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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?
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?
