How To Put Manure in Potted Plants

  • By: TheWalledNursery
  • Time to read: 5 min.
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Add manure to potted plants by mixing it with your soil before planting them. You can also apply it like compost by setting it around the base of an established plant. Then, water it to help the nutrients reach the roots. 

Since potted plants don’t have access to soil, they need more nutrients from time to time.

How To Put Manure in Potted Plants
Manure in potted plants guide

Adding manure or fertilizer to their pots can help them thrive.

It’s a simple process so you can do it as soon as today! 

How Do I Add Manure to Potted Plants? 

Adding manure to your potted plants is easy!

Due to the nature of manure, you may want to do this outside on a clear day:

  • All you need to do is take the manure and sprinkle it around the base of the plant.
  • Using a trowel, you can stir it into the soil.
  • Then, add more manure around the plant’s bottom again. Doing so helps it distribute more evenly into the potting soil. 

You can treat manure like you would other composts and fertilizers.

Adding manure to potted plants  process
Adding manure to potted plants 

If you’re already familiar with them, using manure should be easy! You should check that your plants like nitrogen first, however. 

Manure is very rich in nitrogen! Many plants, including potted ones, love nitrogen.

However, you still won’t want to overload them with it. Make sure you add a reasonable amount of manure to the pot.

Smaller pots won’t need nearly as much as larger ones. 

Overall – Adding manure to your potted plants is a very straightforward process. Your plants will love it too! 

How Often Do I Add Manure? 

Most potted plants won’t need very much manure at a time.

However, you still want to have a consistent routine when you add it. That way, the soil never entirely runs out of nutrients. 

How Often Manure potted plants
Manure for potted plants

Many gardeners recommend that you add fertilizer to potted plants about every two weeks.

If you have small potted plants, you should add manure less often so you don’t overload the soil with nitrogen. 

You can also add manure less frequently but add more of it at a time to your potted plants.

It will depend on the type of plant you’re growing- plants that need more nitrogen will thrive with more frequent manure applications than those that don’t.  

Why Should I Use Manure on Potted Plants? 

Potted plants only have access to the nutrients inside their containers.

Over time, the roots take in all of those nutrients, and you’ll need to replace them.  

Manure is an excellent choice for restoring nutrients to the soil. It contains plenty of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and other elements that plants love.

The benefits of manure in potted plants listed
The benefits of manure in potted plants

Adding manure to potted plants also helps with aeration and soil density. 

Fertilizing with manure slowly and reliably provides your plants with the nutrients to grow.

If you’ve never used manure on your plants, you’ll notice a huge difference in growth within a few weeks! 

Lastly, organic manure doesn’t contain chemicals that can harm your plants. It’s a much better option than most commercial fertilizers today. 


Plus: If you have a garden or farm, you might already have access to high-quality, free manure! Many local farmers also sell animal waste to the community. 


Do Potted Plants Like Manure? 

Potted plants love manure!

They require the same nutrients that outdoor plants do, but usually on a smaller scale-depending on the container and size of the plant. 

That said, you should never add fresh manure to your plants!

It would smell awful, and the waste can easily burn the root system. Instead of fresh manure, you’ll want to use composted manure! 

For the most part, indoor plants love manure. It’s the perfect organic fertilizer, so you’ll want to try it at home soon. 

What Is Composted Manure? 

Composted manure is ordinary farm animal dung, but you let it decompose in your compost.

Many gardeners add manure to piles of:

  • leaves
  • hay
  • ripped paper
  • table scraps

You can easily make it on your property. 

Composted manure explained
What is composted manure

Composted manure is excellent for potted plants. It releases nutrients slowly into the soil adds structure and aeration.

All of these features make it the best replacement for store-bought slow-release fertilizers. You won’t have to worry about chemicals either! 

Overall – The best way to use composted manure is to add it to your standard potting soil before putting the plants in it.

That way, the container holding the plant will have plenty of nutrients for a very long time, even if you don’t add more manure frequently. 

Can I Mix Manure With Potting Soil? 

Mixing manure with potting soil will help offer the plants more consistent nutrition.

Mixing manure with potting soil explained
Mixing manure with potting soil

You want the resulting mixture to consist of half manure, half regular potting soil. The plants get as many benefits as possible from the combination this way. 

If you do this method, you may not need to add more manure to the established plant for a long time.

Make sure you research what nutrients the species needs- and how much! 

Overall, you can easily mix manure with potting soil before adding the plants. Doing so ensures your plants have plenty of nutrients for a very long time.

If you’re growing food in a container, this method provides a substantial harvest! 

Can I Grow Potted Plants in Manure? 

If you want to put your potted plants directly in manure, you should use composted manure.

Otherwise, fresh manure can harm the plants. 

It’s also best to mix the manure with potting soil.

For most plants, you need to make a mixture of half manure and half soil for the best results. However, you can put the plants directly in it with excellent quality compost manure. 

You’ll want to consider the needs of your plants!

If you’re growing a plant that needs many nutrients to thrive, then adding it directly to composted manure would be great.

However, not every plant will like those conditions, so you should include soil. 

In short, you should do some research into the conditions your plants like before potting them directly in manure! 

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