How to Make Homemade Fertilizer for a Vegetable Garden - 6 DIY Plant Food Recipes

Let me let you in on a secret. Unless you want to pay premium prices, the best place to pick up your organic fertilizer is actually not the garden center. So what's the alternative? Make your own. Seriously. That's because the nutrients that your herbs, plants, and veggies crave are already available in places that you're probably overlooking, and you probably won't have to switch up your weekly routine to find them. That's because these nutrients are already in places that you're already going to. The grocery store or the pet shop, but especially your trash can. Better yet, to make your own plant food, you don't have to be an expert gardener or a chemical engineer. Let me show you how simple it is to make six homemade fertilizers that are easy to make, environmentally friendly, and better yet, basically free. Hi, I'm Cassandra from the blog, becoming a farm girl.com, where I share with you how you can live a farm fresh life without land or livestock. What you will absolutely come to love about making your own homemade garden fertilizers is that it will save you so much money, especially if you're a small space backyard grower, like me. If you're new to gardening, or even if you've been gardening for a while, the biggest gardening expense that you'll have when you're just starting won't even be the seeds or the containers, or even the starts that you might buy from the nursery. It will be the cost of buying soil and then the accompanying fertilizers. And that cost adds up quick because you do have reoccurring applications of your fertilizer. The goal of any fertilizer is to supply your plants with the nutrients that it needs in readily available forms. While there are differences in synthetic versus organic fertilizers in terms of their nutrient absorption rates, overall soil health, and a couple of other factors, the main consideration for most of us home gardeners is going to be cost and then the benefits of using one product versus another over the long term. And this is simply where organic fertilizers win out every single time. The three main nutrients plants need to survive are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Together, they make up the trace amigas of the garden fertilizer combo known as NPK. And over the next few minutes, I'm going to show you how you can get all three quickly and inexpensively. Don't worry about taking any notes. I've tucked in the coordinating blog post below where you can check out where I've sourced all the information, as well as a printable guide to creating your own homemade fertilizer. Now let's get started. You've got to try alfalfa hay tea. Alfalfa hay tea is a fantastic quick release NPK fertilizer for your garden that can be cheaply found at a pet store or livestock supplier. It's a rare find in the garden centers because alfalfa hay is commonly used as a nutritious feed for horses, dairy cows, and cattle. Alfalfa hay tea is excellent for your garden veggies because they contain a naturally derived growth promoter and 5% nitrogen. But there's more. As a multipurpose fertilizer, NPK values are usually between three to two. Now, if you can, avoid getting the alfalfa pellets or meal because that's much more processed than the stalks. Now, making alfalfa hay tea is pretty simple. All you'll do is take a container, at least a gallon size or larger. It's ideal to just go ahead and use a five gallon bucket. That way you have it on hand throughout most of the summer. But what you'll do is take the hay and fill the container at least two thirds full. Alfalfa hay is great because it is a natural source for several growth promoters. It's excellent for your roses at increasing crop height, reducing flowering and fruit drop and promoting earlier crop maturity. According to multiple studies, alfalfa hay is also an excellent compost accelerator and soil amendment. Then you'll add unchlorinated water to make sure that the hay is completely submerged in water. Secure things with a lid or cap, and then each day over the next 10 to 14 days, either take a stick to stir things around or give things a good shake if you're using a gallon size bucket. And during this 10 to 14 day wait, you're giving things an opportunity to ferment and cultivate that good bacteria. When the mixture is ready, if you're using a five gallon bucket, you'll strain the solids from the liquids and it's ready to go or what I prefer to do. And admittedly, this is a little tedious upfront is I will just take the straw and I'll stuff it inside of the container. It does take, again, just a couple of minutes. Then I'll pour my water over top. But when it's time to go ahead and strain the liquids from the solids, all of the hay just stays in that container and I can easily pour it out. And from here, you can use the alfalfa tea as a weekly fertilizer, either on the leaves of your plants or directly to the soil. I have no excuse why I personally wasn't making this next fertilizer. I'm talking about making your own bone meal, especially because bone meal is not cheap. Bone meal is extremely high in phosphorus and calcium. So it's definitely something that you need in your garden. Your roses, root plants, peppers, and tomatoes love it. I am an avid food preserver and so I love canning all the things. Fruits, vegetables, jams, stocks, broths. So I was already in the habit of saving my bones just by sticking them in the freezer so that I could make my own stocks and broths. But after I made my stocks, I was getting rid of them. Secondly, was I really buying bones? Just bones with no meat? I share my embarrassment so that you can be encouraged to not throw out any of your