Horn meal, horn shavings, horn meal - what is it all and how is it used? We will explain it to you in more detail in this post.
A horn fertilizer is considered to be a universally applicable, organic nitrogen fertilizer with a natural long-term effect in gardens. Its effective time is on average at least two to three weeks, sometimes even several months.
For the production of all horn fertilizers, primarily crushed horn from slaughter animals such as the hooves and/or horns of cattle is used.
Horn fertilizers, contrary to all plastic fertilizers, are therefore among the purely natural nitrogen fertilizers and are even used by organic farmers (insofar as it is an organic horn fertilizer). The advantage of this fertilizer can clearly be described as the fact that overdosing is practically impossible.
Hint:
You can also add horn shavings to the compost. On the one hand, this accelerates the decomposition process and, on the other hand, increases the nutrient content in the compost.
Horn meal and horn shavings/horn meal in comparison
Horn meal:
To produce horn meal (grain size about 1 millimeter), the horns of the cattle are ground extremely finely. This has the advantage that the fine horn meal spread on the beds is absorbed much more quickly by the soil and can therefore also develop its effect more quickly.
Horn shavings/Horn shot:
The somewhat coarser form of horn meal is horn shavings or horn meal (grain size approx. 5 millimeters). Here, the horns are not finely ground, but rather severely crushed (chopped). The shavings cannot spread their effect as quickly as the horn meal, but the fertilizing effect lasts much longer afterwards. It is therefore best to always use horn shavings instead of horn meal.
Application of horn shavings as fertilizer
Horn fertilizer can be used in the garden all year round, but it is best to apply this fertilizer directly before sowing or planting or work it into the soil.
Personally, I always throw a few horn shavings with every new plantinginto the planting hole. Ideally, the soil should be slightly damp.
➥ Application before sowing:
Simply throw out the horn shavings loosely, while distributing the horn flour finely over the surface of the earth with a shovel. Then work the fertilizer lightly into the soil, e.g. with a rake or a rake.
➥ Application before planting a plant:
For this purpose, you should dig out the planting hole as usual and fill in the horn fertilizer directly there. Then water the planting hole with some fertilizer and place the respective plants in it, fill up with soil and line up.