Without timely top dressing, you cannot get a good crop of any garden or garden crop. Fertilizers for growing plants on a suburban area can be applied both mineral and organic. Moreover, the last variety of top dressing is most popular among summer residents.
Gardeners fertilize garden crops and fruit trees with mostly manure. There are four main varieties of such dressing. Manure for fertilizing garden crops can be used cow, bird, pork or horse. In this case, the last variety of top dressing is considered the best.
Almost all summer residents periodically use horse manure as fertilizer. How to apply such dressing correctly, we will talk about this later in the article.
Composition
This organic fertilizer contains just a huge amount of substances useful for plants. The composition of horse manure includes:
- nitrogen;
- phosphoric acid;
- organic matter;
- potassium;
- magnesium and manganese;
- zinc, boron, etc.
When using such top dressing in the soil:
- the content of nutrients and carbon dioxide increases;
- beneficial microorganisms are activated.
In addition, the use of horse manure as a fertilizer can significantly improve the structure of the land on the site. The soil in the garden, when used, becomes much more suitable for growing plants. In land improved by manure of this variety, air and water balance are normalized first of all. Such a fertilizer makes clay soil more friable. In the sand, it retains moisture and does not allow nutrients to be washed out.
Varieties by degree of decomposition
Horse manure can be used in suburban areas:
- fresh;
- half-matured;
- decomposed to the stage of humus.
Of course, horse humus is most useful for garden crops. Such manure can be used for almost any plant. Semi-matured fertilizer of this type may also be useful for some crops. For example, this manure is often fertilized with:
In addition, this kind of horse manure is very often used for dressing flowers, including roses. If desired, a half-matured fertilizer of this type can also be applied to other crops. But in this case, manure is used mainly only as an infusion diluted with water, which must be prepared using a special technology.
Fresh horse manure: application
Unfortunately, you cannot feed garden crops with this rotten fertilizer of this type. The introduction of such a mass in the beds can lead to plant diseases and even to their death. The fact is that when horse manure is overheated, a very large amount of heat is released. Therefore, fresh fertilizer of this type can simply burn the roots of plants.
In addition, fresh horse manure contains a large number of weed seeds. Therefore, after using it, the beds begin to overgrow very much. Also in fresh manure there may be harmful microorganisms and spores of fungi that can cause diseases of garden and horticultural crops.
Thus, such a substance is not used as fertilizer. But with good use on the site, you can use fresh horse manure. Such a mass of summer residents are used, for example, very often in greenhouses in the spring. In fact, a lot of heat is produced during the overheating of manure of this variety. Therefore, its use in greenhouses allows you to reliably protect plants from the cold.
Types by type of litter
The characteristics of this fertilizer, among other things, to a large extent depend on what kind of bedding was used to keep the horses in the stable. In this regard, horse manure is distinguished:
- with cereal straw;
- sawdust;
- peat.
Rebreathing, this fertilizer contributes to the accelerated decomposition of litter as well. As a result, the mass is additionally saturated with various kinds of substances useful for plants.
The highest quality is considered to be manure with peat. Using this fertilizer, you can get the highest yields. Manure with straw is considered a very good top dressing. This fertilizer contains a lot of nitrogen.
The composition of horse manure on sawdust includes the least useful substances. But such a fertilizer can significantly improve the characteristics of the soil in the beds and enjoys well-deserved popularity among summer residents.
Greenhouse use
In the summer, fresh horse manure is often used to increase the yield of cucumbers indoors. To do this, a barrel with an infusion prepared from such a mass is simply installed in the middle of the greenhouse. Carbon dioxide released during manure fermentation has a very beneficial effect on the development of pumpkin. In the greenhouse, for best results, infused manure is recommended to be mixed daily.
Add fresh horse mass directly to the beds is allowed only in the fall, after harvesting. During the winter, she will have time to overtake and saturate the soil with useful substances. In this case, the manure is scattered on the beds and immediately dig the ground. This method of application does not allow nitrogen to escape.
How does it affect garden crops
When using semi-overripe horse manure and humus:
- significantly increases the productivity of garden and horticultural crops;
- plants are less sick.
In addition, with the use of such fertilizers, the palatability of fruits and vegetables grown in the garden, as well as their keeping quality are improved. For example, top dressing with horse manure of onions and radishes can be a very good solution. When using such fertilizer, bitterness disappears from the bulbs and root crops.
How to cook infusion
Various kinds of vegetables and root crops are usually fed not directly with horse manure, but with solutions containing it. A concentrated infusion of such fertilizer is prepared approximately according to this technology:
- an old barrel or some other container is thoroughly washed and dried;
- dry manure is poured into it;
- fill the mass with water at the rate of 5 liters per bucket;
- insist manure for 2 weeks, stirring occasionally.
To enhance the effect, a little hay or tree leaves can be added to the infusion at the stage of its preparation.
