Raw Manure Lesson Learned

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Posted by admin | Posted in Vegetable Garden | Posted on May 12, 2008

All my excitement quickly faded tonight upon learning horror stories of Salmonella/E-Coli and tomatoes so green and vigorous they produce no ripe fruit.

USDA requires uncomposted manure to be incorporated into the garden soil at least 120 days before harvest of a crop that touches the soil (carrots, lettuce, melons) and 90 days before harvesting a crop not in contact with the soil (peppers or tomatoes).

It’s disappointing I did not know this BEFORE I shoveled the s@&t! So tonight I will move all that I can from the garden to the compost pile.

I did learn that one can start their seeds safely in 100% raw cow or horse manure. Who knew!?

I found a handy chart on the fertilizer stats (nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash) of manure from dairy cow, beef steer, horse, swine, sheep/goat, rabbit, and chicken here: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/manures.html

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