Then I fill the pail with a gallon or so of water, stir well, and place it in the shade covered with an old towel. To make it, I put one cup of processed poultry manure or blended organic fertilizer into a pail along with a few handfuls or grass clippings or chopped comfrey or stinging nettle leaves. One batch per week meets the needs of my large veggie garden. Once summer gets going and I have many plants in need of booster feeding, I make bucket-size batches of homemade liquid fertilizer. With experience, you will be able to estimate the strength of the solution based on its color. For seedlings I use a very dilute mixture, one part extract to four parts water. Pour off the liquid and dilute with water to the strength desired. Screw on the lid and shake vigorously, then keep at room temperature for two days. Place 4 tablespoons processed poultry manure or blended dry organic fertilizer into a quart jar, and fill with lukewarm water. One Quart Batchįor the past two springs, my seedlings have grown beautifully using this simple recipe. After the liquid extract is poured off, the gunk left behind can be dumped into the compost. Depending on how much you want to make, I have given two "recipes" below. Grass clippings contain quite a bit of soluble nitrogen, so I often add a few handfuls when making liquid fertilizer by the bucket. Homemade fertilizers made with poultry manure, dry organic fertilizer or grass clippings provide a wider range of nutrients, and you can be as creative as you like in choosing materials. By the time it is properly diluted, urine fertilizer loses most of its smell. You may wince at the latter, but except for being high in salts (which can burn plant roots), freshly collected urine mixed 1:20 with water makes an excellent high-nitrogen fertilizer of which we all have a constant supply.
#Agricultural liquid fertilizers trial#
Making your own homemade fertilizer is straightforward enough, yet I have learned much through trial and error work with three of the materials studied in the Woods End report – processed poultry manure, grass clippings, and urine. With grass clippings and seaweed, the Woods End study showed that most nutrients had leached into the water after three days. Note: It is possible that steeping comfrey for more than a week is overkill. This is quite similar to how many gardeners make fertilizer from comfrey, only faster. Then you mix the fertilizer concentrate with an appropriate amount of water. The next season I started experimenting on my own using the procedure from the Woods End study: Mix a nutritious substance with water, stir, wait two to three days, and pour off the liquid.
This adventure began when I was writing an article for Mother Earth News magazine on making homemade liquid fertilizers, based on research commissioned from Woods End Laboratories.
I also have experimented by brewing up fertilizer solutions from several national brands of granulated organic fertilizer with excellent results. The material I use as a starter is locally-produced poultry manure product with a nutrient analysis of 5-4-4, which is quite similar to many of the chicken manure pellets sold in UK garden centers. Instead I have been making homemade liquid fertilizers and using them on everything – young seedlings, plants growing in containers, and sweet corn and other veggies that benefit from a midseason booster feeding. In 2010 I used up my last bottle of organic liquid fertilizer concentrate, and I haven’t bought any since.
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