Beware: Cheap Cow Manure May Have More in It

After taking home the two and half bags of cheap cow manure fertilizer from UPLB, we immediately unloaded them and readied one of the sacks to be used on the next day.

The soil of one of the wall-mounted garden pots seem to have shrunk over time. The roots of the Mandevilla vines in the garden pot were already showing. So I thought this would be the best time to apply the newly purchased cow manure.


Easy to Apply Organic Fertilizer

The cheap cow manure fertilizer was easy enough to apply. It almost looks like ordinary soil. Its easily spread and has a rich texture. So we started top dressing the wall-mounted garden pot as well as the other pots with soil that has receded.

The purchase, we thought was well worth the cost.


Sprouting Seedlings from the Cow Manure

About two days after we applied the cow manure fertilizer, I was surprised to see strange growths upon peeking into the garden pots where we placed the cow manure as top dressing.

There were sprouting seedlings on the soil surface! Just after two days, then this. I immediately assumed they came from the cow manure that we used as top dressing.

Upon closer inspection, the seedlings looked like they will grow up to become robust trees. They grow so quickly.

DH suggested that they might be the seeds from the Acacia tree. I've pulled them out completely. But on the next couple of days, a new batch of these tiny seedlings were sprouting again.

It's a good thing that they're relatively easy to pull out. Their young stems are quite long though and they can root deep into the soil. Here are a couple of these tiny seedlings that I've pulled out from the third batch.

They look like large bean sprouts. Upon pulling, the young seedlings would have this fresh veggie smell to them.

Not Destructive but Definitely Annoying

I suppose they're not destructive, unless you just totally ignore them and let them grow bigger. I also don't think it's wise to let them grow as they take up nutrients from the soil also.

Thus far, I've pulled out five batches of these sprouted seedlings already. There must be dozens of them in there. I'm guessing these seeds may have fallen from Acacia trees nearby. That is, if they are indeed seeds from the Acacia.

Or they could have been fed to the cow and then the seeds just passed through the cow's digestive system and ended up in the manure.

Like I said, they're not a big pain to remove, but they can require frequent monitoring. Also, I don't leave the pulled out sprouts on the soil. I'd rather remove them altogether from the garden pot itself.

I don't like to confuse myself as to which seeds are just sprouting and which have been pulled out already. So I would rather have a neat soil surface without any trace of the seed sprouts.