Create these Simple Organic Fertilizers at home using common household items to nourish your plants organically and produce an abundance of food! Feeding your plants is essential since they need the nutrients in the soil to develop and yield food. It is also crucial that you apply natural, organic fertilizers so that we can.
1-Avoid ingesting toxic synthetic substances, but also.
2. Avoid having toxic substances that disrupt microbiology and wipe off all the wonderful helpful insects and pollinators.
You may easily transform a number of common natural materials into organic fertilizers that can help feed and nourish your plants. Additionally, there are certain plants that you can cultivate expressly to produce your own organic fertilizers. Continue reading below. to learn how to use these simple organic fertilizers to boost the yield of your plant.
It’s also a fantastic method to maximize every space in your house and cut down on waste. Many objects can be reused before being thrown away or immediately placed in the compost, but we are often too fast to do so! This also means that you are saving money on fertilizer and getting greater value for your money. Thus you can purchase plants for a higher price.
These are some slightly more complicated recipes that I like to use for making my own plant food. These are the fertilizers we use on a daily basis for our garden. My favorites are the Simple Tea and the Quick Fix.
Recipe #1—Simple Tea Fertilizer
People have used this easy recipe for a very long time. In your yard, try it out for a quick and cheap way to give your plants fuel.
Tips and Advice
- Put 2 cups of urine (yes, real pee) and 2 cups of wood ash (no lighter fluid or charcoal, please) into a 5-gallon bucket. Mix 1/4 cup of Epsom salts into the urine.
- Put about half of the grass clippings, green leaves that have been cut off, or even green weeds that have been pulled out of the ground into the rest of the box.
- Pour water all the way to the top of the bucket and let the mix sit for three days.
- Once the tea is ready, strain it or pour it into empty milk jugs or old 2-liter bottles.
- Cut the strength in half by mixing half water and half tea in your best watering can before use.
- Pour this great mix right onto the dirt around your plants to use it.
- In just a few days, you should be able to tell the difference if yours are like mine.
Note: You should only steep for three days. A lot of the nutrients that dissolve in water will have been lost by the third day. Stopping now stops growth, which is what you want to avoid. Things that have fermented will smell bad, and their pH can change quickly, so it’s best to rest them for three days and use the concentrate within one or two days.
Recipe #2—Homemade Fish Emulsion Fertilizer
Fish emulsion is a natural pesticide that is made from fish waste, like guts and body parts, and water. This all-purpose organic fertilizer has also been around for a very long time. It works great, but it takes weeks to make because the mixture needs to break down before it can be used. Yes, this does smell bad—it’s made from fish that’s gone bad, after all!
Tips and Advice
- To start the process, put about a third of the way full of a 55-gallon drum with a mix of water and fish waste.
- You should let this mix sit for 24 hours.
- Fill the drum up with more water until it’s full after steeping.
- Put an open lid on top and let the drum ferment for a few weeks. Most of the time, we give fermentation three weeks.
- Use 3 gallons of liquid fish emulsion fertilizer for every 100 square feet of yard or garden. Spread it on the ground around your plants.
Recipe #3—Seaweed Fertilizer
Another fertilizer that has been used for a very long time. Seaweed is an all-purpose organic fertilizer, and it also has mannitol in it. A chemical called mannitol makes it easier for plants to take in nutrients from the dirt. To make the all-purpose soil, you can use either fresh or dried seaweed. But make sure the seaweed is well washed before using it, whether it’s fresh or dry and salty.
Tips and Advice
- Put 8 cups of chopped seaweed in a 5-gallon bucket and fill it up with water until it’s half full. If you can get rainwater, it’s always better.
- Put a loose lid on the jar and let the seaweed sit for three weeks.
- Once the seaweed is done steeping, strain it and put the juice in a container where it can be kept for up to three weeks.
- Use your best watering can to mix half water and half seaweed tea. Then, sprinkle it on the soil around your plants. In just a few days, your plants will be grateful.
