partially composted horse manure ok?
 

A colleague offered me the use of her back yard for tomato growing, which basically triples my tomato growing area. I don't have enough compost to amend her never before gardened in soil. And I don't want to spend a bunch of $ buying compost. There's a local stable that gives away free "partially composted, seed free horse manure for organic gardening." Can I apply this stuff to the soon to be dug beds and leave it for a month, then plant in it? Or am I likely to burn roots and lose a ton of tomato plants?
Thanks,
Paul

A month sounds good to me.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Paul, especially if it's already been partially composted, and you leave it a month in your own soil, that's plenty of time in my experience. That's exactly what I use. Though I have to pull grass seedlings constantly, it's worth it. And they're easy to pull.

~Thalia

Thanks for the advice, folks. Next week I'm off to the stables.

Should be OK. Horse manure always contains more grass & weed seeds than cow manure.
LarryD

If you guys are going to be messing around with manure you might think about getting a tetanus shot if you haven't had one in the last 10 years.;)

Worth

I use lots of horse,rabbit and worm castings all are not "hot" and wont hurt to plant that soon.

Worth -- Good point about the tetanus shot. All of us digging around in the soil should have it; not just those using manure. I'm careful to get one every 10 years for sure.

Sherry

That is a good reminder, Worth. I had thought about it a few months ago and promptly put it out of my head again. Mine is about due and with clearing all this garbage and metals from around this property it is probably safe to get one. Lori

Wow, I finally made it up to the stables today and it was well worth it. There were two huge piles of manure under a roof outside. One was more composted than the other, so I went for that one. I dug in and it was steaming hot. Filled 7 super strong and big construction garbabge bags half way and headed home. Dug a few into my beds and filled up the compost bin with the rest.

Thanks for the tetnaus reminder, Worth. I cut my hand while working and was glad to have checked my last tetnaus shot date.

Paul