I haven't purchased any, but the only manure I've seen for that cheap at HD is steer manure, which I thought was too strong to apply directly into the garden without being aged really well or composted first. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

That steer manure is not available in all HD regions.
I have seen it at NW/West stores, but not here in Atlanta.
My brother (back in California) has been using it for years and has not have had any problems.
Steer is also cow. hehe

Cyrus, is he just mixing it straight with his native soil? Putting it in raised beds? If it works, and it's good stuff, I might try a couple bags and see what happens.

I saw a lady buying several bags the other day as I was waiting for the guys to come with a fork lift to get me some landscape timbers, and I wanted to ask her how she was going to use it, but I felt awkward about it, so I just kept my mouth shut.

I get the 99 cent composted steer manure from Home Depot. I have both put it straight into the soil and added it to my raised beds. I usually add it during a break in the planting, but not always.

I either dig it into the soil or rake it into the top.

This year I had some zucchinis still in the ground when I added it, and it has had no negative impact on them, no burning or anything. I also planted some seeds in areas that had the manure added just a week prior and had no negative effects from it either.

I am sure there are probably better things you could add to the soil, but at 99 cents it is a great price and has worked well in my garden.

Were there any positive effects from it? Or were you using it just to raise your soil level a bit and bulk it up?

Spaghetina, My brother buys them by the truck loads(almost).
He uses it like THEO, both as sprinkle over the soil, around the plants and mixed with native soil.
I figure, it is fully composted and has a lot of hay in it too. So it is not like PURE fresh manure to burn. But whatever it is, is worthed at 99cents a bag. Its texture looked like horse manure to me but the package says:STEER MANURE.
I cannot buy plain soil at that price around here (I will never buy soil anyway, I am not a city boy>>grin).
HD sells some cow manure blend around here which is mostly compost, not genuine manure. It goes for more than 2 bucks per bag, I think.
But this stuff,sold back in CA, ORis a great soil amender and has fertilizer too.
Cyrus

I use the stuff when I'm short on compost and collected manure. Never had a problem with it, and the price is right. I topdress my raised beds with it, and also incorporated into the soil and other amendments in ornamental beds. It is well composted and has never burned my plants.

It works as a fertilizer. But I use it mostly to help combat my soil which mostly clay, the manure helps to make the soil a bit lighter and when added to the top of the soil helps to combat the hard, dry later clay soil develops (and thus improves water absorption).

Most of what I've seen at that price is mostly "fines", the dust off of mulch, sand and a little manure.

Being new to NM, I bought "Gardening the Southwest" by Carol Tashel. She says steer manure is salty. Indeed, being desperate, I bought some and when watering in some new trees saw a good amount of white residue rising up on the water pooled around the trees. Probably not the best thing for our alkaline soil, but really has had no negative affects on anything I've grown in it. (Yeah, I mixed it in to top layers of soil.) This being my first year, and starting August 1, I needed a fast start and threw in any and everything. Later I'll have other options.

I buy composted manure from Lowe's ($1.29) a dozen bags at a time. I have used it for 10 years and I think it's the best thing next to home made compost or composted manure straight from the farm. It makes an excellent soil conditioner for clay. Anytime I am dividing plants or putting new ones in the ground, I mix a half bag into the hole. And sometimes I use it as a mild top dressing for plants that are already in the ground. I have also used Black Kow, which costs considerably more. They are both great, and I honestly see no difference in results between the two.

I do not believe they add salts to the ground, though that is opinion not supported by facts.

Oh yes, I tried something new this fall with great results. When I planted my winter greens and lettuces, etc. I amended the soil in my raised beds, then scattered the seed over the top, and then, sprinkled composted manure lightly over the seeds. I had much improved germination rates and speed.

Donna, do you know if Lowe's garden products are regional or nationwide? I'm wondering if I can maybe stop by and pick up the same composted manure that you're buying, since I know that HD has regional products.