Recipe #4—The Quick Fix Fertilizer
Don’t have time to wait three days to make the Simple Tea? Try this instead. You likely already have most of the things you need at home.
Tips and Advice
- Put the following in an empty 1-gallon milk jug and mix them together:
- 1 teaspoon. 1 teaspoon of baking powder. ammonia is a strong source of nitrogen that grows quickly.
- 3 tablespoons. cans of instant iced tea (the tannic acid in this helps plants take in nutrients more quickly and easily)
- 3 tablespoons. molasses from blackstrap trees (this helps earth bacteria grow)
- 3 tablespoons. 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidant because it breaks down into oxygen-containing molecules in the air and water). This gives plants extra oxygen and opens up the soil.
- 1/4 cup of crushed bone scraps are added to add phosphorus. Any bones will work, but I like to use fish bones because they also have potassium.
- If you’re using fish bones, you can leave out the eggshell or half of a dried banana peel for potassium. I would still add the eggshell for calcium, especially for tomatoes because it helps keep the bud end from rotting.
- Put more water in the jug; rainwater is best this time. Put the lid back on the jug and leave it in the sun for about an hour to warm up. Then, use this full-strength mixture to water your plants.
Recipe #5—Compost Tea
You can use compost tea to add nutrients to plants that are in pots if you don’t have room to add more soil.
Tips and Advice
- Put some garbage in a bucket of water and stir it around to make this simple organic fertilizer.
- Give it two to four hours to mix and add to the water. If you can, use rainwater with all of your fertilizers.
- Tap water is often handled with chemicals that can kill all the good bacteria you are trying to feed. If all you have is tap water, you can let it sit in a bucket for a day and a lot of the chlorine will leave.
- Get a bucket ready the next time it rains and use some of that great fresh water. It makes a huge difference!
Recipe #6—Dandelions
There are lots of dandelions in my yard. They are very cheery, in my opinion, but a lot of work goes into finding them.
Fortunately, you can utilize all of those dandelion stems, leaves, blossoms, and even roots to produce a delicious, potassium-rich DIY fertilizer tea.
Tips and Advice
- Pick the entire plant, the dandelions, or just the tips. Avoid using dandelions that have received herbicide treatment.
- Transfer the dandelions to a sanitized five-gallon bucket. Put a good number of them inside.
- Pour in water, cover, and let sit for three to four weeks, stirring now and then. When the dandelions ferment and decompose, there can be a slight smell. It ought to start to appear dark.
- Put the leftover solids in the compost pile and dispose of them.
- To promote flowering and fruiting, dilute the dandelion tea until it has a light hue and apply it to the base of plants.
Recipe #7—Bonus Recipe: Manure Tea Fertilizer
Manure tea improves the soil and gives plants the nutrients they need to grow well. Because it has nutrients, manure tea is a great natural way to feed plants in the yard. Because these nutrients are easily mixed with water, you can use them in a watering can or add them to a sprayer. You can use the manure that you don’t need in the yard or in the compost pile.
You can use manure tea every time you water your plants or just sometimes. You can also use it to water your yard.
Still, the tea needs to be diluted before it is used so that it doesn’t burn plant roots or leaves. First I put half of the tea in my watering can, and then I fill it all the way up with rainwater. During the growth season, I use this about every three weeks.
Tips and Advice
- Put a big chunk of old manure in a cloth bag or pillowcase.
- Make sure the manure has been aged or “cured” for a long enough time. Fresh dung is too strong for plants to handle, and it may also contain bacteria that are bad for them.
- Place the “tea bag” full of manure in a 5-gallon bucket. Then, add water until the mixture is 5 parts water to 1 part dung.
- It’s best to let this mix sit for up to two weeks.
- Once the tea is ready, take the bag off and hang it over the container until the drips stop.
- Most of the time, skipping the tea bag and adding the manure straight to the water speeds up the process. If you don’t use a bag, the tea is usually ready in just a few days as long as you stir it well during that time. After it’s done brewing, you’ll need to strain it to get the solids out of the juice. After that, the rest of the dung can be added to the pile of compost.
