Fertilizer ....

... now I'm talking chicken poo pellets here ... :hehe:

I know a lot of you folk use it ... exactly what for and can it be used on edible products?

The reason I ask is I'm trying to find out what it is called in Portuguese on a forum I belong to here and I'm drawing a blank. I was told years ago but hae forgotten. What exactly is it labelled as in the UK?

Many thanks in advance.

 

Hi Victoria I hope its ok on edibles as I throw quite a bit around on my allotment each year.

I used to buy something called "Rooster", but I've not seen that lately.
Recently its been "New Horizon" poultry manure from Sinclare Horticulture



Bottom of the page
http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/gardening/products/plant_food

 

Victoria - I can't think that there can be any problem - it's really no different from horse manure.

What the plant sees is purely chemical compounds with Nitrogen, Phosporous and Potassium etc in them. And I am sure that that is all that is taken into the plants, where it is then reassembled into different compounds.

The biggest problem is the association in our own minds, and whats on the outside. It is always worth washing the veg before eating.

 

Thank you, Pete.

Peter, there is no problem with horse poo here, I can assure you .... the gypsy horses pass frequently both on the road and on the road, if you know what I mean .... :hehe: That's all a bit 'strong' so I want to know what these pellets are you guys use. There's lots of goat poo here too .... :flag:

 

Vicky - I read an article some time ago about fertilisers. I can't remember where but I think it was in the RHS journal 'The Garden' - though I can't find it now. Being technically oriented, I found it most enlightening and it reinforced what I had always suspected.

It analysed the content of horse, cow, chicken manures etc, and concluded that they were all pretty similar in fertiliser content. It said the main difference between them was availability. It also looked at other organic fertilisers such as blood, fish and bone and inorganic fertilisers such as Miraclegrow.

It said that, in principle, there was no difference between organic and inorganic fertiliser except that organic fertiliser was usually more expensive. But there would be differences in rate of release and NPK balance, and of course manure is a good soil conditioner as well. It also stated that garden compost had similar nutrient levels to horse manure.

My own conclusion is that it really doesn't matter what you use. You pays your money and you takes your choice - its more a matter of whats available. Soil conditioning and fertilising are two seperate aspects. Any manure or garden compost is a good soil conditioner, but inorganic fertilisers are usually cheaper as pure fertilisers. I can rationalise this by believing that plants are looking for N, P and K in a form that they can utilise and they don't care where they come from.

 

I have grown edibles in the past on ground that the chickens had been on previously. Might do again, depending on time (thinking of Corn on the Cob, as a plantation in the chicken run, but that's another thread...). My point is, the ground had been well and truly fertilised by them, straight from the source. Didn't seem to have any ill effects

 

Hi Victoria. I use pelleted chicken manure for my kitchen garden as I prefer to use an organic fertilizer. No appliance of science there - just personal preference.
I don't know what you call them in Portuguese but if I find out I'll post it for you.

 

Hi Victoria. Pelleted chicken manure seems to translate as estrume granulado da galinha.
Hope that helps.
For further help with Portuguese try Babel Fish.