Chicken manure?

Discussion in 'Compost, Fertilisers & Recycling' started by Fat Controller, May 29, 2013.

  1. Fat Controller

    Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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    I am in the process of getting my re-usable grow bags ready to sow spring onions, lettuce (got some small ones in the greenhouse ready to plant out), beetroot, carrots, leeks and cauliflowers.

    Putting the compost into one of the bags today, I wondered if I should have been intermingling some chicken manure pellets to give stuff that added 'oomph'?
     
  2. "M"

    "M" Total Gardener

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    As you may well recall, I have fresh. and well rotted, chicken manure.

    Last year, I added the rotted manure to anything and everything: I was NOT disappointed :thumbsup: (some of it wasn't even *that* well manured :redface: )

    So, putting business head on:

    Battery farming produces plenty of waste product; waste product which would appeal to the gardening fraternity. Supply and demand. Simples.

    Chicken pellets = a gin & tonic to your plants; aka a booster - so, go for it! Just double check that what you are planting is in need of such a booster (and I'm too, too, 'beginner' to be discerning/experienced) :redface:
     
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    • Fat Controller

      Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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      Thanks Mum - the question now of course is how I identify whether my lettuces etc will benefit from a boost.
       
    • rustyroots

      rustyroots Total Gardener

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      Chicken manure contains high nitrogen so is very good for leafy growth. I put it in all my beds at the start of the season and then feed my brassicas with it through the year and use a general fertiser for everything else ( the one I use is an organic one call 6x I think).

      Rusty
       
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      • clueless1

        clueless1 member... yep, that's what I am:)

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        I generally use chicken poo pellets as a convenient and safe fertiliser. I do have a box of Miracle Grow but I don't like using it because I'm never sure I've got the measures right, and being 'neat' I believe it has to be somewhere near right because unlike manure, which is 'slow release' on account of the nutrients still being locked up, and needing to be unlocked by microbial activity, the chemical options are 'quick release' being available to the plants immediately. If you OD on the neat chemicals, which in effect are salts, you do a thing that I think is called reverse osmosis. The salt concentration in the ground becomes higher than in the plant, so water (and the nutrients that are in solution in it) is drawn out of the plants. Whereas I believe (possibly incorrectly) that with chicken poo pellets or other rotted manure, there's not much chance of that. I've been known to spill large quantities of the stuff onto containers and the plants therein have suffered no harm.

        I do find that chicken poo pellets do actually do a good job of feeding the plant, so good feed combined with little chance of getting it wrong makes it my favourite fertiliser.
         
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        • rosietutu

          rosietutu Gardener

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        • Kristen

          Kristen Under gardener

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          Possibly not on your Carrots - too much Nitrogen will make them fork.

          Chicken Manure pellets seem to work best of all the things I have tried on newly planted - bedding plants, as well as getting trees / shrubs under way.

          Only worry is the potentially high levels of antibiotics / steroids from factory farmed chickens, so folk that are aiming to be organic might want to consider that, particularly on food crops. I have absolutely no idea whether there is any real risk ... but how many "no risk at all" situations have we known over the years than then turn out to have been a problem 20 - 30 years later ...
           
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          • Scrungee

            Scrungee Well known for it

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            So do I and there's no comparison between shop bought pellets and the 'the real stuff'.

            I also use 6x (recycledWadsworths) on my onions.
             
          • Jiffy

            Jiffy The Match is on Fire

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            Chicken manure is high in nitrogen and also lime, the worst bit is that there can be lots of weed seeds as well, depens on the mill and the farmer who grows the wheat, there can be lorry loads of feed wheat which is rubbish but if it's cheap it gets used
             
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            • Fat Controller

              Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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              Thanks all :)

              Me being a newbie, there are a couple of questions arising from all that - Kristen what do you mean by fork? Does that mean the root splits or something?

              Scrungee what is Wadsworths?
               
            • Scrungee

              Scrungee Well known for it

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              [​IMG]
               
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              • Fat Controller

                Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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                So, recycled Wadsworths be urine?

                Sounds like my kind of recycling!
                 
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                • Kristen

                  Kristen Under gardener

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                  Yup. Makes them hard to peel, and the two separate roots often entwine, which traps dirt which is also a nuisance when preparing them for eating. But that apart they still taste fine of course :)
                   
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                  • Fat Controller

                    Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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                    I need to get my carrots sown - I am so far behind its not true!

                    I will need to get some more chicken manure pellets tomorrow, as it seems to be the very dab for just about everything. The lupin at the back of the garden (and adjacent rose) have gone bananas, as have the couple of honeysuckles and the bag of strawberries that have had the 'treatment' so far.

                    I will be putting some on my hardy fuchsia bed tomorrow too.
                     
                  • clueless1

                    clueless1 member... yep, that's what I am:)

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                    I don't think you should use chicken poo with carrots. I'm not a carrot expert, but I think they prefer slightly rubbish soil, otherwise they come out all 'interesting'.
                     
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