Horse manure tea?

[Gladys47]

Any reason why this would NOT be good before I use it? Already" brewed" some for my other plants. Have a young horse so it's free. Can't find worm tea tho I know I have seen it at the box stores before. I thought I read on another post where someone ordered the worm castings and made their own. Maybe I will Goggle and try to find some. But in the meantime how about the horse tea?
Since I've hurt my back and out of work I have WAY too much time on my hands! The outside flower beds are begging for attention and the orchids are praying for me to just go get back on my heating pad! I hear them! Oh no! here she comes again, Run, rollover or play dead! Poor babies. Gladys

[Atriel]

This is the place that I get my worm tea bags from. I live here so I just go to the flea market but he has a web site and I'm pretty sure he ships.

http://www.wichitawillie.com/

[Sharyn]

Ohhhhhh Gladys! You are such a brave soul. The closest I've come to horse manure was a hamburger in Toronto!

[Gladys47]

It's not so bad unless you leave it out in the heat. I use the dry horse apples, Not messy, and not a bad smell. I have used rabbit. it can get kind of smelly, at least to me. But believe me, since I use some of it on my porch it wouldn't be happening if the smell was rough or lingering. I've just never used it on my chids before so I'm not sure , tho I think it would be safe. Maybe I'll just try on a couple of the cheap bag babies first and see if no one comes along that can answer the question. Gladys

[evagentry]

gladys47, I have been using a tea made from composted sheep, rabbit and chicken manure on my house plants for about a month now,also on my orchid and they are doing very well, they are growing well and their leaves have a different healthier look about them, you might try just one orchid with a dilute tea for a while just to see how it turns out. good luck, eva

[brookn]

Atriel thanks for the link, I am not far from KS and was raised there. I have been looking for a place closer to home to order from. Isn't there a lake near Cheney? If it is the place I am thinking of we used to go with my granparents to ski, we had so much fun there.

[brookn]

Oh I almost forgot, Gladys let us know how your experiment works out. Sounds interesting.

[Atriel]

Hi Brookn,
I'm a pretty recent transplant so I have no idea where anything is yet. I moved here from the East coast and am still getting acclimated.
I'll ask around though and I'll let you know as soon as I find out.
Take care,
Atriel

[Hummer344]

It depends on how fresh the horse manuer is. I wouldn't use it fresh or even a few days old. I have a horse stable not far from me and they compost a LOT of manuer & its lovely stuff. COMPOSTed horse manuer would be fine in my estimate. Make a pile complete with some straw and/or wood shavings and turn it once a week. In a few weeks you would have some mighty fine compost. Then I would make compost tea out of it.

[gerneveyn]

There was a man in New Zealand who grew orchids in horse manure (cyms did very well). His name was Nic van den Bosch. Here's his website: http://web.archive.org/web/200502121...cvdb/index.htm

[rls1989]

Gladys47
Would love to know how you get on with this!!!
Having 2 horses of my own and an ever growing manure heap, i'd love to try it!
How do you make the horse manure tea?

Let us know how you get on!!!

[WIB]

Nic van den Bosch (in Tasmania?) has advocated fresh horse manure as a potting medium, at least for cymbidiums, which tolerate a fairly high salt content. Thanks to a friend with a teen-age daughter, I have a ready supply, so I have tried it. It hasn't killed the plants. I'm not certain that it's made them any more floriferous, though. -- Bill

[Tess1]

I have tried tea made from composted chicken manure, it worked well. I just put the manure in a bucket and covered it with water, left it for 4 weeks and then diluted it so the tea was a very pale colour. Old sheep manure I have just sprinkled on. Horse manure I have used, one apple on the bigger plants, a smaller amount on the small pots. It all works, but using Nix van den Bosch's method nearly killed all my orchids. I had repotted them all in horsemanure with the long-strand spaghnum moss on top, the orchids hated it and started to rot. It does seem to work for some people, but not for me. I had to repot all my orchids again and used bark, like I did before and now they are very happy little vegemites.
Fred, can you throw some light on van den Bosch's method?

[fred]

Tess
I dont know of this van den Bosch myself I would say he is a grower down South ( Hobart )
what I do know about useing hores manure is it works well when it is fresh
but I have heard from orchid growers in Hobart and Launceston when they heard about the horse manure they all said it was the bees kness to orchid potting medium as it is cheap.

so its the old story an new idea for a potting medium came along they changed the orchids from a bark mix to the horse manure but most failed with useing horse manure and have gone back to a bark medium.

I think making tea out of horse poo would work
I would not put my orchids in horse poo I will stay with what I know works for me.
this does not answer your question about his method though

one thing I do use also is sheep manure on my Sarc,s 5 or 6 dropping placed ontop of the medium water over the manure twice a month my Sarc,s love it.

[Tess1]

Oh, that is funny Fred, I shall go out and give my sarcs some, I only have given it to the cymbids. I have got a few sheep so it is free, do you give old or fresh sheep droppings to the sarcs? And did you mean you place the droppings twice a month?

[pmckoy]

YEARS ago when I was growing up in California, my mother used droppings from my pet rabbit as fertilizer for her fig trees! The trees were fabulous, big with huge crops of figs. In fact, my cousins recently brought me cuttings from a tree that my mother rooted for my uncle over 50 years ago, and I now have those trees rooted and ready to be planted here in SC...think I might try some horse "tea" on them, as I have alot of horse manure. Keep us posted on how the experiments turn out!

[Gladys47]

I have since bought worm tea from Jerry, and I must say so far I love the results. But I was using the horse tea. I picked up the dried apples, soaked them , then diluted. I soaked my lg. vanda in it every morning and was impressed that it started putting otu new roots and growing much faster. I sprayed the other plants with a diluted solution. I did see results. I think it did more harm than good. So I wouldn't say anything bad about it. I definately saw improvement. I didn't go crazy with it tho and it was very dilute as I was using freshly sun dried that I picked up in the back pasture. I just decided the worm tea was much easier for me due to health ?/ collecting reasons and am very pleased with the results form it also tho I have only been usung it a a very short time. I am also using it on some newly aquired plants and I am plesaed with the results of it. Just try it. I dont think it is going to do harm if diluted and not too strong. But what do I know? I'm still a newbie in my boooks! Like I said tho it did no harm. Gladys

[fred]

Originally Posted by Tess1

Oh, that is funny Fred, I shall go out and give my sarcs some, I only have given it to the cymbids. I have got a few sheep so it is free, do you give old or fresh sheep droppings to the sarcs? And did you mean you place the droppings twice a month?

Tess
I use fresh sheep poo I get a large bucket full at a time as it last,s for some time.
I place around 4 to 5 dropping around each Sarc
eyery time I use the sprayer on the Sarcs I spray the sheep poo as well
I only place the dropping on the sarcs once a year.

sorry it took so long to answer you Tess
I have been flat out with Admin stuff

[11Orchid126]

It would be interesting to know what medium the poo users are growing in. There is a theory that animal manure needs soil in order to break down, and of course, orchids are not grown in soil. I don't believe worm tea needs any soil in order to break down.

[Tess1]

Thanks for that info Fred, I shall treat my sarcs to some, what about the dendrobiums and cymbids and all the others?

[fred]

I use Dynamic Lifter from time to time on my Cyms
I make that into a light tea mix

[Gladys47]

I mostly use medium bark mix. Smaller mix for the oncs. ,and one of my phals is in spag. I have several mounts as well. Haven't noticed that it affects the mix yet. Gladys