have Willamette Valley clay just below the surface here, so I know where she's coming from. I hope I can get similar results this year.

Ruth,

I started a special bed last fall just for melons and/or squash that is 50% pellets. The rest is leaf mold, coffee grounds, straw and native soil.

My last load of pellets (in '06) was in November, and they were almost like clay themselves-wet, slimy, and slippery. I learned my lesson; I will allow it to dry a bit before I harvest it.

Paul,

Some of the information I was able to glean made mention of alpaca poop as being nearly identical to llama poop. Go for it!

In closing, I'd like to thank the moderators for this fine website community. I've learned many things since I stumbled upon it. I also just found the SSE website 2 days ago(!). I've already decided to try growing "Silvery Fruit Tree" tomatoes. I don't know how they'll do here as I haven't met anyone who grows them. Along with that discovery, I have ordered Carolyn's book. I look forward to it.

Thank you, all, for your contributions.

Regards,

Michael in OR....zone 8

Got compost?
(I love to compost.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
__________________
Learning to speak tomato!
Got compost?
mresseguie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 6, 2007   #7
feldon30
Tomatovillian™
 
feldon30's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 5,346
Default

I'm fairly certain alpaca manure can be used directly in the garden.
__________________
[SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] *

[I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]
feldon30 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 6, 2007   #8
PaulF
Tomatovillian™
 
PaulF's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Brownville, Ne
Posts: 3,276
Default

Great! In a month I'll get a big sheet of plastic to protect the pickup bed, throw the shovel in the back and alpaca manure here I come.
__________________
there's two things money can't buy; true love and home grown tomatoes.
PaulF is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:07 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★