- Before you use the tea, lessen it by half, as we already said.
Recipe #8—White Vinegar and Water
Everyone knows that white vinegar is a great natural cleaner, but did you know that it can also be used to grow plants? This is because the acetic acid in vinegar can naturally make the soil more acidic, which is helpful if the pH levels in your soil are off. Hydrangeas, gardenias, roses, hibiscus, and other plants that like acidic soil need a PH level of around 6 to grow well.
Tips and Advice
- To make a solution, just mix one tablespoon of white vinegar with 4 1/4 cups (1 liter) of water.
- After that, give your plants water about every three months.
Experts say that this can be used instead of soil acidifiers and nutrients for houseplants. To make sure your soil is healthy, you can buy a pH meter like this SONKIR Soil pH Meter ($10, Amazon) to check how acidic it is.
Recipe #9—Trench Composting
If you want to grow summer foods that need a lot of food, like beans and pumpkins, this easy way to compost is a great choice.
Tips and Advice
- In the fall, just dig a trench (or hole) about 2 feet deep where you want to put your crops, and then fill it with kitchen scraps for the next few months.
- Place a board over the hole and then move things in and out as needed.
- It is possible to compost in flower beds as well. When you have a bowl full of kitchen scraps, take them to the yard and dig a small hole about 12 inches deep wherever there is room.
- Then, put the scraps in the hole and cover it up. Let it do its thing.
Recipe #10—Banana Peels
A lot of us have banana peels around the house, and they are a great natural way to feed your plants. A lot of you may already know that bananas have a lot of potassium. Potassium is an important nutrient for plants to grow. The sandy sands here in Perth often wash Potassium away, so we need to keep adding it back in. Extra potassium is often needed by fruiting plants to get good amounts, make the fruit taste better, and make more flowers. Potassium also makes plants stronger by making the walls of their cells thicker. This helps them grow big and strong. Most of the time, when I make this Banana Peel Fertilizer, I use it to feed my fruit trees first.
Making banana peel fertilizer can be done in a few different ways, and I use all of them at different times. Putting the peel in compost or burying it in the garden is by far the best way to do it. This will slowly break down, letting nutrients into the dirt that your plants can use. Some things can be done to speed up the process of getting the nutrients out, though.
Tips and Advice
- Put the banana peel in a jar of water after cutting it up. This is left on my table with a cloth on top of it. It needs to be able to breathe, but you don’t want bugs to get in.
- Then I add another banana to the jar every day for a few days because I only eat one a day.
- You can use it after one day, but I like to let mine sit for three days and stir it every time I add a new peel.
- After that, you can strain out the banana peel and either compost it or bury it in the yard. Then make your water at least 50% less strong.
- Even if I only have one banana peel, I might not dilute it. But if I have three, I can dilute them and spread the nutrients to more plants.
- You can also cut up banana peels, put them out in the sun to dry, and then blend them into a powder. You can mix this powder with water or just put it on your plants.
Recipe #11—Comfrey Tea
You should grow comfrey in your yard just to help the soil get better. We now know that NPK is important for plant growth because it is found in large amounts in the comfrey plant. It also has many other minerals and proteins that are good for you. Comfrey is also a great way to cover your dirt and give good bugs a place to live. Pollinators can also find beauty in its flowers. Comfrey is one of the best plants for permaculture because it gets along so well with other plants. If you’re going to grow your own food, you might as well grow your own clean soil too!
Its roots go deep into the ground and pull up all the good nutrients. It has a lot of big, lush leaves that can help your grounds with plant matter, nutrients, and fiber. Soils that are sandy or clay-rich need a lot of fiber added to them to help them hold on to water (sandy soils) or break up the soil so it drains better (clay-rich soils). The ground here in Perth is very sandy. I often cut and drop layers of straw to add more fiber and help spread out the sand. It’s not good for plants to have sandy soils because they let water and nutrients run away.
