aruzinsky

Do a Google search of "Hoffman Dehydrated Cow Manure":

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22h...oe=&gws_rd=ssl

Invariably the advertised analysis is "1-1-1" and the sellers do not show an image of the back of the bag, only the front of the bag. Guess what. They lie. The product is water laden (not dehydrated) and has the analysis of 0.5-0.5-0.5 on the back of the bag.





What a coincidence that no seller shows an image of the back of the bag or an image of the bag's contents. Evil or stupid, the results are the same.

CraigSS

Sounds like Cow/Bull Poop to me!

__________________
Find me on the map!

Abnshrek

Alright anyone selling anything these days pushes the limit on how much BS they claim whatever their product does in marketing for sales, like u believe everything u see on Tv.. I like black cow, but that's just me, well maybe its not just me.. :^)

__________________


I'm a Nannerhead :^)

aruzinsky

If I remember correctly, about 30 years ago, Hoffman indeed manufactured a dehydrated cow manure and it was sold at almost every garden center. It was absolutely dry and had a strong odor. I remember observing an interesting result on tomato seedlings with this manure and, now, I wanted to confirm my observation in a controlled experiment. I don't want to use composted manure because the amount and type of compost material is an unknown variable.

I recently ordered this:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4938310...=sr_gallery_46

but haven't received it yet.

Incidentally, I have seen similar false advertising by sellers before. About 6 years ago, grocery stores sold Lowell Pomegranate Juice for about $2.50 per 1 liter bottle. It was pure and high quality. Then Lowell stopped manufacturing it and replaced it with "Pomegranate Juice Drink" which contained 40% carrot juice. But, all of the grocery stores continued to advertise it as "Pomegranate Juice."

crazy banana

I would not use any manure for my seedlings.
$10 for 3.5 Gallons is ridiculous and whatever N-P-K analysis these companies claim on their bags I would not necessarily trust. At the end, who cares if it is 1-1-1 or 0.5-0.5-0.5. The difference is minuscule.
I am fortunate to have a horse and chickens, a dairy farm also in reasonable distance with endless supply for free. Check out if you have horse or dairy farms around to pick up some manure for free.
If you don't know where to start, check Craig's List and you will be surprised what you can find.
Whatever manure you are using on mature plants, you will carefully have to monitor your results. Most likely if using manure exclusively you will have some kind of micronutrients deficiency. I like my endless manure supply, but I have more reliable results with Fruit Fuel.

aruzinsky

I normally don't fertilize until after the tomato seeds sprout. But, I did a controlled experiment using tomato 'Jolly' seeds that were fertilized immediately after planting. The potting media was 2/3 peat moss and 1/3 parboiled rice hulls (no lime). The pots were standard 4".

The groups were

1. Hoffman hydrated manure, 1 heaping tbs. per pot, mixed with the potting media. Watered immediately after planting seeds.

2. Hydro-Gardens 10-8-22, 1 tsp./gal. water immediately after planting seeds.

3. Calcium nitrate, 1 tsp./gal. water immediately after planting seeds.

4. ScenicHillFarm (Etsy) dehydrated manure , 1 heaping tbs. per pot, mixed with the potting media. Watered immediately after planting seeds.

Seeds of 1, 2, and 3 were planted on 3/5/17 and 4 on 3/8/17. This photo was taken on 3/30/17 (full resolution because results are difficult to see in a small image):



1. Three front left.
2. Three back left.
3. Three front right.
4. Three back right.

Based on this, I used Hoffman manure on all my tomato seeds planted on 3/27/17. After germinating, these will go into my light chamber.

crazy banana

Great experiment. I can see why you would want to use the Hoffman manure.
It would be interesting though, if you would continue your experiment all the way until harvest. I have experienced great looking tomato plants when I have used manure because of the high N content, but fruit production was mediocre.
Another problem that occured by using manure was Calcium deficiency and tomatoes ending up with "Blossom end rot".

aruzinsky

As the tomato plants grew larger, they slowly developed mild symptoms of auxin herbicide damage. Today, I discovered that it is very common for manure to be contaminated with the herbicide, aminopyralid. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopyralid . I suspect that aminopyralid in the manure stimulated the early growth of tomato seedlings.

While the plants were still in pots, I had some success in reversing the leaf distortions by spraying with 10 ppm Thidiazuron (TDZ).

Now, all of my tomato plants are doing fine outdoors in the ground. On some of these, I tried duplicating damage from spray drift of 2,4D by spraying 5 ppm 2,4D on the entire upper surfaces of the leaves of several tomato plants. It took more than one spray to produce mild leaf distortions. I sprayed one plant with TDZ and the distortions worsened but growth is faster than normal.

There doesn't seem to be much literature about why different synthetic auxins affect plants differently. For example, why does quinclorac, but not 2,4D, kill crabgrass?
Interestingly, at very low concentrations, many herbicides improve the growth of some plants. See

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...e_plant_growth

http://www.ask-force.org/web/Herbizi...osate-2008.pdf

An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~taber...003/DevTom.pdf