When Dung Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Manure rightfully occupies one of the leading positions in the list of organic fertilizers. However, despite its enormous benefits for increasing the nutritional value and improving the quality of the mechanical composition of the soil, it is not recommended to introduce it into the soil in its original, fresh form. This will adversely affect the keeping quality of many garden crops, and may burn the roots of vegetables. Therefore, it is necessary to divert and equip a special place for the preparation and storage of manure. At the same time, it is very important to know the rules for storing this priceless organic substance, otherwise a good part of its useful qualities can easily be lost

Why you shouldn't store manure in an open pile

Farmers value manure for its high content of such valuable components as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But if you do not organize proper storage of organics, these useful substances can be washed out by precipitation, evaporate. For example, you should not keep manure in the open, collected in small loose heaps. It dries up in the sun, deteriorates in the rain.

Manure preparation and storage methods

Based on the terms of use of the fertilizer, the purpose of the substance, the prepared manure can be stored in several ways:

• cold;

• hot;

• loose.

The result of the decomposition of manure is such a product as manure humus. It is used to compose substrates for seedlings, modeling humus cubes, mulching beds. The highest decomposition rate can be achieved during hot storage and loose raw material blanks. However, there is a significant loss of nitrogen. These methods are used when you need to get fresh nutritious humus in the near future. But in order to save money, it is more profitable to use a cold storage method. It will not only save the raw material from high overheating with the loss of trace elements in its composition, but also take care of a more even decomposition of manure.

Cold storage of organic matter

A special area should be set aside for cold storage of organic matter and it should be carefully arranged before harvesting raw materials. For this, the site must first be compacted. Then it is covered with peat - this is needed to absorb the flowing slurry. Dry foliage with a layer thickness of about 30 cm will also serve as a good layer.

A pile is formed from organic matter, compacting it as it arrives. To protect raw materials from the loss of manure, a layer of phosphorite flour will help. This fertilizer is poured every 15 cm of compacted manure. For 50 kg of raw materials, approximately 1 kg of flour will be needed. Another way to preserve all the useful components of manure is to stratify it with peat in equal proportions (1: 1).

So that your workpiece is not wetted by the rains and not damaged by frost, heat insulation from the ground or peat is arranged for it. The thickness of such a shelter should be approximately 20 cm. Fallen leaves or reeds are additionally placed on top, bringing the total thickness of thermal insulation to at least 40 cm. In the winter months, it is useful to throw snow on the dung heap.

Peat manure compost as an alternative

When there is little manure or for some other reason it is not possible to prepare manure using the described method, it is taken as an integral part for harvesting plant compost or creating a peat-manure mixture. In this case, the ratio of peat and organic matter will be required in proportions of 2: 1. Manure, 10 cm thick, is placed on a 20 cm layer of peat. The optimum height of such a stack is approximately 1.5 m. It is advisable to additionally fertilize each layer with phosphate rock.

Three times a month, in stable dry weather, the compost pile is watered. The decomposition process will be better if the compost heap is regularly shoveled deeply. During this procedure, lime is added to the compost to reduce acidity.