Hi! I'm fairly new to gardening and just received a bunch of asiatic/oriental/hybrid bulbs from G.H. Wild (they were having a sale in June, so I ordered - I know they're not the highest quality, but I couldn't pass up the price!). I was reading over the planting info included in the package, and it said NOT to plant the lilies in soil amended with manure because the nitrogen content may hurt the plants. I just composted my gardens and added in some manure, so do I need to remove the soil from the areas where I plan to plant the lilies and replace it with something I can find at Lowe's? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Manure should be avoided for lilies?
buckeye, i'm waiting for the answer also as i never heard this on anything but bearded iris. but just wondered about the quality of your bulbs. how big were they?
How much manure did you amend your gardens with?
Good question! I was planning on adding manure too but will hold off to see any answers.
Also, how well composted is this manure? or is it realtively fresh?
Ticker - the manure is pretty well composted, but still has a strong nitric smell (almost stinging when it was initially delivered). I'd say that my soil composition is probably 1 part manure to 4 parts everything else (everything else being garden soil, peat moss, sand, stuff from my personal compost, and the yucky, clumpy clay dirt that I've done my best to get rid of)
mamajack - I haven't even taken the bulbs out yet, but I'll check when I get home and let you know on size
If it's really well composted it shouldn't smell. I wouldn't remove the soil from the gardens, but I might add some dirt to the hole I'm planting in. Actually, I'd probably just plant the bulb and not worry about it. But if I tell you to do that your bulb will rot for sure.
I've been using well composed horse manure on ALL my flower beds for many years...
And I've never had any problems...
I only know your not suppose to use fresh....
I just put some on my DL's today...No smell to it as it's been sitting for over a year...
If it is well composted (one year or more) it should be OK. Last year I tilled in a soil mix that was 1/3 composted horse manure and the pile was even steaming a little when I dug into it. New lilies went in about a month or so later and they came up and grew fine this spring.
buckeye you didn't say what kind of manure. some are more caustic than others.
That's a very good point mamajack. Pony and cow poo is less caustic other types of poo.
Of course, you should never be tilling in fresh manure anyway in any garden, but it's some of the bacteria and other microorganisms in manures that makes manure "bad" for lilies. Even when composted, numbers of these organisms are high, although they do dwindle with time. Worked into the soil that lily bulbs are planted in makes the bulbs vulnerable to attack. When bulbs are in the "dormant" state, they don't have much propensity to fight off these invasions of the bulbsnatchers. So it is recommended not to plant bulbs in manure amended soil. The warning is only a precaution, really. It's not a cause-effect relationship. It's a cause-maybe effect.
Lily growers do top dress their gardens with manure. The manure is well away from the bulb, far underground. But I am with the other posters here: I wouldn't worry about it.