bones, whether they're from chicken or fish or lamb, ham, what turkey, whatever it is, save your bones. Just store them in freezer bags until you have enough to make this easy recipe. So when you're ready to use them, here's what you'll do. The first thing you've got to do is to make sure that you actually remove all of the meat from the bones. And this is easily done if you decide to use your bones to make a stock or a broth. And what you'll do is just take your bones, submerge them in water, and then simmer them over low to medium heat for seven to eight hours in your crock pot or on the stove. After the bones have simmered for a few hours, go ahead and remove them from the broth. And at this point, you can use your fingers to gently nudge any small and lingering pieces of meat off of the bones. Next, rinse the bones under warm water and then place them on a rack or a plate where they can dry undisturbed and uncovered for about 30 days. You'll want the bones to be completely dry and brittle, and the air drying time really depends on the size and density of your bone. But if time isn't on your side, you can use a dehydrator or your oven on the lowest setting to dry for several hours. And don't be afraid to put your bones in an area of the house that is a bit warmer. We have a small room upstairs that typically is pretty warm, but I'm also trying to start some peppers and tomatoes. And so I had a small little heater and my mini greenhouse. I'm also making a scoby and then I had my plate of bones. So I kind of just set everything in and around this small area where everything could just take advantage of the heat. After the bones are dry, they'll be ready to ground into a powder. You can do this with a blender or a mortar and pestle. Store the powder in an airtight container. That's it. A homestead of any size can make it a point to maximize the use of resources that you already have and be intentional about letting as little organic matter as possible. Leave your property. Another nitrogen rich fertilizer is fish bone emulsion. Homemade fish emulsion is so much better than what you'll find in the stores and the product that you end up with is so much better. And just as the name implies, it's made up of parts or whole fish. Now, if you don't have access to whole fish, that's fine. You can also use herring fish like anchovies, sardines and mackerel. And because we're not adding any fillers, you're going to get significantly more bone and protein and oils and minerals than what you'll find from the other varieties in the store. And that's what gives your soil that deep nutrition. To make simply repurpose a container and add a combination of fish scraps, including the bones and head. If you have it next, add leaf litter and fill the container with water. Set outside and shake every few days for three weeks. Then it's ready to be diluted and used. Banana peels provide an excellent source of potassium for your garden. You've probably heard of banana peel tea, but I've got an option that may provide a bit more convenience. You've got to try banana powder. All I do is stash my banana peels in the freezer until I have a few. When I finally have enough to fill one to two quart size gallon bags, I remove them from the freezer and allow them to defrost. Then I cut them into roughly a half to one inch pieces and space them out on my dehydrator racks so that they're not touching, which allows air to move freely at a temperature of around 120 for five to seven hours. You'll know they're finished when they're crisp, extremely dark and snap easily. Wait for the peels to completely cool, then pulverize them in your food processor or blender until they take on a powdered consistency. Now that you've successfully dehydrated your peels, you can conveniently make your own potassium fertilizer on demand by taking one tablespoon of banana powder and a 16 ounce spray bottle filled with water until everything is dissolved. Apply liberally to your soil or directly on plants in indirect light. And there you have it. Another easy homemade garden fertilizer. This next homemade fertilizer comes ready right off the shelf. Epsom salt, an ingredient used to treat minor aches and pains, provides a rich dose of magnesium that your tomatoes, peppers and rose bushes use a lot of to produce their blooms, obtain optimal yields and avoid blossom end rot. Additionally, Epsom salt has been shown to increase nutrient absorption, prevent transplant root shock, act as a natural pest deterrent, benefit new and established rose bushes and effectively control slug invasions. To create a liquid fertilizer, dissolve one and a half tablespoons of Epsom salt in a gallon of unchlorinated water and use as a leaf spray or directly to the soil twice a month. Does it get any easier than that? Coconut water makes an excellent organic fertilizer. Coconut water is an excellent source of potassium for your garden, about 17% and other minerals such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. It's the perfect combination of nutrition that supports your roots, leaves, flowering fruits and veggies. To use coconut water as a liquid fertilizer, dilute the coconut water by taking three and a half tablespoons of fresh and raw coconut water with four cups of chlorine free water. Spray on leaves and plant roots one to two times per week. That's it. Coconut water is packed with cytokine hormones, which trigger cell division in the roots and shoots of plants, resulting in explosive growth, making it a favorite replacement for commercial growth formulas. To get more tips to help you live farm fresh in your small space in your spare time, join me here weekly. I'll see you in my kitchen or garden soon. Take care.