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Horse manure on strawberries - will it be safe next spring?

 
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Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I'm worried I may have made a big mistake with horse manure.

I live in the Annapolis, Maryland area. I planted a strawberry bed last spring - 25 plants each of two Junebearers. They grew well all year and I dutifully pinched off flowers and suckers (at least until later in the season), looking forward to a big strawberry crop in 2022. In late September I got access to free horse manure from down the road. It was in a large pile with well-rotted manure on the bottom and fresher manure on top. I tried to get mostly the aged manure, but of course got some of the fresher stuff mixed in too. Mostly I spread it around fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. However, I also tossed quite a bit right onto the strawberry bed. I didn't try to incorporate it into the soil.

It's been over 3 months now. First off, I am grateful to have gotten lucky pesticide-wise - the strawberry bed has looked great and continued to grow, at least up until the snowstorm we got a few days ago. I would have been REALLY mad if I had inadvertently killed off the dozens of plants and trees I used the manure on. (Side note: maybe the fertilizer stimulated too much late-season growth in the strawberries and/or other plants; I'm not sure whether that would be a problem.)

My big question is: should I be worried about E. coli when it comes to harvesting food next spring? At least some of the manure I put down was fresh in late September, so it will have had roughly 8-9 months sitting on the ground before berries would begin to ripen. Can E. coli survive for that long (above ground)?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

P.S. I reserved a pile of the manure (again, mostly well-aged but not 100%) to spread in the vegetable garden in the spring. Would this be a bad idea, because of E. coli, weed seeds, or something else?

P.P.S. Are there other considerations I should be aware of?
 
pollinator
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Personally, I would have tried to mix it with the soil and let the biota deal with any nasties. If in doubt, spread some loose straw around the plants so the fruit doesn't touch the ground or get splashed with soil in heavy rain.
 
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Location: SW PA USA zone 6a altitude 1188ft Grafter, veggie gardener
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Where you can you'd be better digging in the manure you have left now; or as soon as you can dig. And I wouldn't spread it as or after you plant low growing leafy plants like lettuce or root crops.

In the future side dress with manure after the strawberries fruit.
 
Luke Krmpotich
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Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Personally, I would have tried to mix it with the soil and let the biota deal with any nasties. If in doubt, spread some loose straw around the plants so the fruit doesn't touch the ground or get splashed with soil in heavy rain.



Thanks, Douglas. So it sounds like things should be okay after sitting for 8+ months, but it wouldn't hurt to take extra precautions.
 
pollinator
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The legal waiting time here is 8 months so I recon you will be fine since I'm sure there is some wriggle room built into that figure.
 
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