Timing of "hot" chicken manure for spring shoots

[terrabamboo]

Question for the group....

I am planning on purchasing around 200 tons of chicken manure. My question to the group is when should I spread this "hot" manure? My thoughts is if I can get it spread in february (assuming the ground is dry enough for an 8 ton manure spreader), I was picturing by end of April, during shooting, the manure would not be as hot as to burn the new shoots.

Any thoughts or suggestions? It is easy when you have one mound to turn and bind to nitrogen to become "less" hot -- but I am dealing with so much I don't have the time to turn that many piles. I need a larger scale solution.


tb

[ShmuBamboo]

I had a similar problem with sheep poop when I lived on a ranch in Southern Oregon. I mucked out the barn with a tractor and had a mountain of hot manure every year. It was so hot that grass did not grow until it was 3 feet away from the muck at the edge of the barn. Then it was 2 feet taller than the grass 8 feet out. So I spread the muck in a donut around the larger Aurea and Nigra boo stands around the ranch in March, about 2 months before shooting. The muck was piled 2 feet from the boo culms. After shooting and the shoots hardened off I raked the muck over and into the boos and it rotted down in the summer and fall.

That application is designed around the weather here, as we get rains in the fall, winter and spring. Nitrogen is water soluble, and it is also highly mobile in plants. I found it hard to burn well established adult boo groves. They can take a lot of fertilizer heat. Most commercial boo plantations here feed with urea in February.

[terrabamboo]

When you say Urea, do you mean in liquid form, pellet, etc. ? Do you have any specific information as to what they use?

[ShmuBamboo]

When you say Urea, do you mean in liquid form, pellet, etc. ? Do you have any specific information as to what they use?

Generally its the pellet or crystal form of ag urea (46-0-0), but with water or rain which is high here that time of year. Most use a heavy dose just before the shooting season. Any high nitrogen fertilizer will work, as boos will take it up (like the grass that it is). I feed my boos liquid fertilizer once a month from Spring to Fall, and I apply more to any boos that have yellow older leaves (an indicator of low nitrogen). I also use Super Phosphate here as the soil is slightly acidic. If the soil were alkaline, I would add chelated iron instead. The indication for iron deficiency is new leaves turning yellow. This is because iron is not highly mobile in plants, whereas nitrogen is.

I use the pasture management practice of timing the first spring feeding with heat summation. After a certain number of heating degree units/days, grasses will come out of dormancy and put on a lot of growth. If you feed at that time you will get the best benefit from your fertilizer application. Also note that here in the PNW it rains A LOT, especially in late fall/winter/spring. Nitrogen is highly soluble, so in such a wet environment any nitrogen in the soil is constantly being washed away. To explain pasture management using heating degree units and days until the first feeding, see this OSU web site:

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sfn/w08pasture

[needmore]

"I have literally cooked moso shoots with hot horse manure."

[canadianplant]

You need to be careful with fresh manure. As brad metioned it can cook your plants. Try composting it for a few weeks first, then as the others mentioned use it when it breaks down a bit. You can even fry roots if they are too close to the surface.

[Tarzanus]

"I have literally cooked moso shoots with hot horse manure."

Tasted awful I ass-ume.

[richr]

!!!!!!!

[terrabamboo]

That is why I had figured to spread in february, and then let it "compost" for a few months before shooting begins. Does that make sense, or should I wait until closer- say mid-march - before spreading chicken manure or Urea pellets?

[jd.]

A shallow layer's no problem. Too thick and fresh, and you too can cook bamboo shoots à la needmore as the soil warms and shoots start growing into the steamy hot pile.

If it's too hot, the nitrogen application can be diluted with a carbon-rich organic mulch low in nitrogen. This mulch helps microoganisms to bind the nitrogen which will subsequently be released gradually over the following weeks and months.

Normally an excess of carbon would not be added when making compost because it then takes more time to break down, but as a consequence temperatures will stay comparatively low.

[Mackel in DFW]

I have had Texas barbecue more than once that had a funky yet righteous essence of slowly roasted cow manure . Next time, I'll order the moso shoots. M

[Mackel in DFW]

Oh darn, did I write that last night?...lol... My perspective on chicken manure is that it's potential overkill; it has a lot of salts in it and high doses of nitrogen that could seriously damage a plant's roots. With organic material from a plant source rather than an animal source, as it breaks down it is going to have increasing levels of nitrogen available, anyways, in the form of protein wastes from cycling lifespans of microorganism bodies. Therefore, I prefer organic fertilizer that is composed largely of plant material, rather than an animal origin, due to the potentially harmful concentration of nutrients, which can swing the delicate balance in the soil milieu out of whack, and where you may have to wait several seasons for natural rainfall to get it back in ideal shape. I have read many times that manure is okay at twenty percent of total organic matter, though I don't recall how this number is derived. M

[Mackel in DFW]

Basically, just remember you could see harm first before you see benefits, later. By then, most of that nitrogen that manure is famous for will have evaporated or leached off. Proceed with caution, therefore. M

[Mackel in DFW]

SORRY, Tarzanus, for stealing your joke, that ain't right. M

[dependable]

Poultry manure is the highest in N of all animal manures. Lots of soluble N and ammonia (this is due to the fact that birds don't pee) and very easy to burn plants with it. Anyway, as several of above posts have stated, be careful. If I had a supply of chicken manure to work though, I would mix it with high carbon plant material such as wood chips, and let age.

Didn't you also have a supply of wood shavings you were planning to apply? Might have been someone else.

As Mack stated, if you apply either urea or chicken s this time of year, a lot will be lost to air if not incorporated into soil, and if in soil, a lot will be lost to water table.

Plants only use a lot of N when actively growing, since bamboo has a shallow root structure, it is only going to have a limited shot at N as it leaches though. It will only remain near top soil horizon(where bamboo can use it) if it has some carbon (organic material) to bind with.

If you have young or recently planted plants, the likelihood of injury(or death) is even higher.

Hope you are not paying too much for it, sounds almost like toxic waste in that quantity.