aupoet

I am a first time naner grower down along the south Alabama coast, so I don't think I need to dig mine. I have two ice creams that I planted out this last spring as 1 foot pups. They are now both some 10 ft. tall with three young, 3 to 4 ft. pups around each of them. I have a hen house full of dry chicken manure that has built up since last fall. I usually shovel it out every fall and dump it out on part of the garden to be plowed under. I was wondering if I should fill some large leaf bags with the manure and place them around the larger pups to protect them over the winter? The local gardening expert who writes for our paper says to cut the large original stem completely down and only try to save one fair size pup from each main stem. He says the older stem that grew this year won't fruit next year and not to try to save it, is this right? Should I mix any leaves or wood chips with the manure and should I keep it dry or would it be better to wet it down? I thought it might go through a composting cycle in the bags and be a good soil dressing for the plants in the spring. Thanks for the help.