anyone have an easy homemade fertilizer

[zeroma]

I'd love to mix up oh, maybe some molasses and other commonkitchen- house hold 'ingredients' to make a wonderful balanced food for my tomato plants.

Anyone know one? Thanks

zroma

[kurt]

I just saw a post from gardenhappy about some homemade ferts.Do a search with her name and will give you option to find all her threads and posts.http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...621#post296621

[kurt]

Sorry about that she posted in the Anyone interested in Central and South Florida on the group forums page.

[Cole_Robbie]

The molasses, or any sugar, is not exactly a fertilizer, but a food for the bacteria that the plant uses to uptake its nutrients. That means that you can use it by itself with success if you don't have anything else.

Composting is a great way to turn your food trash into fertilizer; it just takes time.

Epsom salt comes to mind as something that would be laying around the house that would be useful to plants. It supplies magnesium and sulphur. Also, wood ashes are almost a complete fertilizer, lacking only sulphur. Not everyone has a woodburning stove or fireplace, but outdoor fire pits are popular these days, or you could just use the ashes from a charcoal grill.

[riceke]

Originally Posted by zeroma

I'd love to mix up oh, maybe some molasses and other commonkitchen- house hold 'ingredients' to make a wonderful balanced food for my tomato plants.

Anyone know one? Thanks

zroma

A well known garden TV celebrity had a lot of home brews for plants. One in particular for nitrogen was 1tsp ammonia/1qt of water or 1Tbs ammonia/1gal of water. It may however turn your soil to an alkaline condition as ammonia is alkaline. I have tried it using 1/2 the recommended dosage and it seemed to work. Also although not a fertilizer but hydrogen peroxide mixed the same is supposed to oxygenate the soil at the lower level of the pot it's growing in. That to I have tried. No bad effects yet.

[b54red]

For side dressing plants two of the easiest and cheapest that give a good dose of nutrients are cottonseed meal (bought in the 50 lb bags) and chicken manure. Both can be worked into the soil lightly around the plants and watered in well and will both give the plants a good boost. The chicken manure works faster; but is far more expensive when the composted bagged variety is used. If you know anyone who has a chicken house then try to get a few scoops but make sure to keep it dry til it is put out or it will smell very bad. The cottonseed meal is slower to act but is a good slow release fertilizer that feeds plants for a long time.

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

The molasses, or any sugar, is not exactly a fertilizer, but a food for the bacteria that the plant uses to uptake its nutrients. That means that you can use it by itself with success if you don't have anything else.

Composting is a great way to turn your food trash into fertilizer; it just takes time.

Epsom salt comes to mind as something that would be laying around the house that would be useful to plants. It supplies magnesium and sulphur. Also, wood ashes are almost a complete fertilizer, lacking only sulphur. Not everyone has a woodburning stove or fireplace, but outdoor fire pits are popular these days, or you could just use the ashes from a charcoal grill.

This is why I loves my wood burning stove. All my plants that is growing in containers are doing very well with the mixture of dirt, ashes, and compost.

Next year all ashes will go into the Heirloom farming area.

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by b54red

For side dressing plants two of the easiest and cheapest that give a good dose of nutrients are cottonseed meal (bought in the 50 lb bags) and chicken manure. Both can be worked into the soil lightly around the plants and watered in well and will both give the plants a good boost. The chicken manure works faster; but is far more expensive when the composted bagged variety is used. If you know anyone who has a chicken house then try to get a few scoops but make sure to keep it dry til it is put out or it will smell very bad. The cottonseed meal is slower to act but is a good slow release fertilizer that feeds plants for a long time.

I am glad you pionted out the very dry condition of chicken manure. I just want to add that: made sure is goes througt a long process before using. It's been sad for me to see new big farmers use raw manure, before letting the natural process of the manure take place over the news. But, most chicken farmers are letting their manure set for a year before selling it to protect new farmers & growers.

Thant good News!!!

[zeroma]

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions. A side dressing is what I'm looking for, after the plants are going good.

I'm thinking of what best to use next year too. Think I'll start looking around to see what farmers of all kind have for free. (manure) How much would I use for say 25 tomatos?

Can I just add a few scoops of chicken poo into my regular compost bin now and have usable stuff for next year? And would my regualar enclosed compost bin stink with the addition of the fresh poo? My neighbors wouldn't be too happy with me if it would.

[loeb]

Good source of nitrogen and silica : nettle plants immersed in bucket of water for about 2 weeks - until the liquid starts to clear. Stinky but very nutricious for plants You can do the same with cut off green parts of tomato plants like unwanted leaves or stem parts.

[Cole_Robbie]

That's a neat idea. Pigweed is high in nitrogen and would probably work, too.

[atlbry]

one part pee to ten parts water

[tuk50]

http://www.lundproduce.com/N-P-K-Val...verything.html

This will give you a good idea of the n p k values of common material.. I've had good luck with alfalfa pellets and cottonseed meal from my local feed store and of course my old favorite ... we have two horses and I can't shovel it fast enough ... LOL.