There are many ways to get nutrients from the comfrey plant, just like there are many ways to get nutrients from banana peels. “Chop and drop” is one way to do it. I use that phrase a lot because it’s one of my favorite ways to do things because it’s so easy! It’s best to have some simple gardening tips on hand so that you are more likely to do them regularly. The “chop and drop” method is easy to use. Just cut off the leaves and use them as mulch around your plants.
Tips and Advice
- Bury comfrey leaves in the yard to use them. (This is helpful when making new beds or planting again at the end of the season.)
- Spread Comfrey leaves out under your dirt or compost. The leaves will break down and feed your plants.
- Cutting off the leaves of the comfrey plant and putting them in a bucket of water to ferment is another way to get juice from it.
- Make sure the cloth on top lets air pass through. (If you don’t, you might also end up with mosquitoes)
- Once they start to break down (be warned, this will smell bad), stir them around to help the nutrients get into the water.
- After that, you can strain out the leaves and put them in the yard or compost.
- Water down the tea to feed your plants.
- I use an easy spray gun that thins the mix out on its own.
Recipe #12—Collect Grass Clippings
If you mow your yard often, the grass clippings will act as natural fertilizer for your plants while keeping weeds down. Not only do grass clippings keep bugs away, they also give your plants more nitrogen and potassium and make it easier for them to hold on to water.
Tips and Advice
- Pull fresh grass from your yard to cover the soil in your garden.
- Put some dirt on top of the grass clippings to keep them from blowing around.
- Best for: This organic fertilizer will help all of your plants grow, whether you are gardening inside or taking care of flower fields.
- Tip: If you want to use your grass clippings for something else, don’t use harsh chemical fertilizers in your yard. These toxins might bother or hurt plants that are already healthy.
Recipe #13—Use Coffee Grounds for Acid Loving Plants
For plants that need more acidic soil, used coffee grounds are a great natural manure. Also, coffee grounds have a lot of nitrogen, which plants need to grow strong and healthy.
You can also start feeding your plants without having to go shopping for more ground coffee if you already have it at home.
Tips and Advice
- You can feed your plants with coffee grounds in two different ways.
Once every two months, take your used coffee grounds and lightly sprinkle them over the soil of your plant. Slugs and snails will be less likely to eat your plants if you use this method.
- If your pets are wandering around your yard, make a coffee spray to keep them from tasting the grounds. A 1:13 amount is used to mix brewed coffee that hasn’t been sweetened with water. (3 parts water to 1 part coffee). Put the mix into a spray bottle, spray it lightly on the plant soil every two weeks.
- The best way to use coffee grounds is to make your own fertilizer for azaleas, rhododendrons, roses, African violets, potatoes, blueberries, and cucumbers.
- Useful hint: A little coffee grounds cover something well. Do not cover your plants with a thick layer of coffee grounds. Instead, put them on like you would salt food.
Recipe #14—Wormery Compost
A worm farm or worm bin has at least two parts: a bottom collection sump for the liquid and an upper composting area where the kitchen waste goes and the worms do their work.
A wormery is a bit tricky to use at first, but once you do, you’ll have a healthy liquid fertilizer for your garden plants. You will have to pay some money up front, but in the long run, you will be helping the environment.
It’s important not to put too much in your wormery so the worms can keep up and the dead stuff doesn’t turn into a sticky mess. One thing you should remember is that you shouldn’t put acidic, fatty, or hot foods in a wormery.
Recipe #15—Liquid Seaweed
It is possible to buy organic kelp concentrates that can be mixed with water to make liquid fertilizers. This is the only fertilizer I buy and always have on hand. You can make your own if you live near the ocean, though. Check the laws in your area because getting rid of seaweed may be against the law in some places. It doesn’t matter if it washed up on the beach.
Tips and Advice
- Put seaweed in a bucket of water and let it sit for at least a week. This will help it break down into organic soil.
- When the water gets dark, it will definitely smell bad. Remove the solids and add more water to thin it out.
- If you have any extra seaweed, you can put it in the yard or compost to break down slowly and use as fertilizer.