Manure Rotted To Soil. Good For Seeds??

Geeza, if you've got access to two year old manure, fill yer boots and whack it on the garden ! :D

 

Ok so this stuff that IS SOIL (rotted down and eaten by worms) I can get about 50 - 60 good size wheel barrows of it. You can tell where it is because all the weeds have grown 10X as high on the pile. So this is good as a mix?? or just dug in to the garden... Nb I allso have access to some about 18months old that is Pure Black n squigey (not the new brown saw dusty stuff on top). So where n how do I use that?? I have double dug two beds with 4 barrows in each bed of 4ft x 6ft..... this is well rotted stuff... is this ok?? Nb Have been topping beds up with the soil stuff too ...am i overdoing it?? Thanks again

 

Hi again, just a quick one-do you know what the weeds are? There are some you don`t want in the garden at all.

 

Last year I germinated my seeds in used universal compost... put in the oven to sterilyze it and in went the seeds, best seed starting I ever got
( I was not trying to save on the compost price, just didn't feel like driving the 40 km to fetch it, erm, did Imention I live in the middle of nothing???)

For starting seeds the poorer the compost the better.

Old manure,in the beds, fresh manure in the compost, if it still looks manurish, especially if it comes from inside a stable (if there is sawdust in the new stuff, it DOES come from a stable)

 

Hi Ivory. I am glad to hear you say this. I have tomato seeds and chilli seeds I want to sow and like you i can't get round to getting seed compost. have loads of the universal stuff. Did you add sand to it?

 

I have germinated seeds sucessfully in just vermiculite - use vermiculite alone or mixed with soil or peat. Very little watering is required. More seeds germinate - faster germination too!
When vermiculite is used alone, seedlings should be fed with a weak fertilizer solution
when the first true leaves appear. A tablespoon of soluble fertilizer per one gallon
(3.78 : 1) of water will do.
Where vermiculite is mixed half and half with soil, peat, or composted pine bark, no
additional feeding is required up to the time of transplanting. Because vermiculite is
sterile, the threat of damping-off is virtually eliminated. Seedlings can be removed
from vermiculite with little danger of breaking-off hair roots, and the dense root
growth enables the young plants to take hold immediately

 

Well I never did get round to getting the seed compost. I took Ivory's advice. I mixed bog standard potting compost with sand microwaved it and left it to cool. Tomato chilli everlasting sweetpea and wild rocket seed all sown in it.

The everlasting sweetpeas are interesting. They are white with a pink edging. So pretty.I hope they grow. I soaked them in water overnight. I've loads of places they can scramble about.

 

Sorry I missed your post above and did not answer! Yes there was a tiny bit of sand in the compost, since some had been used for cuttings previously!

Your sweet pea sounds lovely I had a white with mauve adge last year, absolutely beautiful, and very fragrant.

 

I am glad to hear about your sweet pea. I have only ever seen the bog standard puple variety of the everlasting stuff so I hope these grow. Aren't pink and purple the most difficult colours to describe in gardening? I always find things I think of as purple turn out pink or vice versa. Maybe I'm colour blind:hehe:

 

This was my sweetie from last year:

 

Ivory that looks gorgeous and more than a little similar to the pic on my seed packet. Fingers crossed.:luv:

 

Ordered ten bags of two year old horse muck tonight, I don't have a trailer now so asked if it could be delivered. My step daughter said "Yes, I'll bring it in the truck when I visit" (she lives six miles away). I'm glad she got rid of the car and bought the crew cab pick-up.