planting tomatoes where the old run was

[PapaChaz]

last week i built a new coop and run, entered in the coop contest. I had a 6 x 16 run that i donated to son in law, i'm thinking that in a couple of weeks i'm going to get the tiller and till up where the old one was and put my tomato plants there. is this too soon? or if i till it now and wait until the middle of the month to plant them, will the soil be back to where it won't burn them up? advice??? thanks in advance

 

[hennyannie]

We tilled up the old run as well. I have beets lettuce onions growing now. However I have been using a mantis tiller to keep the runs turned under the whole time the chicken were there. I dont see any sigh that the plants are burning and we have had alot of rain. I am guessing that it would be okay if you dont have a whole lot of fresh manure.

 

[PapaChaz]

thanks ma'am! i'm thinking i'll go ahead and till it, it could be up to a month before i plant anyway

 

[ellieroo]

My husbands grandmother used to throw chicken manure straight from the coop into old tractor tires that grew the best tomatos in the state!!

 

[schellie69]

I think you should be okay. If you worried just till up some dirt and add that to the mix.

 

[donrae]

You could add some horse/goat/rabbit manure to balance things out, but I'm thinking you're fine. Even if there's a good two inches of chick poo in the run, tilling it into the top 5-8 inches or more will dilute it enough. Post pics of your tomatos when they're full!

 

[AllTheseCreatures]

I would till and let it rest a bit. You can mulch under the tomatoes with wood shavings or straw or something to keep the soil from splashing back onto the leaves and fruit. That will help with any latent salmonella or e.coli that may be present.
I grow tomatoes in my old chicken run. I add more bedding/poop mixture in the fall, lather, rinse, repeat. The calcium in the chicken manure helps the tomatoes fight disease. I have not had a single issue since I started growing them here. You're plants will love it! They go nuts.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

turn it now or later...just make sure it's turned good and plant away. You will get the nicest tomatoes ever!!

 

[urbanolive]

If there is any doubt about the manure being rotten enough you can always buy some compost accelerator and sprinkle it in when you till. I just bought some for last falls litter pile so I can go ahead and stick some pumpkin seeds in next month. Last year I burned up a bunch of plants because I was too anxious to use my new free compost !

 

[AquaEyes]

OK, I'm not familiar with fresh chicken manure, but I'm familiar with gardening and composting, so I'm wondering if something I learned will help with your task. When composting, I remembered that the "goal" was to get somewhere between 5:1 and 8:1 ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen (also called "brown to green" when dealing with yard waste, but manure is considered "green" in this equation). Manure is high in nitrogen, which is why if applied fresh it can burn plants. In a compost pile, too much nitrogen in the mix makes things stinky and takes longer to break down. When it was grass-mowing season, I had a lot of Nitrogen but not as much Carbon (which came in the Autumn, from the fallen leaves). So I added Carbon by adding sugar -- either by putting sugar in a hose-end sprayer, or by pouring a bottle of cola on the pile. I found that it helped to speed up the process of composting the (mostly) grass clippings in the pile during the summer. Perhaps you could do something similar on the area where the chickens were to help speed up the manure composting process.



~Chris