Do I need to compost chicken manure for non-edibles?

Hi everyone. My wife and I purchased some acreage a couple years ago and have started a micro nursery which is Certified Naturally Grown. As far as I know we are the only nursery in the Portland Metro Area that grows ornamental landscape plants (Perennials, Grasses, groundcovers and shrubs) without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides which are really very common place in the nursery trade. We saw a niche market to fill but also really wanted to provide a more sustainable alternative to our community. We recently got some laying hens to provide eggs for our own consumption and to make use of our food scraps.

I am hoping to collect their poop when we clean their coop and use it as fertilizer for the nursery by making a tea in 5 gallon buckets with an aerator. Most advice I have read on the subject suggests composting it first to reduce the nitrogen and the risk of food borne pathogens. However since most of these plants are not intended for consumption with the exception of some herbs which I could avoid using the tea on I’m thinking the pathogens would be a non issue as long as I washed my hands after working with it. The other purpose of reducing the nitrogen I think also does not apply because I want a high nitrogen fertilizer to help the plants reach maturity as quickly as possible. I would still significantly dilute the mixture with a hose attached siphon mixer that mixes at a ratio of one part chicken poop tea to 16 parts water so I doubt it would burn any plants.

Does anyone see any reason why I would still need to compost it? I would likely also add some on farm produced yard debris compost to the tea also for additional nutrients and bioflora. Thanks!

Chicken poop will burn plants, edible or ornamental, if used fresh.  I’m by no means an expert on the subject as I’m composting some old manure now, but I’d recommend either starting a compost pile composed strictly of manure and bedding or add it to an existing compost pile you are using for your ornamentals.

Many years ago I worked at a plant nursery where the owner decided to give her plants an extra boost by using twice the amount of fertilizer than recommended.  The result was over 500 dead plants.  This was a lady who had been in business for many years and should have known better, but there was a local festival coming up and she thought this would be a great way to boost the $3 plants into $5 plants.  Ultimately she ended up turning $1500 worth of plants into nothing.

Michelle Heath wrote:Chicken poop will burn plants, edible or ornamental, if used fresh.

I’m fully aware that using straight chicken manure is very high in nitrogen and will burn plants. The high nitrogen however, is precisely the reason I want to use it. As I mentioned I plan on diluting the tea down to 1/16th strength which seems like it would be enough? I could dilute further if necessary, in theory it seems to make sense that that would work to reduce the nitrogen enough? I would of course test it out on small batches of plants before watering the whole nursery with manure tea.

Sounds like you have a plan.  Try it out on a few plants and let us know how it goes.  

I feel like you would be okay with your diluted tea, although I don't have experience to back that feeling.
For the ornamentals ib my nursery, I usually do any experiments on the things that I have a surplus of which are easy to propagate, in case something goes wrong and kills them. Maybe you could brew up a small batch and test it on some of the things known to be especially sensitive and, if they turn out okay, then you can feel more confident in doing it for the rest of your stock.

Thanks everyone, I think I’m gonna go for it and do some trials where I do some of the same batch of plants with and some without and maybe try a commercial organic fertilizer as well to compare.

I thought my situation was unique in that the traditional reasoning behind composting it first did not apply but I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t another human health or plant health reason not to use it straight.