Make fertilizer yourself: Instructions & Advantages

You can use many household and garden remedies as fertilizer. We'll show you how easy it is to make natural fertilizer yourself.

Isn't it strange that we keep throwing away nutrients in the form of organic waste in the bin and then buy fertilizer with our hard-earned money? But some things are pretty easy to reuse - and we'll show you how.

Plant and manure manure, compost, bokashi and many household remedies are among the homemade natural fertilizers. Below we will show you how to make these natural fertilizers yourself.

Make your own vegetable manure

Plant manures, extracts and broths are mainly made from water and crushed plants. Although they hardly represent a full-fledged fertilization, they have a plant-strengthening effect. The effect has often been empirically proven, but the exact causal relationships are still unclear in some cases. It is practical that you can scare away almost any weed that you do not want in your garden. The nutrients that were absorbed by this plant are partially dissolved in the water again. The advantage over composting is that straining after the manure treatment avoids spreading seeds or pieces of root that can be regenerated in the garden. Nettle manure is considered an effective fertilizer, which is why we briefly present its composition.

Make nettle manure yourself

The manure from stinging nettles provides nitrogen, magnesium and iron as well as other trace nutrients. It is therefore a good compost starter and the dregs can be used with it.

Instructions nettle manure:

1. For liquid manure, use 10 liters of water to chop up about a kilogram of fresh nettle plants or 400 grams of dried nettles.
2. Put the parts of the plant in a sufficiently large container with the appropriate amount of water. This should be able to be covered, but an airtight seal is not necessary. Rainwater or tap water that has been stagnant for several days are ideal.
3. To reduce odor developmentyou can add bedrock meal. This acts both as a soil conditioner and as a nutrient supplier. About two handfuls in 10 liters of water are enough.
4. Stir the mixture vigorously and cover the jar to allow gas exchange. A grid or a perforated lid is suitable.
5. Leave the mixture to ferment in a shady, warm place for one to three weeks, stirring daily.
6. If the liquid is clear, dark and no longer foaming, it is good to use.

Use of nettle manure:

Dilute the liquid manure in a ratio of 1:10 with rainwater or stagnant tap water. You should always stir the liquid manure before use. After the liquid has been used up, the sediment can be placed in the bed or composted. Areas of application are all garden plants and the compost heap. Because nettle manure is supposed to drive away aphids, susceptible plants are predestined for an application. If plants are to be sprayed directly, a dilution of 1:20 should be chosen.

Tip: Manure from other wild herbs has different effects than nettle manure: tansy is said to keep mites and insects away, horsetail strengthens plants against all kinds of fungal diseases and manure from tomato shoots keeps cabbage whites away, for example . On the other hand, the plant fertilizing effects are less or hardly available.

Make stable manure yourself

A highly effective liquid fertilizer can be made from different types of manure. In our special article you will find a practical overview of the nutrient content of manure from different livestock. Manure slurry provides nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium for plant nutrition and has a high rate of action.

Manure manure instructions:

1. Well rotted manure is mixed with wood ash in a ratio of 3:2. The wood ash used should come from untreated wood.
2. The mixture is placed in a close-meshed net or other permeable, closable object. The solids should stay together reasonably.
3. The bundle is placed in water, with the ratio of water to solids determining the subsequent concentration. If you use little water, the finished manure must be diluted more.
4. The water-filled jar containing manure and wood ashis placed in a warm, shady place. The abstinence takes a few weeks and when complete you can tell when the liquid is dark brown and clear.

Use of manure manure:

Manure manure can be used like a liquid NPK fertilizer. However, the liquid must never be used pure, only diluted. You should add water until the liquid looks similar to black tea. Application can be monthly from March to July.

Make compost yourself

Compost is very variable and its effect depends on its state. In our special article, the use of compost as fertilizer is described in detail. In the following we have briefly summarized the most important things for you again.

You can achieve different fertilizing effects with different types of compost:

Surface composting

In area composting, also known as mulching, organic material is broken up and distributed as a thin layer on the area to be fertilized. The layer keeps the soil moist and shades it, and the conversion by microorganisms takes place directly on site. The release of nutrients takes time and also depends on the type of material: soft, unlignified and nutrient-rich material decomposes quickly and provides nutrients. Hard, woody and nutrient-poor material, on the other hand, is slowly decomposed and sometimes even binds nutrients from the soil. This is called nitrogen fixation. Such mulch materials are therefore only applied with compensatory fertilization. When they decompose, they produce a lot of humus, but not too many nutrients are released.

Compost from compost heap

Managing a compost heap can produce different types of compost. After just four to six weeks, the slightly decomposed and nutrient-rich fresh compost has formed. You can use this as plant fertilizer. After about five to six months of rotting, you will receive finished compost. Although this is less nutrient-rich, it can increase soil fertility beyond the fertilizing effect. Finally, after one to two years, a mature compost is available. This releases hardly any plant nutrients when applied, but improves soil fertility immensely. It loosens, aerates, offers storage space for nutrients and water and provides for deficiency situationsfinally got some nutrients ready.

