Horse Manure Heats Greenhouse Seedlings

Horse Manure Heats Greenhouse Seedlings CROPS Miscellaneous Mini-bunkers of composting horse manure keep Red Cat Farm s seedlings warm in late winter and serve as growing beds in the summer Once the beds are harvested the compost is spread on other garden beds The method has eliminated the need for purchased heat for greenhouse production I don t like to spend money if I don t have to says Christine Bailey owner Red Cat Farm in Pennsylvania We have only 1 1/2 acres so we try to do as much as we can without purchased power or other inputs We use passive solar greenhouses and a solar panel for power to pump water to garden beds Bailey raises thousands of vegetable and herb seedlings each spring to plant in her market garden to retail at a nearby self-serve stand Bailey uses concrete block beds that are 20 ft long 4 ft wide and about 3 1/2 ft high The two beds are inside a small plastic covered hoop house that is 12 ft wide and 36 ft long The manure which she gets free from local stables is mixed with straw wood chips or other bedding material It s mixed and aerated as it s dumped in the beds in late winter Bailey fills the beds to within a foot of the top leaving room for seedling flats and the young plants to grow After letting it cook for about three weeks she starts putting it to use Bailey starts bedding plants under grow lights in her basement Once the compost beds are producing heat she moves the seedling flats to the greenhouse I add about 2 to 3 in of finished compost to the top of the manure beds to absorb ammonia as it s given off says Bailey I also put a layer of landscape fabric between the seedling flats and the compost to keep the seedlings from rooting in the compost Once the flats are set in place she covers the bunkers at night with sheets of Polygal a stiff plastic She props them up during the day On really cold nights she adds a layer of greenhouse plastic over the Polygal sheets for extra insulation She says the seedlings get the benefit of the heat as well as carbon dioxide given off by the compost The only negative is if excess ammonia causes tip burn The seedlings also benefit from warm days and cool nights in the greenhouse that naturally harden them off As the weeks pass the compost produces less heat and the plants need less heat Also as the compost breaks down it settles allowing her to continue using the plastic sheets over the increasingly taller plants on extra cold nights I ve been using this method to raise several thousand vegetable and herb bedding plants for the past five years says Bailey This year I m extending the bunkers by 8 ft each Once the weather has warmed enough Bailey moves her seedlings to a second and larger unheated greenhouse Low plastic tunnels over beds provide sufficient protection until the plants are ready for outside beds Once the seedlings are moved out Bailey sets eggplants tomato and other heat loving plants in the compost beds to grow through the summer They get some benefit from low-level heating as well as all the nutrients they need By the end of the season when the beds are all harvested the compost is fully broken down She then empties the beds and spreads it on outside garden beds to build the soil in them for the coming year It still has some nutrient value and lots of organic matter says Bailey She credits extension specialist Steve Moore now a research and extension associate North Carolina State University for the ideas behind her low-cost system She also sells vegetable and herb bedding plants at a nearby feed mill using an honor system Clearly marked plants are left out on benches for buyers to select Bailey relies on them to leave their money in a secure box I am only there on Saturday mornings to answer questions and help people who need it she says The honor system works great and lets me sell plants when I can t be there Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Christine Bailey 6113 Memorial Rd Germansville Penn 18053 ph 610 767-2519; redcatfarms@fastnet net

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