Manure is a natural, slow-release fertilizer, and sheep manure fertilizer provides adequate nutrition to the soil. In addition, it enables plants to grow strong roots with good plant production while defending against pests. Learn how to make sheep manure compost and the many benefits it offers.
We often think of dirt as being rich with everything a plant needs to thrive. However, plants leach nutrients from the soil over time, and it’s essential to add organic material, compost, fertilizer pellets, or weed seed meal to the ground for healthy plant growth. Fortunately, animal waste meets all the requirements.
Many types of animal manure enrich the garden soil, from goat manure, cow manure, rabbit manure, and chicken manure to horse manure, pig manure, and sheep manure. The green compost components, like pig dung, have aerobic bacteria, potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
Using Sheep Manure as Fertilizer
Use sheep poop as organic mulch or put the manure through the composting process to feed your plants. Choose from several composting methods depending on your space and the time you have available for the task.
Like cattle manure and poultry manure, sheep dung is the perfect organic waste for feeding plants, whether you use composted manure or fresh manure to top-dress beds. While composting cow manure is pretty popular, other poop works just as well. Discover how manure is good for your plants and ways to use it as a fertilizer or compost.
What is Sheep Manure Fertilizer?
While cow manure is popular for manure application, sheep poop is another herbivore manure beneficial for soil amendment and plant food. Find out what sheep manure fertilizer is and how it differs from other manures.
Sheep Manure Fertilizer
There are many manure types, from cow manure to chicken manure; sheep manure fertilizer comes from sheep droppings. Add the poop to the soil to improve its structure and hold water – it slowly releases nutrients into the dirt for healthy root and plant production.
Hot manures, such as chicken and horse manure, are rich in nutrients and are quick to decompose. However, these types inhibit seed formation and burn plant roots. Cold manures like sheep dung slowly release nutrients and are safe to add to newly planted soil.
How is Sheep Dung Beneficial to Plants?
While we don’t often think about animal feces as something to add to our growing vegetables, sheep dung is beneficial to plant growth. Explore the advantages of fresh or composted sheep manure in the garden.
All plants require essential elements, like potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus, to thrive – manure is a natural way to give fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other plants what they want. Use it as potato fertilizer or add it to tomatoes and squash.
In addition, feeding your plants with sheep manure promotes healthy growth and produces some of the fastest growing lettuce, which helps the plant fight off pests and diseases.
Sheep poop is cold manure with a higher ratio of carbon to nitrogen. It has low nitrogen levels and is high in phosphorus and potassium, which helps plants grow a robust root system. Unlike hot manures, composting sheep manure for plant fertilizer is less stinky and slimy, making it a better alternative for home growing. Apply manure to plants in compost, by adding it to a planting hole or as a soil amendment.
Using Fresh Sheep Manure to Add Soil Nutrients
Since sheep poop doesn’t have as strong a smell as other animal manure, it’s possible to use it as organic fertilizer for fertilizing watermelon or lettuce. Use fresh sheep manure for the garden.
Shovel the sheep manure over the area and use a rake to form an even layer on the surface. If you have a new garden, spread one to two inches over the soil. For an established bed or to use sheep manure compost to fertilize blueberries, apply half an inch to an inch of manure each year. Till the dirt to work the manure down to root depth before planting if you have poor soil.
How to Make Sheep Manure Compost at Home
Sheep manure compost is an excellent alternative if you’d rather not spread fresh dung over the top of the bed, and composting lessens the risk of e coli. Discover how to make sheep poop fertilizer by composting raw manure.
The key to composting is to alternate layers of browns and greens. Start with a ground layer of brown material, add a green layer over the top, and repeat. For example, add sawdust, newspaper, pine needles, and leaves to the bin, and then cover that layer with sheep manure, eggshells, fish scraps, and banana peels.
Use a shovel or yard fork to turn the compost pile every three to seven days to encourage the fermentation process, prevent overheating, decrease excess moisture, and reduce compaction. The compost fertilizer is ready to use in as little as eight weeks, depending on the ingredients and the effort you put into composting.
You can also use eggshells and banana peels on their own as fertilizer for your favorite veggies. Eggshells as organic fertilizer for tomatoes add much-needed calcium carbonate to the soil.
When is the Best Time to Apply Sheep Manure Fertilizer?
After you’ve gone through the composting process and the compost is aged, it’s time to use it to fertilize the soil. Here is when to apply sheep manure fertilizer for the best results.
Fertilization Times
Avoid adding manure at the time of planting or through the growing season. The best time to apply sheep manure compost or fresh manure in a vegetable patch is in the fall. However, adding sheep manure tea to the plants is safe anytime.
How to Apply Sheep Compost to the Garden
Depending on the type, there are several ways to apply mulch, fertilizer, and organic material to the garden. Some you work into the dirt while you spread others over the top of the bed. Find out how to apply composted sheep manure to enrich the soil.
To feed your veggie patch, apply 15 to 20 pounds of sheep compost per 100 square feet, or spread a two-inch deep layer over the entire bed. Shovel the compost over the garden and use a rake to work the rich material into the soil.
It’s okay to let the compost sit on the top of the bed if the existing dirt is already decent. However, it’s necessary to work the manure compost four to eight inches deep into poor soils.
Using Sheep Dung to Make a Manure Tea
Another way to utilize the benefits of sheep dung is to make manure tea. This nutrient-rich concoction is simple to prepare and an excellent way to fertilize crops without digging into the soil.
There are a couple ways to make manure tea. However, we find that the easiest method is to throw everything into a bucket. Fill a five-gallon bucket two-thirds full with water and add just enough sheep manure to fill the container.
Let the water-manure steep for a couple of days, stirring it at least once a day. On the final day of steeping, let it sit for an hour until the solids settle and pour the liquid into a watering can.
There is nothing more satisfying than growing your own garden. However, over time, your outdoor plants deplete the ground of nutrients, and they need a boost of nutrition for optimal growth. Fortunately, adding organic matter like fresh sheep manure or compost manure improves the soil structure and replenishes the bed.
Now that you understand how to make sheep manure compost to feed your plants naturally, why not share our sheep manure composting guide with the gardeners in your life on Facebook and Pinterest?