Worm Compost

The compost worms in a worm box produce a very special compost. Because they usually get the very nutrient-rich organic waste in front of them and because a number of worms pounce on a very small amount, composting takes place extremely quickly. Because all the material has passed through the worms' stomach and digestive system at once, it is stabilized by a slimy covering and additional calcium excretions by the worms. Applied in the soil, it provides many nutrients and at the same time promotes crumbling.

Compost Tea

Compost tea is a liquid soil conditioner, but not fertilization in the true sense. It is made using compost, water, sugar and rock flour. It needs a warm environment and good aeration with the help of a pond aerator pump. Within a few days, all sorts of useful microorganisms multiply in the mixture. If this highly concentrated culture is then applied in diluted form, it can be used to "vaccinate" soil with poor microorganism stocks. The activity in the soil is thus increased and the decomposition and nutrient release are boosted. This makes sense, for example, if surface composting is to develop its fertilizing effect particularly quickly. For information on how to make compost tea, also see this article on compost.

Make Bokashi yourself

In a bokashi bucket, you can quickly produce a valuable fertilizer from organic waste in your own kitchen. Boskashi is a soil conditioner that provides nutrients and also improves the quality of the soil. Although the starting material is the same as for composting, the processes that lead to bokashi are entirely different - and the end product doesn't look anything like compost. That's no wonder, because instead of composting, fermentation takes place here - i.e. fermentation - under the exclusion of air. While the fermentation takes place inside the Bokashi bucket, the so-called Bokashi tea is created. You can tap it off and use it diluted as a liquid fertilizer. The bokashi that develops after two to three weeks is quite acidic and can be placed in beds or mixed with potting soil in order to use potted plants after a certain waiting period. You can learn more about how to operate a Bokashi bucket here.

Natural fertilizer made from coffee grounds, eggshells andMake Co. yourself

Natural fertilizers should provide nutrients while keeping the soil he althy. This special article gives you more information about natural fertilizers.

In the following you will find a brief overview and, if you want to find out more about the individual fertilizers, you can also call up the additional special articles.

Natural Fertilizer	Features
Coffee grounds	- Contains 2% nitrogen, 0.4% phosphorus and 0.8% potassium - A lot of nutrient-poor structural material makes it the perfect starting material for humus formation
Horn meal and shavings	- Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium - Natural long-term effect - Potassium must be additionally fertilized
ash	- Only ash from the burning of untreated wood, straw, other plant materials and non-glossy printed paper can be used for fertilization - High in phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace nutrients - Very high pH (10 to 13) - Fast acting
Egg Shells	- Consists almost entirely of calcium carbonate (carbonate of lime) - High pH - Slow acting
Horse manure	- Composed of urine, faeces and bedding from horse stables - Contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as micronutrients - Structural material can stimulate humus reproduction - Fresher Horse manure is a plant fertilizer, composted horse manure is a soil conditioner and slow release fertilizer
Mammal Urine	- Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium - Not sterile, which limits use - May contain substances ingested by the producer
Guano	- The mining of guano harms the environment at the mining site - Mining sometimes takes place under inhumane conditions

Tip: The composition and effect of horn fertilizers is similar to that of our own nails. You don't get a lot of these, but you can dispose of even this small amount on the compost without hesitation, because it provides the appropriate nutrients.

Advantages of Homemade Organic Fertilizers

The advantages of homemade fertilizers are obvious:

• They are almost or completely free because they are made from recycled materialsthat occur in the household or garden anyway. If you use homemade fertilizer, you are independent of fertilizer manufacturer prices and have to travel less to get the fertilizer.
• Homemade fertilizers are more environmentally friendly, after all they are recycled. Because they are mostly organic, they are not only used for plant nutrition, but also for soil care.
• You know exactly what ingredients are in your fertilizers. So you don't have to worry about hidden ingredients and exposure to toxic substances.

Tip: Compost from the composting toilet and fertilizer with urine

It may seem bizarre to most people, but basically fertilizing with our composted legacies would be a logical consequence of the nutrient cycle. Finally, we also use the droppings of other animals to return nutrients to the soil. In fact, fertilization with sewage sludge is permitted on some areas. In order to prevent the transmission of diseases, however, use in the vegetable patch is of course prohibited.

Applying Homemade Fertilizer

Even if the homemade fertilizers are "home remedies", you should not use them carelessly. Otherwise, if you use the wrong amount, at the wrong time, or on the wrong plant, your plants can be damaged. So always note the application recommendations for the respective home-made fertilizers.

Our Plantura organic fertilizers can also be an environmentally friendly supplement or even a substitute for the household remedies mentioned. We have developed organic fertilizers that we would like to use again and again and without a guilty conscience - for example our Plantura organic universal fertilizer. This fertilizes our plants gently and for a long time, cares for and regenerates the soil and its qualities and stimulates natural soil life. In addition, all ingredients are permitted in organic farming and are also animal-free.

In this article you will find out what else you should pay attention to when buying fertilizer.