Root veggies and manure... A D'oh! or no...

[ManicPanic]

I have started my first veg patch. I have just planted some maris piper seed potatoes, carrotts and onions. I prepared my patch first by giving a right good cultivating and a little bit of manure raked in, but dh says he's sure he read that you can't use manure on root veg. Can't remember where But now that I think about it, it does make sense. Have I buggered up my first crop?!

The usual advice is 'well-rotted manure'. If it's from a good source e.g. from stables that are turned out regularly, you've dug it into the soil and it's had chance to break down I think you'll be fine. Different if you'd planted root veggies straight into vast amounts of stagnant, unrotted manure as there may be contamination issues.

Manure bought from a garden centre, in bags, virtually odourless so I suspect v. well rotted. Or would that mean stinkier?

Veggies are planted in the earth (see I got that bit right) with a very small amount of manure dug into the soil.

I think I will wash the veg very well and test on the dog first (she likes carrots)

Too much manure can make root veg fork I think - so your carrots may end up an interesting shape. I used a mix of manure/soil last year and didn't have any problems though.

If it was from a garden centre and odourless it has probably been steam-sterilised so you'd be fine. There's a difference between 'well-rotted' ... nicely broken down almost into compost and 'rotten'.. stinky slimy poo!

I grew potatoes in a plot manured with pig poo. No problems at all, the potatoes practically shot out of the ground!