Thoughts on fertilizer -- 2023

[PaulF]

A bunch of years ago there was a friend who supplied fresh chicken manure for the taking. After a few months of breaking down into chicken manure compost it got applied to a section the the garden. Lesson to be learned; chicken manure needs to be COMPLETELY composted before using as fertilizer. That stuff was still so hot even after a couple of months it burned that section of the garden. The next year everything grew just fine but no more chicken manure for this garden.

[VirginiaClay]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Did you mean Black Kow? Big box stores like HD sell it.

If so, I bought it once, it looked impressive but I left it in a wheel barrow overnight and the next day it was light like sand. I tossed the bag into the bushes and over a year later when I picked up a disintergrating bag, it was a pile of sand.

I had the exact same experience with Black Kow, and I too threw the bag away because I didn't want to add sand to my soil. Now when I want cow manure I buy a product labeled "dehydrated manure" from our local garden center, a branded product from Pennsylvania Dutch country. The garden center also sells regular composted cow manure under their own label, and it's not a bad product, but the dehydrated manure seems to be more manure and less filler. Of course, it's also more expensive, so it probably evens out.