If you get feedlot manure, it will have salt in it. If it doesn't smell anymore it won't burn. Manure is all the fertilizer our forefathers had to use. Some was hauled to the field directly and spread, to be cured out over the winter. Some was piled up and let to compost out. This was used in gardens and flowerbeds.

spaghetina, don't know if Lowe's distribution is regional or national, but it's "brand" name is Timberline (at least at my Lowe's) and it's composted cow manure...you could call your Lowe's and ask. It's the same price here in NC @$1.29.

I don't know either. The packaging has changed over the years and the brandname too. The bags got a little smaller about 3 years ago. Otherwise, I can't tell the difference.

I get the .99 steer manure and mix it with coffee grounds and my husband jokes that for weeks afterward the yard smells like a "Starbucks in Texas." The mix seems to decompose down just fine.

I use the steer manure here in California it's 1.09 I bought 50 bags used it to cure my sandy soils so I could plant my new lawn and garden. Only crappy part is it does come with some rocks. Stuff works great. I even germinated melon, peppers, tomatoes, corn all sorts of stuff. I used it straight out of the bag plants came up in just 5 to 6 days.

It's funny how everything $1.00 looks like such a great deal.. When really your probably paying more for that than you would if you were to get it in bulk, plus the bulk is probably better quality.. I feel like I'm saving money at the dollar store, until it breaks a week later, and you have to buy another! I learned that you cant cut corners(at least not to many), I try to get quality the first time,it wil save you lots of frustration, and even money..

i have been using HD composted steer manure for years with no problems , raise bed veggie garden, roses, even used it on the lawn to even out some ruts. i think i put some on all my outdoor plants except the cymbidiums.

Good point, Raw.

Bulk composted manure is $18 a yard, here. If a bag is cubic foot, the bag is about half again over the price of the bulk.

Uh, Nila a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet not 9.

I've used the HD composted steer manure and had good results. Actually here in San Jose you can't really get bulk cheaper than this. Soils yest, compost no (unless you get the free stuff from some of the local cities)

Plus sometimes you don't need a yard, just a bag or two...

@dirtguy50

>Uh, Nila a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet not 9.

Yes, that was my point!!

Was it not clear? 27 cubic feet at $1 each is $27. This is 150% of the $18 it would cost at the yard. That's why I said 'half again over' the cost.

If I had thought a cubic yard was 9 cubic feet I would have said the bags were cheaper than the bulk, rather than the other way round ;).

My bad Nila. I thought you meant it the other way around thinking bags were cheaper. I stand corrected my fellow gardener.

Nila, I understood your math:)

The HD manure ages nicely in the bags if protected from the rain. It is best stored out of the sun to protect the plastic. I try to keep one and two year old bags around for more delicate uses.

I can find bulk cheaper but HD is convenient if I am there for other reasons. Their composted steer manure blend is their cheapest bagged product on a $ per cubic foot basis.

Zeuspaul

I buy bagged now. The product is more expensive than bulk, but at my previous house which had an older driveway, years of dump trucks with mulch cracked the driveway horribly.

I just moved in a new house, talk about cracked driveway! Boy, give me another load of compost, I would love to get that damn driveway up and have more garden space!

It's far more than just what products are the cheapest,, it's what products the overall best! Quality is one big key factor! Them bags of soil been sitting in the bag, with little air for how long? They probably were sitting in a hot semi, now they are baked by the sun.. How many insects,etc do you find in bagged soil? How does it smell compared to fresh compost? Also the big companies are composting anything they really could, making an inferior product.. I much rather buy local...

Good point about factoring in the driveway costs! Mine was cracked when i bought the place, so I hadn't noticed it as an issue. Plus, TBH, I use my driveway mainly as a year-round mulch and compost storage area ;).

