Is there any way to reduce the smell from my cow liquid. ? The stuff I am composting now has a strong smell.
The best way to reduce the smell of cow manure in a compost pile is to give it a thick covering of another non smelly, but compostable material. Popular covers include straw, leaves and newspaper. The more you cover the manure, the more these organic covers are able to reduce the smell.
How Do You Stop the Smell From the Cow Liquid; Mine Is Very Strong??
This is, unfortunately, a side effect of this fertilizer. This spray should be applied before you mulch, and this will help keep the smell down. If you have sprayed, you can place a mulch, like wood chips or straw or leaves, over the area that was treated and this will help.
It will fade on its own after a rainfall or two.
I have made some liquid cow poo. I have stored some in plastic bottles to use later, but the smell is very strong. Can I add anything to the liquid to stop the smell, or what can I do to the cow liquid so I can store it for whenever I need it?
I would try placing it in airtight bins or a heavy duty plastic bag. That will reduce the smell some. Also, keep it as cool as possible. Higher temperatures will make the smell worse.
As far as I know, there is nothing you can add to the liquid itself to keep it from smelling.
We've just dug in some chicken manure (mixed with sawdust, which has been sitting awhile) into a raised bed, and wondered which vegetables would be best in the nitrogen-rich soil.
The best kinds of vegetables to grow in nitrogen rich soil are vegetables that are grown for their leaves. Nitrogen encourages leaves to grow and suppresses root and flower growth. Vegetables like spinach, lettuce and greens are great.
If you want to plant something else there, I would recommend adding phosphorus to balance out the nitrogen.
I am new to vegetable gardening and have a wife who keeps horses and, therefore, has copious amounts of straw-based horse manure. This rots down in a heap for a while and is then moved to another heap where it is just left and ends up covered in weeds and grasses. So my question is how long does the initial pile need to rot before I can use it in the newly created veggie plot?
There is no set ideal time for how long to compost horse manure, but typically it takes 2-3 months if done properly. You are better off looking at the compost itself to see if it is ready. The horse manure compost will look like soil and will have lost its "manure" smell when ready.
My vegetable garden is 25' wide and 30' long. The soil is of good quality. How much manure should I use? Also is there any synthetic fertilizer or additives I could use to aid in breaking down the manure to make the nutrients more readily available for the plants? Thank you.
You do not want to use raw horse manure on your garden beds. First, because the seeds in it have not been killed by heat from composting (and will grow) and second because the nitrogen is to "hot" and needs time to mellow. You want to leave it to compost/rot for a few months in a compost bin before you put it on your beds. You may find this article helpful: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/horsecompost.htm
Once it has been composted and the nitrogen has mellowed, you can spread it up to 3-4 inches deep over the ground and then work it in.
I usually put cow manure (in winter) in the garden for all kinds of plants. Can I use another kind of fertilizer during summer after I used the cow manure?
If you are amending the soil in the winter with cow manure yearly, it should be good through the summer. That being said, compost never hurts when added to the garden.