Grouppe Kurosawa: Organic Gardening

Manure

Manure is animal excrement. We all know this. What people don’t know is why some manures are better than others.

Bird manure is excellent because it contains a high level of urea, an organic source of nitrogen that is the primary component of Miracle Gro. Birds defecate and urinate from the same orifice. They also produce a substantial amount of urea as a natural byproduct of cellular metabolism. This urea ends up in the manure.

Pig manure is considered excellent, but I don’t know why. Cow manure is OK, but nothing to write home about. Horse manure is almost useless, unless you are growing worms. Worms love it. Rabbit manure also contains a substantial amount of urea.

With the exception of urea, the major nutrient, if you want to call it that, in manure is bacteria—dead bacteria. The best fertilizer that I have ever seen was a byproduct of a fermentation run my biotech company made many years ago. The bacteria was Bacillus subtilis, a common non-pathogenic soil microorganism. We purified a product secreted from the B. subtilis, but we had no use for the bacterial mass—the leftover live bugs. The sewage treatment people get upset if you flush massive amounts of live bacteria into their system. Live bugs consume oxygen and contribute to an anerobic condition in the sewage ponds. This allows foul smelling anerobic bacteria to grow. So, we pumped the bacterial slurry into a barrel and left it there for a month to “stew in its own juice”, so to speak. The bacteria died and released enzymes that degraded the bacterial bodies into small pieces. One day we smelled it and it actually smelled sweet. E. coli, the bacteria in manure, never smells good—ever. We diluted the bacterial “soup” 1:1000 and added it to my garden. The results were unbelievable. In two weeks, the plants, lawn, everything went nuts! They grew and bloomed beyond my wildest expectations. The question is why? The answer turned out to be simple. Bacteria can make all their own amino acids, and most of their vitamins. Some bacteria are fussier than others, but in general they are very self-contained organisms, much like plants. These are the same amino acids and vitamins that plants and humans use. In fact, most vitamins are commercially purified from bacteria. They aren’t synthetic. In the course of our experiments, we found that plants can actually take up intact amino acids and vitamins through their roots. Microorganisms can also, of course, break down organic matter readily. The bug concentrate that we accidentally made was pure nutrition for both the plants and the microorganisms in the soil. Nothing was wasted. Leaving the bacteria in the barrel caused it to autodigest into small peptides and amino acids that the plants and microorganisms could rapidly utilize. Manure is a poor substitute for this bug concentrate, but the principle is the same.

Manure contains the bodies of LIVE bacteria from the GI tract of the animal. When the manure is properly aged or composted, the bacteria care killed by the heat of the composting process. Raw manure is very, very toxic and can easily kill. We are now all aware of the so-called flesh eating bacteria that has been making the rounds of fast food outlets. The primary concern is a strain of E. coli that secretes a toxin that kills human tissue. There are other types of excrement bacteria that are almost as deadly. In a recent local case, a woman camping with her family cut her finger and became infected with a flesh-eating strain of bacteria. The developed sepsis or blood poisoning and almost died. Dead bacteria are great nutrients for plants and soil microorganisms, but LIVE bacteria from the GI tract are always harmful. If you are going to use cow manure in particular, make certain it is composted properly and always wear gloves when handling it. You can’t be too careful. There is a huge difference between beneficial soil microorganisms like Bacillus subtilis and excrement bacteria like E. coili that NEVER belong in the soil.
Commercially certified compost cannot include manure. If you intend to make Bug Juice and use a compost innoculum, make certain the compost contains no manure. The manure bacteria that weren’t killed by aging will grow in the Bug Juice and you will end up distributing them around your house and garden. This is not a good idea.