Pure Manure

I remember seeing some time ago, some plants (I think pineapples) growing on a manure heap. They obviously liked the heat, being out of doors, but also must have relished getting their roots into pure manure.

Then last autumn I visited the conservatory at Wentworth Castle - which was most impressive as their plants were just so healthy. Amongst other things they had a Cobea scandens, which had climber 20 feet to the apex of the roof then hung down again and touched the floor. ie it was 40 feet long and was absolutely covered in blooms. I asked how they managed to do that and was told that it was planted in plenty of manure.

As I can get hold of large quantities of manure, my question is can you put plants into almost pure manure? And which plants would do best and which would not be at all happy? I am thinking in terms of Bananas, Gingers and Cannas etc, ie big leaved tropical plants. But its possible that all sorts of plants could like it.

 

I think it was @Zigs that put a picture of tomato plants growing on sewage some while back, perhaps he may be able to give you some advice.

 

The Victorians grew pineapples in special houses heated by decaying manure/compost. They were in pits rather than heaps and i believe it was the heat generated by the decaying process that they were after more than its nutritional value.
I've just been to a workshop where we were shown how to use fresh manure (sheep is particularly good) to make hot beds for starting seeds, cuttings, winter leaves etc. the heap stays heated for two or three months, after which it is useful for gross feeders like pumpkins, courgettes etc.
If the plants you'd like to grow are also gross feeders I imagine they would do well on well rotted manure, that has passed the heating stage and is so mature it will not burn roots.
Have fun

 

When used in hot beds manure was put into a pit and left to rot. When it started to cool down a bit and most of the ammonia had gone 6 - 12 inches of soil was placed on the top and it was this soil layer that was planted into. A cold frame type structure was placed over the top to maintain humidity, keep heat in and prevent draughts.
Heligan have a pineapple pit based on a different structure http://heligan.com/news-events/news-article/the-story-of-the-10000-pineapple/ where manure is used to heat the plants.
I came across them in The Victorian Kitchen Garden (Harry Dodson) book based on the BBC series from the 80s

 

An online contact in San Diego grows his Heliconias in pure horse shino. I have a few bags waiting to try some Canna in this year.

 

The pic I put up was of composted poo

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/great-big-steaming-pile-of-human-poo.53681/

When I use fresh manure in my hotbeds it has a 6 inch layer of soil on top.

 

Zigs - that was an interesting thread which I had missed. And I am pleased to see that putting soil on top was for fresh manure rather than mature. I made a point of searching for the old well rotted stuff which is black and looks like solid mud, but it does raise the question of whether there is enough aeration for roots.

I started yesterday, re-potting some of my plants - Cannas, Gingers etc. I chickened out from using it pure, and used a 50% mix with compost/sand, but that is still a pretty strong mix.

I know some plants, like Zig's tomatoes, will thrive in pure manure so, with LongK's comment about Heliconias as well, I will do some experiments. I have 2 identical Musa basjoo bought at the end of 2013 for 49p each. They are in pots and now about 5 feet high, so I will plant one in 100% poo and use normal compost for the other. I also have loads of Cannas and Ensete 'Maurelii' that I can use. I don't have many Brugs now - I chucked a lot out overwinter, but they are also gross feeders and worth a try.

 

Thank you all for your comments - you have inspired me to start my experiment today.


I have prepared identical pairs of plants, and placed one in pure manure and the other in normal compost/sand mix with a small amount of manure. I added a small amount to half as I didn't want to see if manure helped (we know it does), but to see if pure manure was better than a normal mix. The plants are back, l to r, Phyllostachys aurea ( bamboo), Canna 'Cleopatra', Musa basjoo. Front l to r, Ensete 'Maurelii', Hedychium gardenarium and Canna altensteinii. The C. altensteinii was almost 12 feet high last year without any help.

I will let you know how they get on.

 

Best of British with your experiment PeterS - looking forward to reading your findings

 

Looking forward to seeing the results

 

I am having serious doubts now. When I watered the pots with pure manure, the stuff that came out of the bottom was a very very dark colour - ie extremely strong. I suspect that it may well be too strong.

When you see plants growing on a manure heap, you tend to forget that the heap has been open to the rain for a period of time, which has washed much of the goodness out of the top layer, until it reaches the point when stuff can grow in it. But I took my manure from well down in the heap where it obviously hadn't been washed by the rain.

Still, all my pure manure plants are spares - so we will see.

 

Its 6 weeks since I put some plants in pure manure - so time for an update.


I planted two virtually identical plants one in pure manure (left hand pot - no compost at all) and one in a mixture of compost and manure, which is still pretty manure rich (right hand pot). The results are:-

Musa basjoo (back row - left pair) is virtually a dead heat - I can't see any difference except that the non pure one has three very small pups. Is that significant?

Canna 'Cleopatra' (back row - right). At first sight the left hand pot with pure manure seems to be the clear winner, but there is only one stem as opposed to the right hand pot which has several stems. I am not sure about this one.

Canna altensteinii (front pair). These both have about the same number of stems, and the left hand pure manure pot clearly has the taller stems.


Ensete 'Maurelii'. The left hand pure manure pot has an edge.


Phyllostachys aurea. The right hand, less manure, pot is a clear winner. Its not quite as obviously the walk over it appears. If you compare the two plants with the original picture above, the pure manure pot always had many less leaves. But even so, a winner for less manure.

The experiment is by no means over, but has been a great success so far, if for no other reason that nothing has died - yet! The pure manure does seem to have an edge with the first 4 plants which are all greedy feeders, but its needs more time for a definitive answer. I wouldn't have called the Bamboo a greedy feeder, so I am not surprised that it hasn't responded the same way. I only included it as I had two specimens of the same size.

Before anyone rushes to kill some of their own plants with pure manure, its worth pointing out that I would only expect this to work with greedy feeders and well rotted manure.

There is a cycle in the life of manure. Fresh manure is full of new lumps and un-rotted straw, and it will take some time before it has rotted down enough to be able to benefit the soil. I used stuff that was perhaps a couple of years old. It had rotted down to a consistency of mud. It was obviously very potent as when I watered the pure manure pots, the water running out of the bottom was almost black. That would be the urine that has loads of nitrogen in it. It was so concentrated I feared it might have killed my plants.

I was reminded of the last stage when I collected some manure for my sister from the back of her huge heap. There the manure was 20 or more years old. It had reduced in size to almost nothing and was to all intents just garden soil. Any urine would have been washed out years before, so there would have been no fertiliser effect, but it would have been wonderful garden loam.