Is chicken manure good for fruit trees?
It’s the icing on the cake if you’re growing fruit trees while raising chicken in your garden and looking for the best fertilizer to add the essential nutrients.
Although chicken manure has the useful features of organic fertilizers, determining whether it is good for your fruit plants is necessary.
Let’s learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of chicken manure in your garden. Besides, knowing how to use the chicken compost and manure your fruit trees properly is significant.
Keep reading this article for further information!
What Is Chicken Manure?
It is a comprehensive and non-synthetic fertilizer with great benefits for your plants.
Chicken manure is also an organic fertilizer containing a high percentage of the macronutrients, such as potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen.
Also, it includes micronutrients necessary for grass and plant growth, such as magnesium, zinc, copper, and calcium.
Chicken manure’s phosphorus and nitrogen content is about twice that of cattle manure. Besides, this manure is a nutrient-rich fertilizer for feeding plants and a good soil conditioner.
Thus, providing this organic compost for your plants may help improve moisture retention, soil structure, air circulation, and drainage.
Is Chicken Manure Good For Fruit Trees?
Yes, it is. This is the best compost for fruit trees.
It is an organic and nutrient-rich fertilizer with important nutrients, including potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen, essential for the fruit plants’ growth.
Thus, proper use may improve soil fertility and give the trees in your garden a healthy boost for high fruit productivity.
When Is Chicken Manure Good For Fruit Trees?
It’s best for your fruit trees when you fertilize each year in early spring, after the last frost. This is because this fertilizer contains the necessary nutrients for the soil to absorb and degrade over time.
So if you fertilize in early spring, your trees will have sufficient “food” to feed on throughout the year. The provided nutrients will support the tree to grow better during the next growing season.
Keep in mind that the chicken compost must be turned over a few times to release excess nitrogen.
So you should wait for the mixture for about 6 months before using it for your garden’s citrus plants and other trees.
How Much Chicken Manure For Fruit Trees Is Enough?
When applying the fertilizer to your fruit trees in your garden once a year, it is best to spread 5 to 10 pounds of compost around the tree’s drip line.
Yet, if you plan to have frequent fertilization, spread 1 to 2 inches of cold manure or compost surrounding the drip line every two months.
Suppose you see the fruit trees responding negatively to the fertilizer, like their leaves turning yellow or dropping off.
In that case, discontinue fertilizing and inspect some essential conditions, such as soil fertility, moisture, or sunlight, if possible.
Use less manure if your garden soil is already rich in nitrogen. Also, let’s say your fruit tree grows from 12 to 18 inches every year, there is no need to apply chicken manure.
Pros and Cons of Chicken Manure For Fruit Trees
What Are the Benefits?
Is chicken manure good for plants?
The chicken manure with the necessary nutrients brings your citrus plants various benefits.
It can support the rapid and healthy growth of stems and leaves. Besides, applying it to your garden’s soil and trees is convenient and simple.
Plus, this fertilizer is environmentally friendly since it is an organic compost.
Another benefit is that it is slow-release and affordable to help improve soil fertility and plant productivity. Furthermore, it can nourish your fruit plants to boost their growth with a high yield.
What Are the Drawbacks?
Apart from the benefits, chicken manure also has some drawbacks you shouldn’t ignore.
Taking essential precautions when handling chicken manure is important to keep it safe for your skin. When applying this fertilizer, I always wore gloves to protect my skin while in direct contact.
Chicken manure also releases harmful dust to your health if inhaled. Therefore, wash your hands carefully after use.
Besides, dried or fresh manure will generate an uncomfortable odor that can harm your respiratory system.
Another drawback of chicken manure is the danger of burning trees due to its excessive application. Thus, it is essential to follow the proper proportion.
Don’t apply fresh chicken fertilizer directly to the plant’s leaves or roots. You can use aged or composted manure because it is milder in nutrient content and safer for your garden and environment.
How To Use Chicken Manure On Fruit Trees?
To chicken manure on fruit trees effectively, you need to follow the standard process to ensure the best growth and highest productivity for your fruit plants in the garden.
Below are a few simple steps you must consider when applying this fertilizer to your trees.
- Add chicken manure and straw to the compost bin with a 50/50 ratio.
- Mix it with existing compost and water this compost thoroughly.
- Let this compost decompose for about six months, and stir it every 30 days until it looks like the soil or dark humus.
- Scrape and remove the mulch at the roots of the fruit plants. Spread about 2 to 3 inches surrounding the roots of the fruit tree.
- Cover the completed compost fruit trees using old or new mulch and spray some water on that area.
- If your plant shows some signs of nitrogen shortage, you can reapply the manure each month, especially from spring to fall or during the growing season.
FAQs
What Is The Best Manure For Fruit Trees?
The best fertilizer for citrus or fruit plants is a rabbit or chicken manure because it contains an NPK value higher than other fertilizers, including horse, goat, or cow manure.
The best fertilizer for fruit plants also requires the proper application to the garden’s soil by spreading around the drip line.
Is Chicken Manure Good For Apple Trees?
Yes, it is. Chicken manure with moderate application is good for most fruit plants, including apple trees.
You can apply the chicken manure to the apple plants in your garden using the same method as the other fruit trees.
Yet, using the proper chicken manure amount is necessary to help your apple trees grow best with high fruit productivity.
How to Best Fertilize Your Fruit Trees?
First, identify the best time to fertilize your fruit plants to give your plants healthy growth and high yield.
You should manure them in the early Spring or before the last frost to boost their growth for next seasons.
Besides, you must properly calculate the fertilizer amount you will apply. Note that not all plants require the same fertilizer amount.
If you provide them with excessive nitrogen, your trees can produce more leaves than fruits.
Remember to select the right fertilizer type, such as organic compost, for your fruit trees.
Plus, a soil test is essential to help you know when you must add the nutrients.
Start with a foot from the tree’s trunk and continue with the drip line. It’s simplest to apply the manure by spreading it on the soil. Also, you can dig some small holes to use the manure easier.
When Is Chicken Manure Bad For Fruit Trees?
Although chicken manure has been applied as a plant nutrient for centuries due to its effectiveness, it also has the potential harmfulness to the fruit plants in your garden.
Fresh chicken poop is often a wet, foul-smelling mix of manure and ammonia-rich liquid.
Ammonia breaks down into nitrogen resulting in the chicken compost being smelly. All fruit trees require nitrogen as a faster and stronger growth promoter.
Yet, when the nitrogen content is excessive, plants will promote vigorous branch growth rather than redirecting energy for flowering. As a result, without flowers, there are no good fruits.
Therefore, using uncomposted raw chicken manure when fertilizing fruit trees isn’t ideal.
Is Chicken Manure Good For Vegetable Garden?
Yes, it’s good. Chicken manure is an organic fertilizer with the necessary nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, or potassium.
It is a great compost for fruit trees and vegetables, even the grasses in your garden.
The chicken manure will help increase soil fertility and boost the vegetable’s growth for the best productivity. Also, it supports the healthy thriving of vegetables’ roots and leaves.
Still, you should apply the proper amount of compost to your vegetable garden since the fresh chicken manure can come with bad bacteria harming your vegetables.
Too much manure can also burn your veggies.
Conclusion
Is chicken manure good for fruit trees? Indeed, the chicken manure is great for not only citrus plants but also veggies and flowers in your garden.
This is a beneficial organic fertilizer with important nutrients for the trees’ growth and fruit yield. However, aside from the benefits, chicken manure also has drawbacks.
Thus, you should be careful when using it for your garden. Applying it properly helps boost the fruit plants’ healthy growth, intensify soil fertility, and increase the garden’s productivity.
