Chicken poop on garden over winter

[woodmort]

Back when I first started I clean the coop in spring and fall, dumping everything directly onto the garden. Never had a problem. Now I clean once, in April, dump it directly and rototill it in. Doesn't seem to cause any problems, stuff grows great.

 

[curliet]

Was going to mention and forgot, that we do plant winter rye over this patch after we till the bedding and poo in the fall. I had thought about the black plastic, but being in the north it stays cold here til after memorial day in the spring, don't think it would heat enough to kill the weed seeds. But having said that, i do think that we may lay down some black plastic, make slits in it and plant through it in the spring. We'll have to run soaker hoses under it to water it probably. But it may be the only way to heat the soil enough for the plants to grow faster in our shorter growing season, and might also help with the weeds. Does anyone else have experience with this?

 

[The Fairy Godmartyr]

Thank you all so much! It sounds like everything will be going straight on the garden when I clean out the coop. If you had told me a couple of years ago (before I started gardening) that I would be so interested in poop, I never would have believed you!

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
I cover my whole garden with black plastic, have for years--decided I'd rather golf in the summer than pull weeds. It not only keeps down the weeds but warms the soil and holds in moisture. Only disadvantage is that you'll get slugs but scatter Sluggo under the plastic fairly well takes care of them plus, once I take up the stuff in the fall the chickens take care of what are left. I used to use 3-foot wide strips of the stuff but lately have been buying 20 X 40 sheets and planting through it--what row crops I have I plant along the edges. If you're careful a sheet will last 3 - 4 yrs. Last year, for the first time, I planted my potatoes in openings I cut in the plastic and didn't hill them. Got a fairly good crop with little or no work. One problem I've heard from people that use it is that soil can become compacted but I use so much chicken manure plus covered the garden with leaves in the fall so my soil has so much humus that this doesn't happen.

Over the years I've done a lot of things to make my gardening--have a 60 by 80-foot garden--easier and extend the season. I have pvc water pipe "greenhouses" that I cover with row cover to extend the growing season and right now we're still getting lettuce from under plastic tunnels--will until the ground freezes. Our last spring frost date is May 30th and our first fall one is generally Oct 7 so I have to cheat a bit.

 

[curliet]

I want to apologise for hijacking this thread, should have asked my question about plastic in a separate thread. Sorry, didn't really mean to do it.

 

[houlahoula]

This was great input! Thanks everybody!

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
That's pretty much what I do as well. I know people are always warning about chicken manure "burning" plants but I haven't seen it. I clean pens, till in the manure & plant within a few days. Sometimes the same day & I've neverhad a problem as a result.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Go to my web page and look under gardening--I have a lot of information on what I do there.