Comments for Is Horse Manure Safe For Organic Gardens? at http://www.santacruzwire.com , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.santacruzwire.com Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:12:15 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.santacruzwire.com/index.php/maria-gaura/162-is-horse-manure-safe-for-organic-gardens.html#comment-809 Writing from the Northwest Sustainable demonstration farm, I will add that Horse manure is great for your garden. We do use commercial wormers here at the Demonstration farm. We have tried compost from our landscape products company and it's not nearly as safe (in my opinion). It never seems to be fully composted, smells raw and has anything in it. There could be heavily sprayed lawn, tree and shrub materials, treated posts ground up in there and who knows what else. The landscape places grind it all and the turnover time is too short, probably due to demand, so noxious weed seeds are also a big problem. We have morning glory taking over a large area here because we brought in 2 truckloads of compost to top a flower bed. This is a very invasive plant to bring into a wetland situation. It is also toxic to horses, should it spread to the pasture. (It's almost there). Pulling doesn't help as the roots go very deep, so there are many completely natural things that can be toxic and cause a huge problem and kill off native plants etc. One herbicide that has been found to be persistent in compost and could affect your garden is Milestone. (parent molecule is aminopyralid-it's found in other herbicides as well). This could easily be found in the commercial compost you buy, or in horse compost if the bedding is straw, as farmers do tend to spray this on a field to kill the broadleaves. If it was used on a hay field, and many hay farmers do spray, it can pass through the horse and still affect your garden. I've also read that it can persist for up to 3 yrs in the soil. The best thing would be to find someone who feeds only organic hay or make your own compost nice and hot. On using eggshells or chicken manure in the garden, many people worm their chickens and you may want to research those chemicals. Another aspect of chicken feed is that it has a lot of corn that is mostly GM. While it's good to be aware of the food chain, in a sense, "Worry" is also unhealthy for our bodies and creates a kind of toxicity. It's good to just find a happy medium, get out and enjoy life. In other words, stress produces toxins in our bodies, is a totally organic compost pile worth the stress? - Diane Engdahl Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:42:11 +0100 http://www.santacruzwire.com/index.php/maria-gaura/162-is-horse-manure-safe-for-organic-gardens.html#comment-252 While you should always take a close look at what goes in your garden and what goes on your plate, there is a great resource for many of these medications and food additives: the MSDS. Most people will recognize these sheets if they have any sort of exposure to industrial chemicals. A quick google search of MSDS+the chemical/medication in question should yield a nice starter point to researching the potential hazards of using these materials. They will include reactivity, flamability, health hazard, and personal protection required for application. Some are more detailed than others and may include potential environmental effects and clean up procedures. I highly recommend using these as a starter point for researching these materials. - Jason Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:55:38 +0100 http://www.santacruzwire.com/index.php/maria-gaura/162-is-horse-manure-safe-for-organic-gardens.html#comment-45 I agree that horse manure is great for the garden, and after looking at the research, I'm confident that it's safe. No gardener wants to risk killing off their earthworms, but I find hundreds of worms in the manure pile, and they look fat and happy. - maria Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:05:56 +0100 http://www.santacruzwire.com/index.php/maria-gaura/162-is-horse-manure-safe-for-organic-gardens.html#comment-42 The fears that horse manure is somehow unsafe for gardens in unfounded in fact. Rodale Press, in several published gardening books, has described horse manure as one of the safest and most benign manures for the garden. Low in nitrogen, it does not burn vegetation. It is a terrific soil amendment. About the "parasites" claimed to infect horses: not to worry. Horse ailments, if and when present, are species-specific. Horses may be worned once every three to four months, and that's it. All mammals carry e.coli in our guts -- can't live without them -- but horses do not carry the killer e.coli strain; that's carried by human feces. I have used horse manure (composted with tea leaves, fruit/veg. peels, eggshells, etc. for over 40 years and I have a list of "clients" that can't get enough of my "stuff." Don't listen to the alarmists! - connie berto Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:09:09 +0100