2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Nettle is a magnificent plant, useful in all respects: excellent vitamin cabbage soup is prepared from it, the hair is rinsed with infusions based on it, and decoctions of nettle are widely used for medicinal purposes. But even this, the already wide scope of application of this plant is not limited - you can make excellent fertilizers from nettle! How can they be useful to vegetation and how to prepare them?
Obvious benefit
Nettle fertilizers are very inexpensive and one of the most affordable options for feeding crops growing in the garden. Stinging nettle boasts a fairly high content of calcium (37%) and potassium (34%). And also in its composition you can find magnesium (6%) and a huge amount of all kinds of ballast substances, presented in the form of various microelements. In addition, nettle leaves also contain vitamin K1, which has a complex healing effect on garden crops and plays an important role in the processes of photosynthesis occurring in greenery.
Top dressing from nettle is excellently absorbed by almost all types of crops growing in the garden, but they will be especially useful for tomatoes.
Basic rules for the preparation of nettle-based fertilizers
Preparation of such fertilizers will not take much time, however, in order for the resulting nutrient mixture to bring maximum benefits to the plants, it will not hurt to follow a few simple, but at the same time important rules.
Collecting nettles is necessary only before seeds begin to appear on it. Moreover, all plants must be as healthy as possible and be characterized by the absence of visible damage.
Ready nettle infusion should be stirred at least two to three times a week. And they store it during the cooking period exclusively in the sun, since at rather high temperatures the infusion will ferment much faster. It is not forbidden to add to the solution for a significant acceleration of fermentation any catalysts of the process, which can be "Baikal" (ready-made organic feeding), yeast or a well-known food starter.
The remains of the finished infusion can be kept in plastic containers for an unlimited period. You can even send them for the whole winter to be stored in the basement, however, in this case, it does not hurt to cover them first.
Nettle infusion is applied once every two weeks, bringing it under the roots of growing crops. And immediately after applying the nettle top dressing, the abundantly saturated vegetation should be thoroughly watered.
Some gardeners are repelled by the smell of fertilizers made from nettle - in order to eliminate it, you can add Valerian officinalis roots to the container.
How to make nettle fertilizer?
The recipe for nettle infusions can be very diverse, however, the most effective are currently fertilizer from nettle and bread and fertilizer from nettle and dandelion.
Strawberry loves nettle and bread fertilizer. However, for all other cultures, it will also be no less useful. And the process of its preparation remotely resembles the process of making everyone's favorite kvass: stalks of nettle, together with leaves, are mixed with the remains of bread, crackers or buns, after which yeast and kvass are added to them and the mixture is allowed to brew for three to five days. In this case, the container in which the fertilizer will be infused should be filled with nettles no more than three quarters. And this composition is poured with water with yeast diluted in it to the same level - if you ignore this recommendation, then during the fermentation process the liquid will begin to overflow.
The finished fertilizer must first be filtered and then diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10. It is not forbidden to enrich such dressing with various potash agrochemicals or superphosphate.
And for the preparation of fertilizer from nettle and dandelions, the crushed raw materials are placed in a previously prepared container by one eighth of its total volume, after which the plant mass is poured with water, in which humate is preliminarily diluted (one teaspoon will be enough for ten liters of water). This mixture should be infused for four to five days. And after this period, it is allowed to improve it with the help of ready-made organic dressings or ash.
By the way, not only dandelions can be added to liquid nettle dressings - coltsfoot, stepchildren of tomatoes, as well as chamomile, wheatgrass with roots, shepherd's purse, wormwood, yarrow and comfrey will do their job just as well. So you can safely use almost all garden weeds!
Recommended:
Fallen Apples Are An Excellent Fertilizer
Many summer residents periodically encounter a very impressive amount of fallen apples - this happens especially often in fruitful years. At the same time, there is absolutely nowhere to put such volumes of the harvest, and it is a pity to throw apples away, so often some fruits begin to rot right on the site, and there are also a lot of damaged apples there. How to be and what to do with the carrion? The answer is simple - use it as fertilizer! This business is not at all costly, and there is a lot of benefit from it
Banana Peel Fertilizer
Bananas are eaten today by almost everyone and, absolutely not thinking about the benefits of banana peels, many of us immediately send them to the trash can. And in vain - a banana peel can become a faithful assistant to a summer resident, because excellent fertilizers are obtained from it! At the same time, you can prepare miraculous fertilizers in a variety of ways
Potato Peelings Are The Perfect Fertilizer
In order to properly fertilize the soil, gardeners and gardeners sometimes have to put a lot of effort. And a lot of money is also invested in growing a good harvest, because from year to year the prices for fertilizers are growing along with inflation, and I really don't want to get a meager harvest. To save both energy and money, it will not hurt to pay attention to a very unusual fertilizer - potato peelings, of which during the off-season you can collect not just a lot, but a lot
Turning Sawdust Into Fertilizer
Almost all summer residents are well aware that it is categorically not recommended to make sawdust into the soil and it is definitely not worth expecting good harvests on such soil. This is especially true for fresh sawdust, because they often lead to excessive acidification of the soil, fungus can easily appear in them, and they also draw out a decent amount of nitrogen from the soil. But, nevertheless, sawdust can be an excellent component for improving air permeability (they are an excellent baking powder) and p
Onion Peels Are An Excellent Fertilizer
Some summer residents, not knowing what to do with a large amount of onion peel, often throw it away. And they do it in vain - firstly, an effective infusion for spraying against a wide variety of ailments and pests can be prepared from onion husks, and secondly, an excellent fertilizer is obtained from it
