Amazing DIY Plant Fertilizer Recipes 🌱 Zero Waste, Natural Plant Fertiliser EASY To Make At Home 🌿

Hello, how are you doing? You alright? You're a good cat. You're very good. You're very good. You're very good. You're very good, aren't you? Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. For anyone that's new here, my name's Claire and this is Yoli. And today we're going to be showing you some super easy, really effective plant fertiliser. Fertilisers. That you can make yourself at home to keep your plants happy and healthy. I'm going to jump straight into the video, but if any of you want to know more about why you should fertilise your houseplants, when you should be doing it, and also the benefits of making your own, then I will talk about this more towards the end. Also, if you find this video useful, please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. So the first really effective way that you can fertilise your houseplants is by using banana peel. This is one that I use all the time. I've literally been doing it for years and it's done amazing things for my houseplants. Make sure you give the outside of the skin a really good wash first, just because a lot of bananas are treated with chemicals and pesticides and things that you wouldn't want to put on your plants. Banana skin's great because it's full of potassium as well as nitrogen and phosphorus. Stuff that your plants will really appreciate. After you've washed your banana skin, take a clean jar and fill it with lukewarm water. If you can use filtered water, then this is even better, just because it contains far less treatment chemicals than tap water. Pop your banana skin into the water, make sure the lid's on tightly, and then simply leave it there for a few days. Leaving it there for a few days just allows the banana peel to start naturally breaking down and release lots of its goodness into the water. You can leave it for up to a week, but sometimes it can start to smell a bit by that point, so if you're using it purely for your indoor plants, then I would recommend not doing this. When it's ready, simply take your banana skin out of the water and use the leftover water to water your plants. Most shop-bought fertilisers contain high levels of potassium, just because it not only helps your plants to grow stronger and healthier, but it also helps them to fight off disease and absorb water and nutrients more effectively as well. Banana peel also makes amazing compost for outdoor plants, so keep any leftover peel to one side and you can use it to keep your garden happy too. This next natural fertiliser that you can easily make yourself at home gives your plants a boost of calcium, which is vital for healthy growth and cell development in plants. Simply take some leftover eggshells and give them a good washout so that there's no remnants of egg left inside them. You don't have to use them right away, so as long as you've given them a really good washout, then they won't start to smell if you do decide to store them to use later. All you have to do is break the eggshells up. You can either crumble them by hand or you can grind them to make a powder. I personally grind them just because it allows you to extract even more nutrients. Once you've done that, simply add them to hot water and let them boil for two to three minutes. After the water's cooled, you can go ahead and use this to water your plants. You can strain the eggshell out of the water if you want to. I personally like to leave it in there just because over time it'll be broken down in the soil and all of the goodness will be absorbed by the roots. You can simplify this method and just literally use the leftover water after normally boiling eggs, but obviously the calcium and mineral content in the water won't be as high. Adding pieces of crushed eggshell to your soil in general is actually a really good way to help with drainage as well as nutrients, so I often do this when I repot my plants. I've spoken about this next one before. It's one I've used loads and loads and loads of times over the years, and it's really great at adding nitrogen to the soil. This fertilising method's particularly good for plants that enjoy a more acidic soil, so pepperomia, snake plants, monsteras, rubber plants, yuccas, peace lilies, African violets, philodendrons, anthuriums and begonias, to name a few. Nitrogen's essential for healthy growth in plants, and while it is possible to go overboard, more often than not, things such as stunted growth will happen because your plant simply isn't receiving enough. After you've had a fresh pot of coffee, keep the grounds to one side and mix them into your soil. As they decompose, all of the goodness will be slowly released into the compost, and your plants can lap up all the nutrients from it. Similarly to the banana peel method, another really effective way that you can use coffee to fertilise your plants is simply by letting them steep in water. Just take a small spoonful of fresh coffee grounds, pop them in a jar of water, and then leave them to ferment for a week or so. Again, if you can use filtered water for this, I'd definitely recommend it. Another great way to fertilise your plants, giving them a natural vitamin and a mineral hit, is by using leftover vegetable water. Some vegetables such as broccoli can be a bit smelly for this, which is fine for outdoor plants, but if you're just using them indoor, then I would recommend using something like carrots, spinach, things that don't stink, basically. Starchy vegetables such as potatoes can offer a