How to Use Poultry Manure With Plants

Using poultry manure as fertilizer is an efficient way to farm.

Fertilizing with natural products instead of chemicals gives you greater control of what touches your food. Also, natural manures, including horse manure, cow manure and poultry manure, provide slow-release fertilization, reducing the number of times you must fertilize each season. Poultry manure is considered "hot" manure because it's high in nitrogen content. Home gardeners should age the poultry manure for a year to prevent nitrogen burn to the plants. Weed seed is less of an issue in poultry manure than in horse or cow manure.

Things You'll Need

• Sealable quart plastic bags
• Shovel
• Trowel
• Leaf mold, straw or newspaper

Instructions

1. Sample your soil in several locations by digging 6 inches into the soil in a V shape. Use the trowel to slice a slab of soil from one side of the hole and bag the sample of soil. Take several samples per area. Label each bag with the location and date.

2. Submit your samples to your local university extension office which will test the samples for a small fee.

3. Compost your chicken manure by layering the manure with an equal amount of "brown" materials such as leaf mold, straw, or newspapers. Add a layer of soil on top of the pile and water the pile. Turn the compost pile three times per year.

4. Test your compost for nutrient content after it has aged by submitting it to a university extension office. Contact the extension office in advance to find out what its procedure is for testing compost.

5. Apply the aged poultry manure to your garden at the rate recommended by the soil test and the fertilizer test. If you choose not to test your soil and poultry manure compost, a good general rule is to apply 1 inch of compost on the surface of the soil.

6. Dig the compost into the top 6 inches of the garden soil. Alternatively, if applying the poultry manure compost after planting seeds in the garden, place the manure between the rows of seedlings and water the compost to facilitate the movement of the nutrients into the soil.

Tips & Warnings

• You can cold compost the poultry manure by spreading a thin later on the garden in the fall after harvest and working it into the soil. Test the soil in the spring to determine if further fertilization is required.

• Nutrient needs depend on the crop you are growing. Corn requires high levels of nitrogen, making poultry manure particularly appropriate.

• Wear gloves and a dust mask when working with raw poultry manure.

References

• A & L Eastern Laboratories, Inc.: How to take a Soil Sample
• Seattle Tilth; Composting Chicken Manure
• North Carolina State University SoilFacts; Poultry Manure as a Fertilizer Source; J. P. Zublena; Dec 1997