How to use for tomatoes
Of course, many summer residents would probably like to learn how to use horse manure, for example, for tomatoes. This crop using this fertilizer is first fed approximately 20 days after transplanting seedlings in open ground. At the same time, 0.5 l of concentrated infusion of manure is stirred in 10 l of water. Tomatoes are poured with such a liquid at the rate of about 0.5 liters per plant. Before fertilizing the tomatoes, the soil under them is abundantly moistened with water.
Water the plants with horse manure solution as carefully as possible. Performing this procedure, it is imperative to ensure that the liquid does not fall on the leaves or stems. The green tissues of tomatoes are quite delicate. And therefore, a fertilizer solution leaves and stalks of tomatoes can simply burn. Fertilizing tomatoes with this infusion is best in the morning or in the evening.
The second time they fertilize horse manure during the blooming of brushes. Then the tomatoes are fed during the fruit setting. Both of these times use the same composition as in the spring. However, the consumption of infusion is reduced to 0.5 l per 1 m 2 .
Peppers are also fertilized with horse manure. This scheme is also used to increase eggplant productivity. Potatoes are usually fertilized with such manure only once per season - during planting. In this case, top dressing is most often simply thrown directly into the holes in dry form.
How to use horse manure to fertilize cucumbers
Pumpkin crops respond particularly well to this type of top dressing. Fertilizing cucumbers with such manure can not only increase productivity. When using the top dressing of this variety on the lashes of this culture, bitter greens never grow.
The first time this fertilizer is applied to beds prepared for cucumbers, usually in spring, for digging. The second time this culture is fed at the beginning of flowering culture. For the third time, horse manure cucumbers are fertilized during fruiting. After a couple of weeks, the fourth (last) top dressing is carried out.
Fertilizer is prepared using horse manure for cucumbers according to the same recipe as for tomatoes. According to the same scheme, if desired, you can feed during the season and zucchini, as well as pumpkins.
Rules for the use of dry manure
Most often, garden crops are fed, thus, horse manure diluted with water by irrigation. But, of course, you can use such fertilizer in dry form. By manure of this variety, most often immediately fall asleep the entire area of that part of the site, which is used for growing garden crops.
In this case, the overripe or fresh mass is simply spread on the surface of the soil with a maximum even layer of a thickness of about 5 cm. Next, the manure is buried in the ground with a fork or shovel. This method of feeding is usually used on already depleted land, has long been used for growing garden plants.
How to apply to trees and shrubs
Of course, horse manure can also be used as fertilizer for feeding apples, pears, plums, etc. In this case, this fertilizer is also usually used in dry form. Rotted manure is simply scattered around the tree- trunk circles, and then the soil is dug up.
At the same time, under adult fruit trees, usually 5 buckets of such fertilizer are applied, and under young trees - 3 buckets each. Immediately after making manure, trees and shrubs are watered. Such an operation is performed in most cases in the fall.
Reviews gardeners about fertilizer
Probably all summer residents used horse manure at least once in their suburban area. And, of course, reviews from gardeners this fertilizer deserved very good. The use of such manure, according to gardeners, makes labor on earth much more rewarding. Crops with the application of top dressing of this variety increase significantly. Yes, and plant diseases gardeners using horse manure, have to fight less often.
Sometimes on the Web there are also negative reviews about horse manure. But they relate to usually purchased, not too high-quality humus. The use of such top dressing from unknown suppliers, according to summer residents, can even harm plants - slow down their development and stimulate the outbreak of any disease.
Buy horse manure in bags, according to gardeners, should only be in stores with a good reputation. Experienced gardeners are also advised to inspect the fertilizer before buying. Good horse manure does not contain visible residues of straw or sawdust. Also, it does not emit an unpleasant odor. The color of well-rotted quality manure usually has a dark color.
Interesting fact
Reviews of horse manure as fertilizer from summer residents, therefore, are extremely good. Of course, most often such a mass is used precisely as top dressing for horticultural crops. But once our ancestors used manure of this variety for medical purposes. After all, this substance actually contains just a huge amount of various kinds of useful microelements.
For the treatment of which horse manure was used in ancient times? In olden times, such a mass was used, for example, to alleviate suffering in diseases of the joints. Of course, horse manure can be used for this purpose today. To do this, you need:
- pour 2/3 buckets of manure into a large basin;
- fill the mass with hot water;
- leave the solution for a couple of hours;
- lower the feet into the solution for several minutes.
For joint treatment, this procedure should be repeated daily for 40 days.
What was horse manure used in ancient times for? The “clods” left by horses in the field were once also collected in order to use them as fuel for stoves. From horse manure, as well as from cow manure, they made “bricks” and stacked them in high pyramids for ventilation. In winter, they were laid in a furnace. Horse manure was used instead of firewood in the old days, of course, mainly in the steppe areas, that is, where wood was in short supply.