Keeping manure bags for multiple years also sounds wise. If it were me, I think I'd empty the bags into a large compost enclosure so they could get some worms, bacteria, and water action. Bagged manure I have seen has seemed pretty dry, dusty and sterile, but I'm sure it makes a good starting point.

And, NP, dirtguy :).

I have been mixing bagged manure and bulk compost over a decade with decent effect. Not sure about bulk manure... but I think bulk compost is much much cheaper than bagged compost.

Lost many plants to squirrels, gophers, and rabbits. But I have never lost a plant to bagged manure applied this way.

If I had an available bin I would probably put bagged manure in it. However it keeps well in the bag. There is a series of small pin prick wholes on the side of the bag. You can add a little moisture with a water spray from time to time. The plastic keeps the moisture in. I stack the bags becaue it is easy to store that way. The end product is far from dry and dusty. It is moist with virtually no odor. I would characterize it as mighty fine compost.

Zeuspaul

Send that bagged compost to lab to examine the soil foodweb(microorganisms,etc), I bet fresh compost would have ten fold the life then the bagged crap...

I added steer manure compost from home depot to my '21 vegi garden mid summer. It all but killed my tomatoes, bell peppers, jalipeno peppers, and more, and so far nothing I planted after that has grown. The surviving tomatoes won't turn red, only splotchy orange/yellow.

Bill in Orange Co. SoCal

^^^ Makes one wonder what it's doing to the cows that it passes through? Herbicide burgers anyone?

Let's be clear. This wasn't the result of poor composting. The reviews online now say there was little smell to the stuff. The ammonia was gone. This is herbicides, probably clopyralids. The lesson is to never ever buy manure that doesn't come with some validation about quality. It is really kind of remarkable that the big box stores never do that for their bagged stuff. Of course, the stuff in those bags is all local, and the store just prints and distributes the bags. So the quality of manure from one store doesn't tell you anything about what's in bags from other stores.

Wow. I've never had any problem with store-bought manure, but this is scary news. Makes me think that the weed seeds that would be imported from my friendly neighborhood dairy farmer's manures might be worth the extra work...

The nice thing about a local source is that you can go there and get some in a freezer bag and test it with some of last springs seeds. Mix some into some soil and add some seeds. Beans. squash, tomatoes. For me peppers are hard to get to germinate so I wouldn't use them to test that seeds will germinate in my free local manure.

Same thing happened to my little plants after adding this bagged manure/ compost from home depot to half of my raised bed. Hopefully it's only nutrient burn as I've used this particular manure on other things without issue but then again...

By law any cow farmer who uses that AP herbicide cannot sell his manure for use in gardens/ farming/ etc... so im hoping I just added too much as well as other nutrients.

I can't tell if my plants are exhibiting nutrient burn or actual poisoning from bad manure. BTW the AP is designed to kill only broad leaf variety plants so it doesn't affect everything. Just FYI...

Anyways im afraid to buy "composted manure" now. It looks like one young plant is bouncing back but at the same time an older more established plant that is closer to the side of the bed where i used this manure also looks to be getting brown.

I regularly add well composted horse manure or mushroom compost, which is manure, to growing plants. Usually to bi-annuals like apple seedlings as a mulch. I've never had problems with it burning plants. So my guess it's herbicides. I piled a couple inches onto my year old cider apple grafts from last year. And a couple inches on my blueberries. Boy did the blue berries like that! I add 3 inches of the above to raw clay and then dig it in and also maybe add a shovel or two more when transplanting. But I get my horse manure from behind the horse boarding barn.... for free.

Most of the experts on this site tell us that manure is not a fertilizer; it's a soil amendment. So you'd think that you could assume that a non fertilizer wouldn't burn plants. I use manures or mushroom manure as a fertilizer and nothing else and grow nice veggies. I guess I'm confusing the issue.......

One thing I know is to never get horse manure with wood chips in it; even if it's free. The manure gives you nitrogen and the wood chips take it all back.

I have found the same thing. Seedlings fail to grow.