What are the best manures for gardens?
Vona
I have done a fair amount of reading about manure recently for my own plants. I settled on 800 pounds of composted cow manure bought in 40 pound bags at Lowes. It is pretty cheap at about $2.40 a bag.
Composted manure won’t burn plants and you can use lots of it right away. Fresh manure needs to age for a couple of months before it is safe for plants. Even then, it is still a little hot and needs to be mixed with dirt.
Cow manure is the most common and is among the best all around. Horse and sheep manure are good as well. Chicken manure is good for some plants but it too burns if it is fresh. Rabbit manure is pretty powerful and is good for certain plants.
I recommend the bags of composted cow manure. It smells like rich earth rather than manure and it is more like dark, ultra-rich dirt. You can use it right away and use any reasonable quantity that you want. For a giant garden, other measures may be more cost effective but 800 pounds went a very long way for me and cost less than $90.
20 bags @ $2.40 = $48.00. How did you get near $90?
Oh, I see that you were one of the smarties that got a B or better in arithmetic. Your total is certainly more correct than mine except I bought some humus (also very good for gardens) and a few other things as well. I didn’t realize the OP might not be interested in picking up a fancy garden hose nozzle like I did as well.
While Shagnasty has given some useful info. about manure it misses an important point. You can’t determine what you need for your soil w/o knowing some things about the soil itself and what you intend to grow. There are basic soil test kits available at most garden centers or nurseries. You can also look for help at your state agricultural extension service, usually part of your county gov’t.
Once you have your soil assessment, you can then research the crop you intend to plant and see what you will need to do to create the best growing conditions.
You may, or may not, need manure.
Composted chicken manure is great. Lots of nitrogen.