FAQ-Manure in the Garden

Manure in the Garden

Question:
When you add manure to your vegetable garden, what are you adding? And how much should you add? Which type of manure do you recommend for vegetable gardens? Minnesota Master Gardeners say:
All manures should be composted before being used on the vegetable garden.

Before adding fertilizers or any amendments to your soil, it is a good idea to get a soil test done. Here is the website for how to do this:
http://soiltest.coafes.umn.edu/Lawn/garden.htm

Cow manure is about a 2-1-1 fertilizer. Other manures available at retail outlets, such as sheep, turkey or horse, have similarly low nutrient percentages. We therefore do not recommend using manure as your only nutrient source. Rapidly growing annual vegetables require a high level of available nutrients. In addition to any manure you put down, you should also use a fertilizer whose nutrient profile closely matches what was recommended on your soil test.

Manure also adds small amounts of various other minor nutrients. But its most important advantage is as a soil amendment, adding organic material to your soil. Additional organic material (compost, manure, peat) benefit your soil in many ways, improving the texture of both sand and clay soils, increasing microbial activity, and improving water-holding capability. For this purpose, no one manure stands out as preferable to the others.

It is best to add the manure in the fall, after you've harvested, or in the spring, before you've planted. Put down a layer of 1 to 2 inches of manure, then work it into the top 6 to 9 inches of soil.