Manure in the Cold Frame / Hot Bed
You have been building your cold frame or planning a hot bed, and now is the time to start thinking about the types of soil you are going to use for growing and keeping your vegetables and plants. Not only are you going to have to think about what your plants like, such as high potassium, low nitrates, loose soil, heavy soil, or a moist soil, you also need to think about the heat that will be given off with the types of soil that you choose.

Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006

After choosing a place for your cold frame or hot bed, you are going to have to dig a hole that is two to four feet deep. Depending on the types of plants and their roots, and the soil of your lawn area, will determine just how deep your hole has to be and how much soil you need to add to your cold frame.

Be sure to make your growing "pit" a bit wider than the outside frame of your box so that it will be loose and not bar your plants roots from going outwards. Once you have dug your hole, packing in fresh manure in the bottom from a foot to two feet will add heat for the germination and as well as for decomposing. Be sure to add two to three feet of good soil on top of the manure, soil that is loose and full of nutrients for the best possible growing. Manure will rot in six to eight weeks and the reaction of the manure rotting will create heat during those critical colder months.

Making heat in the hot bed and in the cold frame is important for when heavy frosts are threatening both your early and your late crops. Harnessing the natural heat of the environment and harnessing the natural heat of decomposing materials will become essential when growing outdoors under all types of conditions.

Tips on using manure in your garden and in your cold frame or hot bed:

The higher the plant material in the manure, the higher the heat is going to be that is given off during decomposition. For example, a horse that feeds off of only grass and hay or oats, will have a higher manure temperature than a horse that was fed special mixtures of feed with a diet that not consisting of grass and hay. The smaller the animal that you are getting your manure from, the higher the heat temperatures will be when the manure is decomposing. For example, the manure from a chicken is going to be higher temperatures in decomposing than the manure from a horse would be.