horse manure on garden

[vintageozarks]

We have a horse ranch close by and the manure is free and checks out to be free of chemicals so we put it on our garden last spring. Everything grew real well.

The marigolds we planted along the outside border of the garden grew to over 7 foot tall and bloomed prolifically.

Our tomato plants, however, were short, produced abundant tomatoes, and then just stopped producing but still produced leaves and were healthy plants.

I later learned that tomatoes don't like a lot of nitrogen, and horse manure is high in nitrogen. Is there anything I can counteract the nitrogen with? for next year.

[egon]

Perhaps leave a dedicated area for tomatoes. Then adjust that area's soil for tomato growth. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon's reply is great advice even if not an answer to your question.

Considerable nitrogen is consumed from the soil by decomposing carboniferous materials. Saw dust and wood chips take a lot of soil nitrogen when decomposing. Saw dust does more quicker and chips does less per unit time but lasts much longer. Either or both will reduce soil nitrogen. Don't be afraid you will remove too much nitrogen from the tomato plot as it is easy to supplement if you go too far (as determined by DIY soil tests from kits available at good garden supply places.)

Another good way if your land use situation permits is to follow Egon's good advice and plant tomatoes somewhere you haven't over fertilized.

Composting the manure prior to use is extra work but a more satisfactory result.

Best of luck to you and maybe yoiu can find a commercial use for marigolds.

Pat

[Jimmyp5]

yep, using raw horse manure is too hot for Tomato plants and you run the risk of killing most everything depending on how "fresh" the manure is. Horses pass on a lot of what they eat and if the hay has been treated recently with 2-4-D then you could really hurt the garden. Compost horse manure for at least a year and all the chemical half-life will be gone and safe for milder crops like tomatos, watermellon etc.