Horse, cow and chicken manure are excellent fertilizers but are they safe to apply in the vegetable garden? It depends. Manure straight from the source can contain disease-causing pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. You’re at risk when you use fresh manure on vegetables with edible parts in or near the soil such as carrots, beets and greens. Remember the spinach? However, the risk for contaminating a crop like corn is pretty low.
If you want to use manure from a local farm, make sure it has been well aged. By “well aged” I mean it has been curing all winter. Bacterial pathogens die after a few months so aged manures should be safe to use. Composting manure at a high temperature is another way to kill the pathogens. That’s what commercial companies do and these composted manures should also be safe to apply on vegetable beds.
The best time to apply manure is in the spring before you plant. A little fresh manure goes a long way: a 5-gallon bucket of cow manure is plenty for 50 square feet and that amount of chicken manure covers 150 feet. You’ll need to apply more composted manure, as much as an inch or two.
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