slightly different fertilising benefit, but I will talk about that more in a minute. When you boil vegetables, a lot of their goodness is released into the water, and that's the bit that we usually just pour away, but your plants will absolutely love. All you need to do is keep the water to one side, let it cool down, and then you can use it when you come to water. It's important to say that if you use salted water or any kind of butter or oils or anything to boil your vegetables, then don't use this to water your plants, because it will do them more harm than good. In a similar way to the last one, using the leftover water from pasta, rice and potatoes is a really brilliant way to naturally fertilise your plants. They're really high in starch, so as they boil, they'll release a lot of their starchy goodness into the water. Starch is not only really beneficial in helping plants to absorb nutrients, but it also helps the soil retain moisture, allowing your plants to use the energy they take in more effectively. With water retention, the one thing you do just have to be aware of is that your plants probably won't need to be watered quite so frequently in the weeks after you do this, so just make sure you monitor the soil so that you don't accidentally overwater your plants. Also, as I mentioned before, but probably more important to say with this one, is just make sure that you don't ever use salted water or anything containing butter, oils, anything like that to water your plants, because they will not be happy about that. This next one's really effective and super, super easy if you've got an aquarium. Again, if it's not fresh water, then make sure you don't use it on your plants. Once the fish tank starts getting dirty and ready to be cleaned, this is the perfect time to collect the water, as it contains lots of beneficial bacteria and nitrogen from the fish waste that your plants will absolutely love. It might sound a bit gross, but a lot of shop-bought fertilisers actually contain marine waste because it works so well. I water my plants with aquarium water on a regular basis throughout the year because it's so rich in nutrients and they absolutely love it. I've heard about people using pond water for this as well. I personally wouldn't recommend that just because it probably contains lots of bacteria and algae and potential pest contamination from being outdoors, so yeah, would not recommend doing that. In the same way as the coffee fertiliser, plants that prefer a more acidic soil will also really appreciate green tea. Green tea is super high in antioxidants and it can be used by plants in the same way as our bodies use them in order to keep them happy and healthy. You can simply brew a strong cup of green tea and add it to your plant's water or you can actually take these tea leaves themselves and mix them into the soil. I tend to use unprocessed tea leaves just because they tend to be more nutritious. However, you can do the same with just standard bags of green tea. This fertilising method is also known for helping to prevent pests. With these fertilising methods, you don't have to just stick to one. You can absolutely get creative and combine some of the methods for your houseplants too. The liquid fertilisers that I've talked about in this video, we usually keep for about a week or two if you keep them in the fridge, but what you can actually do if you make a big batch is actually freeze it and then you can just defrost it as and when you need to. Fertilising your houseplants helps them to grow strong and healthily by providing them with a balance of nutrients that they aren't always getting enough of from the soil itself. Plants lacking in nutrients tend to grow much slower, they're not always as full and vibrant and they're much more prone to disease as well. For anybody wondering about when you should fertilise, it's generally only recommended to be done during what's known as the growing season, which is the spring and summer months. This is just simply because this is when their plants are at their optimum time for growing and they tend not to need as many nutrients during the rest of the year. If you continue to use a chemical fertiliser during the winter months, for example, then it can actually do your plants a lot more harm than good. It can stunt their growth, send them into shock and cause something called fertiliser burn, which basically just looks like yellow or brown patches going across the leaves. All of the DIY fertilisers I've talked about in this video are really, really gentle, but even still, I would advise cutting back slightly during the winter months. This is simply because during that time, your plant's growth will slow down anyway, naturally, and they're not going to need as many nutrients. I tend to use a very diluted natural fertiliser every few months outside of growing season and then in the spring and summer months, kind of every other time I water. Just to clarify, this doesn't always apply to chemical shop-bought fertilisers, so if you're new to this, I would say a gentle DIY version is a really good place to start. Obviously, as well, by using a fertiliser that you've made yourself, it saves you money, it reduces waste and it's just a lot more environmentally sustainable. If you want to know more ways that you can naturally fertilise your plants, then let me know in the comments below and I will make another video on it soon. I really hope this video was useful. If it was, then please make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll see you in the next video.