Is fresh chicken manure advisable for tomatoe plants

Hi All,

Im not sure if this is the best section to post this in so apologies in advance if i am wrong but I wondered if anybody could give me some guidance on this one at all?

My sister has recently taken in 3 chickens. The eggs are wonderful apparently but they also have their byproduct of chicken poo. She offered it to me but I have 2 big 5kg packs of it in pellet form in my garage and don't really need any more (though i guess i could compost it).

Using the raw poop as top dressing it has apparently done most of the plants and flowers in the garden (as well as the garden itself) the world of good so they were wondering about using it with the tomato plants. I was somewhat hesitant however and a little unsure for 2 reasons. Firstly I believe it is fairly rich in nitrogen which I read may cause problems but also (and more importantly) because of potential pathogens that might contaminate the harvest?

Am I over worrying about this one at all? I'm fairly new to gardening and being a city born and bread boy Ive not known anybody who has had chickens in the past before her Would pathogens be a problem for tomatoes or other fruit/veg crops? And if so, would it still remain a problem if it is cold composted rather than composted in a hot compost heap (which i really don't have enough garden waste to create)?

Any thoughts at all?

Thanks :-)

Andy

 

Hi Andy

Chicken doo I was always told dont use fresh as it can burn the roots, same with horse manure needs to mature so if free add to the compost heap and mix in well this will help speed up the brakedown of the other stuff in the compost bin.

Spruce

 

Hmmm....that's interesting. Thanks Spruce :-) The compost bin I use is just under a metre squared and hardly gets filled through the seasons. But i can imagine the manure would help to make some awesome compost :-) Given it is a cold bin though, presumably it would be fine to use after a year?

 

Ok, I keep chickens

I compost their doings; this year I have a goodly amount of "volunteer" tomato plants sprouting hither and thither around my garden where I "mulched" with last years chicken compost. (The blighters are gannets for cherry toms!).

So: firstly, I think I didn't compost their offerings long enough before using as a mulch; hence the plethora of volunteer tomato plants! Secondly: for flowers and shrubs, raw chook doings is too rich and will burn the plants; it needs *some* decomposition first! However, for veg matter, it does the ticket.

Chook compost will act as an "activator" to your usual compost bin and will break down the organic matter over winter. But, to break down the tomato seeds within their compost may take a bit of extra heat

The tomatoes I am (at long last now!! ) harvesting are absolutely fab!!! I have no concerns about any pathogens: I feed my chooks natural foods, some scraps and provide a lot of fresh, clean, rain water.

I do think, in modern times, we may "overthink" the chook thing. But, it is only in recent decades that chicken keeping went into decline. Before that, they were a very natural, and necessary, part of subsistance (as were rabbits!).

I keep ducks too and their poo is my apple trees most favourite supper

 

(chuckle), well tomatoes are always nice to have :-)

Thanks for that. I guess i was over worrying the issue Maybe i will take over a few containers to them and see if i can actually get my hands on some of the chicken doo then They do not feed the chickens meat so other than spiders and the like I guess they live mostly on a vegetarian diet They will not eat slugs or snails even apparently so I guess they chose the fussiest chickens at the farm

Thanks everybody for your help. I will let them know what you said :-)

Andy

 

I know I shared this story before, so here again. When I was young my dad had a small farm, had a nice vegetable garden with tomatoes etc. And he had a good size chicken coop with lots of chickens. There was always a pile of chicken poop. If a tomatoe on the plant was half eaten, or not gotten to and it began to rot he would fling the tomatoe on to the poop pile. Now this is in OHIO, USA, where in the winter, the snow hits hard at Thanksgiving, and it can get to minus 4 degrees often. Come next spring the flung tomatoes on the poop pile would begin to sprout. And dad would just take the baby plants and move on with planting them in rows. All plants would grow well and the practice would continue.