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50% rabbit manure, 50% clay

californian
13 years ago

I have some almost pure clay soil and I usually amend it with compost or mulch or composted steer manure when making planting holes for my plants. I found a source of fresh uncomposted rabbit manure so tried an experiment. I dug a hole and used half the clay from the hole to build a berm around the hole (my garden is on a hill and I have to build berms around all my plants to keep the water from running downhill), and mixed the other half of the clay with an equal amount of fresh rabbit manure and refilled the hole with the mixture. I planted a Costa Romamesque Zucchini in the mixture and so far it is growing great, increased 50% in size in just a few days. I read somewhere squash would just love to grow on a manure pile, I will soon find out if this is true.

Comments (11)

  • jolj
    13 years ago

    You should compost the manure, before planting in it. You should not eat crops grown in raw manure for the first 90-120 days.
    According to ...make compost in 14 days BY Rodale Press.Rabbit manure is higher in Nitrogen(2.4%) then any other
    & higher in Phosphate (1.4) then any other tested.
    Rabbit is second in Potash(0.6%).
    I would mix a little browns in with it in the hole.
    Shredded leaves & maybe a hand full of sand for flavor.

  • Kimmsr
    13 years ago

    Amending the planting hole in clay can create more problems then it cures because that now amended soil makes it easier for water to flow into the hole and almost immposible for water to flow out, so you end up with a non draining bathtub.
    Using fresh manure in the garden exposes you to potential serious disease pathogens. Manure, as the only soil amendment, may provide the plant with so much Nitrogen that it will grow quite well and not produce any fruits.

  • californian
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Kimmsr, in southern California the bathtub effect is not a problem. It usually doesn't rain any significant rainfall amounts from April until November. The only water my plants will get during the growing season is what I apply with a hose or watering can or bucket, so I know exactly how much water they are getting, which with water rates going up and water rationing means probably not enough. Plus I live on a steeply sloped hill so any excess water would run off except where I built berms to try to keep that from happening.

  • jolj
    13 years ago

    You will have to brake up as much clay as you can, as deep as you can.
    I have a garden in a sandy field in the country.
    I live 16 miles away on a plot of clay( the developer lift me only clay for top soil).
    I dug down 16 inches & hauled the orange & white clay to the back yard. I then broke up the bottom of the hole(4-6 inches)
    & mixed in compost,peat moss,Shredded leaves & planted bulbs,flower & woody plants. I did this 15 years ago & never had a bath tub or pathogens.
    Matter of fact I am going to extend the bed this year.
    Or maybe they are right & you should give up & buy store bought produce.:-(
    I wish I had some of your rabbit manure for my new bed.:-) Please post photo's so we can see what you garden looks like.
    On a sloping hill ,bet it will stand out with colors & shine bright. Good Luck.

  • Kimmsr
    13 years ago

    A friend that I corresponded with that gardened for years in the San Diego area would disagree with you about the bathtub effect there. Even those that must use some form of irrigation have seen that kill plants, because even the water they apply cannot move out due to the difference in soil structure.

  • taz6122
    13 years ago

    I have to agree with kimmsr. It doesn't take rain for the bathtub effect to become a problem.

  • californian
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I was thinking of terraces but then it would be too hard to manuever my roto tiller. It takes a lot of room to turn it around, especially on a slope where it is trying to tip over. Also wouldn't be able to roll a wheelbarrow uphill if the yard was terraced.
    But I do make berms about 40 feet long on about six different levels to keep the water from running away downhill, plus individual circular berms around each plant.
    BTW, my wife and daughter just came back from a vacation in Peru where they visited Machu Picchu. They say the terraces and engineering that went into them and the gravity feed irrigation system is amazing, and they did it with hand tools.

  • rott
    13 years ago

    ..
    I thought rabbit manure was benign enough to not require composting. I heard it was unique in that way. Where one gets bunches of that stuff without bedding I'm not sure though. With bedding, I'd compost it.

    to sense
    ..

  • californian
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    The lady I got the rabbit manure from was trying to sell it for $5 a bag but gave me three bags containing about 40 pounds each for free as a free sample, but I had to clean out her chicken coop for free to get the free chicken manure she gave me too. She also gave me as much horse manure as I wanted for free, so I took 11 five gallon buckets of that. The horse manure was partially composted.
    But the rabbit manure had a lot of straw and grass and twigs and rabbit hair in it, and even a piece of plastic that looked like it was part of a radio. She said she wanted to start a business selling through home depot, but she will have to dry the stuff out and screen all the garbage out if she expects to do that.
    I used up 80 pounds of the stuff so far planting the one Costata Romanesque Zucchini and five Kobacha squash.
    BTW, I only got one and a half 5 gallon buckets of the chicken manure, but that stuff smells so bad I won't get anymore even for free. I spread it around one of my Avocado trees hopeing it would burn the bermuda grass, but the Bermuda is growing right through it. I can smell the chicken manure 70 feet away if the wind is blowing my way.
    I read on one forum some guy wanted to put ten tons of chicken manure on his garden. Hope he didn't do it because you would probably be able to smell his property a mile away. Once I mix the rabbit manure with clay and put it in a planting hole it doesn't smell too bad.

  • californian
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Well, I think I am giving up on using rabbit manure, at least from this source. I just opened up the third bag and in it found even more twigs, a piece of broken glass and a piece of broken pottery, another piece of plastic, but worst, three bones, and they weren't chicken bones, from the size they looked like they came from something the size of a rabbit. So maybe there was a dead rabbit mixed in with the manure.
    But I will use up the rest of what I already have planting a few more squash plants.