The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: in the hills on March 19, 2012, 11:17:21 am
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There was a brief mention in this months HF magazine about using sheep poo to make a liquid fertiliser for use on vegetables. My compost heap is not ready yet but I do have sheep poo!!!!
Any ideas? Does anyone out there make it? How do I do it?
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Last year I did a sheep poo and nettle fertiliser.
I got a medium sized water butt (but any container will do - however, a water butt is useful because then you have a tap you can fill your watering can from, and it has a lid) and a net potato sack.
Filled water butt with water and filled sack with sheep poo and nettles then lowered potato sack into the water like a big teabag. Left it there all summer.
The resulting stuff was popular with the plants - the smell isn't so popular with humans but if it's contained in a covered container then there's no smell unless you lift the lid!!
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Another option if your sheep do nice dry pelleted droppings like rabbit pellets - tends to be in winter when they are eating mainly hay - is to sweep these up (I know - looks daft :dunce:) and store them in a lidded bucket. When you are preparing your soil for planting dig some of these in, or when you need an extra nutrient boost during the growing season, spread them as a light mulch around hungry plants. No smell, no mess :thumbsup: I take some to my aunt who lives in a city with close neighbours - her garden is now very fertile but no-one gets upset at the smell :sheep:
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It's not advised to put the liquid poo feed on your salad crops unless it is very carefully put on the soil at the roots and not the leaves or fruits in case of ecoli tum upsets etc.
Only use it on crops that will get boiled .
You could also lay out the neat sheep muck on some concrete , stomp it flat turn it a couple of times hose it / wet it for two or three days turn it abit more and the action of the weather will have knocked off most of the burning nitrogen .
Use it in this broken down form direct in the soil of the beds a week or two before putting in your greedy feeding plants like brassicas peas or beans . Don't use it on the carrot or other root crop bed as it tends to encourage forking of the roots or makes for excess top growth .
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Thanks for the replies.
Really useful. Never thought about bacteria in there ... :o .......shall go ahead but only on my runner beans and things.
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grandpa use to take us up the moors on sheep dropping collection duties, as if we didn't have enough from ours at home ::)