Giving organics a shot. Have endless cow manure at my disposal but not sure how to use.

I've spent the last 5 months screwing up DWC growing and while I'm not done screwing it up (not giving up until I have at least one good grow), I'm thinking about giving organics a shot. Might as well screw up something else, haha!

So, I thought I'd start with a mix like Fox Farms just to get me rolling but in the meantime, I've been researching compost teas and amendments and it's incredibly interesting to me. We have a farm and last year my husband made a massive (several ton, I'm guessing) compost pile from cow manure and bedding (corn fodder, sawdust, hay and straw). He turned it every few weeks with a skid loader and we let it break down until fall. Then, he put it on one of our gardens. It's about 5 inches thick on a 120 x 60 foot garden.

I thought about pulling some of the compost off and using it as a top dressing. It would be about a year old now, has no smell and is beautiful and black. Would I be safe to use it directly as a top dressing? Do I need to do anything to it to ensure that I'm not bringing anything detrimental into my grow? Would I use it as is or brew it into some sort of tea? Should I try mixing it with the Fox Farms soil right away or just adding later in the grow?

I also have a pond that I can gather fish emulsion from. I was already going to gather some for my orchard, so I could use it for my grow if it would be useful. Along with that, I have about 35 acres of woods that I could get some lovely woodland soil from as well.

I feel like I have a lot of organic resources at my disposal but I'm not sure how to use them! Any advice or direction where I should begin my research would be helpful. Thanks!

For outdoor plants cow manure is a great base for soil and ive had good luck using only straight cow manute before. When i first started indoor i tried using it but ended up with so many flies and nats and bugs and it was a huge pain to get rid of them.. you could heat it up to 140 or 150*f and itd probably kill everything off and you could use it but dry amendments arent very expensive so id reccomend just buyimg some, thats what i decided on anyway...

Make sure your manure is composted and broken down, I would advise at least 2 year old manure if it is just laying outside. But yeah you can grow some monsters, there was someone on here growing outdoors in northern climate using cow manure and tomato tone growing TREES.

Pyreonfire said:

I also have a pond that I can gather fish emulsion from. I was already going to gather some for my orchard, so I could use it for my grow if it would be useful.

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From my own experience and that of neighbours, the fish water is perfect for irrigation, so long as the sodium is not too high and no copper, etc is being used. If you use pond bacteria to keep it clean it’s ideal. The small amounts of Npk and trace are immediately available. You can grow some pretty bold plants of any type with fish water. Especially if you pay attention to the mineral content.

The filter sludge and black silt on the bottom of the pond (which you won’t have if cleaning with bacteria) is a whole different story. The darker it is the worse it will be. If from a dirty tank/pond it will burn plants and sicken them with disease. The cure is to add oxygen, by composting it or adsorbing onto porous biochar.

I poured a bucket of fresh filter dregs on a crab apple tree late winter one year, just before it flowered. It really hurt the tree but it bounced back the next year. Be careful with that stuff.

Stickyjones said:

For outdoor plants cow manure is a great base for soil and ive had good luck using only straight cow manute before. When i first started indoor i tried using it but ended up with so many flies and nats and bugs and it was a huge pain to get rid of them.. you could heat it up to 140 or 150*f and itd probably kill everything off and you could use it but dry amendments arent very expensive so id reccomend just buyimg some, thats what i decided on anyway...

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Good to know. So, even adding it into another soil mixture would probably not work? I certainly don't want to introduce insects. I guess that's another reason I thought maybe I could make it into a tea instead?

What are your thoughts on adding in some woodland floor soil, too? This property has been in the family since the 60s and is untouched by chemicals and has just been doing its thing. I know it's very fertile, but like the compost, I would be afraid of bringing in an insect infestation along with it!

meangreengrowinmachine said:

Make sure your manure is composted and broken down, I would advise at least 2 year old manure if it is just laying outside. But yeah you can grow some monsters, there was someone on here growing outdoors in northern climate using cow manure and tomato tone growing TREES.

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Yes, ours is only about a year old. We add it annually to our gardens. And while it has been open to the elements, it has been turned regularly and definitely went through a fermentation stage where it heated up significantly last year. It looks just like dark soil now. Our gardens love it! My big concern is bringing in insects!

Freedom seed said:

From my own experience and that of neighbours, the fish water is perfect for irrigation, so long as the sodium is not too high and no copper, etc is being used. If you use pond bacteria to keep it clean it’s ideal. The small amounts of Npk and trace are immediately available. You can grow some pretty bold plants of any type with fish water. Especially if you pay attention to the mineral content.

The filter sludge and black silt on the bottom of the pond (which you won’t have if cleaning with bacteria) is a whole different story. The darker it is the worse it will be. If from a dirty tank/pond it will burn plants and sicken them with disease. The cure is to add oxygen, by composting it or adsorbing onto porous biochar.

I poured a bucket of fresh filter dregs on a crab apple tree late winter one year, just before it flowered. It really hurt the tree but it bounced back the next year. Be careful with that stuff.

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Ok. We don't treat our pond or shock it in any way, but I will definitely head your warning about it being too strong. I was planning on using it in my orchard this year, but maybe I'll get it tested beforehand now! Thanks for the head's up!