We are moving to southern NM next month and the property will have fresh horse, sheep, goat, and chicken manure on it. If we actively manage it by adding straw, finished compost, light carbon mulch, and turning it and cooking it down in ~thin layers, not mounds, how long will it take before we can safely use it a foot deep underneath the soil we’ll be planting in?
I think it depends on what you are going to plant.
For root vegetables, I would want it very well rotted, even when placed a foot down. I would keep turning the pile until it starts to cool down and look more like soil. I believe that means the excess nitrogen has been used up by decomposing bacteria.
For above-ground vegetables that are nitrogen lovers, I think the compost could be pretty "hot." Depending on the amount, I wonder if you need to compost it at all -- provided you add the carbon/brown matter you mentioned.
My 2 cents. Others here will chime in with more authority.
Cooking it down in thin layers? It won't cook down at all in thin layers you need a heap to get any cooking or heat going. If you want to spread it out just spread it on whatever land you want and it will be fine after a couple of months, rain will wash most of the nutrients down into the soil. I'm not sure why you want to bury it a foot down, but you can plant anything shallow rooted straight away then, lettuces and suchlike don't root to that depth anyway Standard practice her is slurry spreading, then the plough and then seed directly after. the general rule for safety is 90 days from application to harvest for cooking crops and 120 days for raw eating crops.
Our goal is to be able to get the manure cooked off as fast as possible so we can plant in it as soon as safely possible without burning the plants. It will be 100F everyday - I would think it would cook down in unmounded layers, especially if we tarp it. We want to plant some fall crops like spinach, and overwintering crops like garlic, onions, and try some late season potatoes, like cold tolerant Russian type. It’s been 9 years since we had a space to garden in - we want to be planting the first week we get to the new property!
