Whether for a garden, lawn or landscaping, you can create a homemade organic fertilizer that provides your plants with everything they need to thrive and grow, including valuable trace minerals, while building up the soil.
First let's talk about calcium, since it is the "king of crop nutrients". When calcium is flowing in your soil, everything is flowing.
However, it is
important to choose the right Calcium to add to
your homemade organic fertilizer.
If your soil pH is below 6.5, it is low (as it
is in much of the Southeast USA), then you
need calcium carbonate.
Good sources of calcium carbonate are egg shells (dry them, then pulverize in a blender), oyster shell powder, or limestone (also known as “lime”). Other fertilizers can also influence the pH of your soil.
If the magnesium in your soil is too high, as is common in the South, you can purchase High Cal Lime from your lawn and garden store. This will help to loosen up your soil.
Too much magnesium causes soil to become rock
hard.
If your soil pH
is high (as found in the Midwest), use calcium
sulfate, also known as Gypsum. Calcium Carbonate
and Calcium Sulfate are both natural products.
Calcium is known
for its ability to help correct the pH in the
soil. The way it does this is by helping to
balance the Cations in the soil.
Perhaps a superior way to correct the pH is to restore the balance of all minerals in the soil. This can be easily accomplished with MyCorrPlus, a high quality soil conditioner.
This soil conditioner not only helps to quickly balance pH, but it also prompts the plant to sequester a huge amount of sugars (carbon) into the soil. These sugars help bacteria to highly structure the soil.
Composting is the best way to make your own homemade organic fertilizer.
When you do it
right, it is
rich in nutrients, organic matter and beneficial
micro-organisms.
Half of the ingredients in your compost pile should be nitrogen rich items, such as grass, weeds and garden leftovers that are still green, plus food scraps, fruit and vegetable peels, and manure from animals that eat vegetation, like cows, horses, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens and turkeys.
Don't go too
heavy on the nitrogen items, or your compost
pile may get too hot. Do not use manure from
meat eaters like dogs and cats.
The other half of the ingredients in your compost pile should be carbon rich items, such as dried leaves and grass, wood chips, straw, and paper (including shredded newspaper).
Use a mulching blade on your mower to cut leaves into small pieces to help them break down better.
If you use too
many carbon items in your compost pile, it may
not have enough nitrogen to raise the pile to
the desired 150 degrees Fahrenheit. At 150
degrees, even weed seeds will be composted.
Ideally, your compost pile should be 3 to 4 feet
high. If you have less nitrogen items, pile your
compost to 4 feet.
This should be
large enough to allow the temperatures in the
center to climb to 150 degrees. A cage or
something similar can be used to stack up your
compost in.
Mix your nitrogen
and carbon sources together well. Add calcium to
the mix of your homemade organic fertilizer to
meet the calcium requirements of your garden or
lawn.
Calcium also
helps to guard your compost pile against
nitrogen loss. Blend 1 pound of Calcium with
each wheel barrow load of compost.
Do not overlook the value of leaves to your compost pile. Many people want to burn their leaves.
However, leaves are a great source of nutrients. In the fall, mulch up your leaves with a lawnmower and add them to your compost pile.
Perhaps your neighbors have some leaves they would be more than willing to give to you for your homemade organic fertilizer.
Because
leaves are acidic, you will need to balance them
out with calcium, to maintain a good pH
in your compost.
How about
catching your grass clippings and adding them to
the pile?
Even though grass
is an excellent source of nitrogen and
nutrients, it is probably advisable to use a
mulching blade and return
your grass back to the lawn. It
needs the nutrients, too.
It is usually much easier to find carbon
items to use in your homemade organic fertilizer
than nitrogen items. Animal manure can help to
balance this out.
A cow farm, chicken farm, turkey farm or horse
ranch might be more than willing to give you
some. Try to find manure that has been sitting
around aging for at least a year.
If you can’t find enough nitrogen sources for
your homemade organic fertilizer needs, you can
purchase feather mill, and either add it to your
compost pile or sprinkle it directly on your
garden or lawn.
Other organic sources of nitrogen are cotton seed mill, alfalfa meal and blood meal.
Keep your compost pile moist, but not wet. You don’t want to drown out the microbes that are doing the work.
You should turn it occasionally to let air in. The more you turn it, the quicker the items will compost. Ideally, you will be able to turn your pile at least once a week to maximize the air flow.
When it is warm out, it usually takes one to three months of decomposition till your homemade organic fertilizer is ready to use, depending on how often it is turned.
Once your pile is fully composted, it will look like black dirt and have an earthy smell. You can use a quarter inch or half inch screen to screen out larger debris that needs to go back into the compost pile.
For lawns, just
spread the finished homemade organic fertilizer
across your lawn and water to bring it into
contact with the soil. For gardens, mix your
compost into the soil, or you can
put it on top of the soil around your plants to choke out weeds, and earthworms will carry it down. Click here for detailed instructions for making compost.
The following items can be toxic to pets and should not be added to your compost: Coffee, moldy food, coffee grounds, avocado, macadamia nuts, grapes, raisins, yeast dough, onions, garlic, and chives.
Concentrated sea
minerals contain potassium, chloride, magnesium,
sulfur and sodium, plus are
an incredible
source of trace minerals for your
homemade organic fertilizer.
Because of 70 plus years of the use of chemical fertilizers in our nation, trace minerals are woefully lacking in our soils, resulting in greater disease and insect problems.
By adding just one teaspoon of concentrated sea minerals diluted in a quart of water to each wheel barrow full of compost materials, you can help to restore the trace minerals to your lawn and garden.
Another great homemade organic fertilizer input for the garden is to plant a cover crop. When this is mowed or tilled in, it is called Green Manure.
As soon as the last crops are harvested, plant a legume, such as Dutch Clover or Hairy Vetch. Legumes actually capture nitrogen from the air and return it to the soil.
Planting a cover crop is one of the easiest and least expensive ways I know to increase organic matter AND nitrogen in the soil.
Your own homemade organic fertilizer can help you in growing a healthy vegetable garden one that supplies excellent nutrition to help you and your family live healthy lives. Happy gardening!
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