We Prepare Fertilizers Ourselves. Part 1

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Photo: A. Singkham / Rusmediabank.ru

If you have a garden, a vegetable garden or a summer cottage, then sooner or later you will be faced with the question of feeding the plants with fertilizers and restoring the soil that depletes over time.

The easiest way out is to buy ready-made chemical fertilizers in a specialized store or on the market. But it is practically impossible to solve the problem of soil depletion in this way, since purchased fertilizers, regardless of their type, can often bring only short-term benefits, providing plants with nutrients "for now", that is, for a short period of time. After a while, the purchase and feeding procedure will have to be repeated. During the season, you will have to feed the plants with purchased fertilizers 3-4 times.

But what if we need not only to temporarily improve the condition of the plants, but to restore and improve the soil? What is better to buy and in what quantities so as not to miss the mark? The best option in this situation is fertilizer prepared with your own hands.

What are the advantages of self-prepared fertilizers over ready-made commercial fertilizers?

First, saving money, because for such fertilizers what is freely available “at hand” is used: grass, manure, bird droppings, straw, that is, you do not need to purchase anything extra.

Secondly, in this way, we get rid of unnecessary grass, including weeds, in our backyard (garden, summer cottage) plots, since weeds are a good material for creating fertilizers, they can be both dried and burned (to use ash). That is, not only will we receive free feeding of the plant, we will also clear the area of unnecessary thickets of grass.

Thirdly, when preparing "home" fertilizers, we always know what we put there, which means that we independently control the quality of "nutrients" for our plants. In addition, in this case, the fertilizer will always be fresh, not stale, not expired.

By the way, in order for the composition of the "top dressing" to bring the greatest benefit and not deteriorate, it does not need to be insisted for a very long time, one or two weeks is enough. And it is not worth preparing fertilizer for future use, for the future, since it still has a certain storage period.

Fourthly, self-prepared fertilizer will definitely be environmentally friendly, without any harmful chemicals, which means it will not have any negative impact on our garden plants. And you can safely feed your family with fruits and vegetables, without fear of nitrates and poisoning.

With all of the above advantages, home fertilizers have another undeniable advantage: they are one of the best suppliers of boron, zinc, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium and other nutrients.

Now let's decide on the type of fertilizers and decide which (liquid or "dry") fertilizers do we need? If you need to fertilize only "for now", then enough liquid fertilizer, which we will apply when watering the plants. If we need to fertilize the soil with a long-term perspective, then we need the so-called "dry" or "free-flowing" fertilizer.

By the way, when applying liquid fertilizer, there is one important rule that will help preserve the plant: the fertilizer should never get on the leaves! That is, it is necessary to water only under the root of the plant or near it.

So, let's start preparing. First, we collect everything that we have: dry grass, leaves, ash, manure, bird droppings, if any, a mixture of manure with straw (a very good option). In addition to all of the above, we will need a place in a secluded corner where the preparing fertilizer will not interfere with anyone.

In the next article we will talk directly about creating fertilizers: