Horse manure and nothing else

[magiccannabus]

Yes, I believe it has also been called actinomycetes

 

[Microbeman]

Horse owners avoid cedar and any sort of chemical treated shavings. On real ranches they usually use nothing.

 

[Microbeman]

Actinomycetes is the old term from when it was mistakenly identified as fungi.

 

[The Revolution]

I personally dont like to use any type of manure in my mixes. I have used minmal amounts of Chicken and rabbitt poop, and worm castings, in a peat based mix, but this is about my limit. Rabbitt droppings dont actually need to be composted before using, but whatever I dont use in my immediate mix is usually thrown into the compost heap for later use.

Ive been thinking about starting a separate compost consisting of cow manures and possibly horse manure. Would you recommend 50/50 ratio of manure/straw to get it started?

 

[Microbeman]

I personally dont like to use any type of manure in my mixes. I have used minmal amounts of Chicken and rabbitt poop, and worm castings, in a peat based mix, but this is about my limit. Rabbitt droppings dont actually need to be composted before using, but whatever I dont use in my immediate mix is usually thrown into the compost heap for later use.

Ive been thinking about starting a separate compost consisting of cow manures and possibly horse manure. Would you recommend 50/50 ratio of manure/straw to get it started?

Using a compost calculator table is best so you can begin with a C:N ratio of 30:1 to 25:1
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtml/organics/compostCalc.htm

 

[hyposomniac]

I used 2 yards of composted horse manure/pine pellets in a raised bed built atop decaying willow logs.
I used my homemade leaf/grass compost in it as well.. but the horse was the bulk of it. Glad to see the calculator puts me in the right C:N range.
Peat/chunky DE and amendments were added..
Squash, cucumbers, celery and tomatoes were/are very productive.
Green and red-vein sorrel grew great, while other greens never took off (komatsuna and mustard, which usually grow in anything).

Here's the F'ed up part -- apparently this farm's horse compost contains actual horses. I found several chunks of horse bones, and was hesitant to use it..but here we are, my garden is fertilized with horse ghosts.
I was also hesitant about the pine pellets vs chips... any opinions on that?

 

[magiccannabus]

I use pine for kitty litter and the pellets are less likely to be kiln dried and thus tend to contain more resins(so I avoid the kinds that do because pine sap is bad for pets). Pellets can range anywhere from very natural, to industrial waste products that contain cutting oil and other pollutants.