Make fertilizer yourself: instructions & benefits

Many household and garden home remedies can be used as fertilizers. We'll show you how you can easily make natural fertilizers yourself.

Isn't it strange that we constantly dispose of nutrients in the form of organic waste in the bin in order to then buy fertilizer for our hard-earned money? But some things can be reused quite easily - and we'll show you how to do that.

Plant and manure manure, compost, Bokashi and many home remedies are self-made Natural fertilizers. In the following we will show you how you can produce these natural fertilizers yourself.

Make plant manure yourself

Plant manure, extracts and broths are mainly made from water and shredded plants. Although they hardly represent a full fertilization, they have a strengthening effect on the plants. The effect is often empirically proven, but the exact causal relationships are in some cases still unclear. The practical thing is that you can smoke almost any weed that you do not want in your garden. The nutrients that were absorbed by this plant are partly dissolved in the water again. The advantage over composting is that straining after the manure prevents the distribution of seeds or fragments of roots that can be regenerated in the garden. Nettle liquid is considered an effective fertilizer, which is why we will briefly present its composition.

Make nettle manure yourself

The liquid manure from nettles provides nitrogen, magnesium and iron as well as other trace nutrients. This makes it a good starter for compost and the sediment can also be used.

Instructions for nettle manure:

1. For liquid manure, crush about one kilogram of fresh nettle plants or 400 grams of dried nettles from 10 liters of water.
2. Put the plant parts with the appropriate amount of water in a sufficiently large container. This should be able to be covered, but an airtight seal is not necessary. Rainwater or tap water that has stagnated for several days are ideal.
3. You can add primary rock flour to reduce the odor. This acts both as a soil conditioner and as a nutrient supplier. About two handfuls for 10 liters of water are sufficient.
4. Stir the mixture vigorously and cover the vessel so that gas exchange is possible. A grid or a perforated cover is suitable, for example.
5. Let the mixture ferment in a shady, warm place for one to three weeks, stirring daily.
6. If the liquid is clear, dark and no longer foams, it can be used.

Use of nettle manure:

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

Tip: Manure from other wild herbs has different effects than nettle manure: tansy is said to keep mites and insects away, Field horsetail strengthens plants against all sorts of fungal diseases and liquid manure from tomato shoots, for example, keeps it Cabbage White Far Off. On the other hand, the plant-fertilizing effects are less or hardly available.

Make manure manure yourself

A highly effective one 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 the manure of different farm animals. Manure from farmyard manure provides nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium for plant nutrition and has a high speed of action.

Instructions for manure manure:

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 poured into a close-meshed net or other permeable, sealable object. The solids should stay together somewhat.
3. The bundle is placed in water, the ratio of water to solids determining the subsequent concentration. If you use little water, the finished liquid manure must be diluted more.
4. The vessel filled with water with dung and wood ash is placed in a warm, shady place. The fumigation lasts a few weeks and its completion can be recognized by the fact that the liquid is dark brown and clear.

Use of manure manure:

Manure manure can be used like liquid manure NPK fertilizer use. However, the liquid must never be used pure, only diluted. To do this, you should add water until the liquid looks similar to black tea. The application can be carried out monthly from March to July.

Make compost yourself

compost is very variable and its effect depends on its current condition. Our special article explains the use of Compost as a fertilizer described in detail. In the following we have briefly summarized the most important things for you.

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

Area composting

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

Compost from the compost heap

The operation of one Compost heap can produce different types of compost. The weakly decomposed and nutrient-rich fresh compost has already formed after four to six weeks. You can use this as a 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. After one to two years, there is finally a ripe compost. When applied, this hardly releases any plant nutrients, but it improves the soil fertility immensely. It loosens, ventilates, offers storage space for nutrients and water and, in the event of a deficiency, finally provides some nutrients.

Vermicompost

They produce a very special compost Compost worms in a worm box. Because they usually get the very nutrient-rich organic waste in front of them, and since quite a few worms pounce on a very small amount, composting is extremely fast. Because all of the material travels through the worms' stomach and digestive tract at once is, it is through a slimy covering and additionally through calcium excretions of the worms stabilized. Applied in the soil, it provides many nutrients and at the same time promotes the formation of crumbs.

Compost tea

Compost tea is a liquid soil improver, but not a fertilizer in the strict sense of the word. It is made using compost, water, sugar and rock flour. He needs a warm environment and good ventilation with the help of a pond aerator pump. All kinds of useful microorganisms then multiply in the batch within a few days. If this highly concentrated culture is then applied in a diluted manner, a soil with poor microorganism population can be “inoculated” with it. The activity in the soil is increased and the decomposition and nutrient release are stimulated. This is useful, for example, when area composting is to develop its fertilizing effect particularly quickly. You can also find information on how to make compost tea in this article on the subject compost.

Make Bokashi yourself

A valuable fertilizer can be made from organic waste in a Bokashi bucket in your own kitchen within a short period of time. 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, completely different processes lead to bokashi - and the end product doesn't look anything like compost. This is also no wonder, because instead of composting, fermentation - i.e. fermentation - takes place in the absence of air. While the fermentation takes place inside the Bokashi bucket, the so-called Bokashi tea is created. You can use this tapped and diluted as a liquid fertilizer. The bokashi that emerges after two to three weeks is quite acidic and can be folded into beds or mixed with potting soil so that potted plants can be used after a certain waiting period. Details about the operation of a Bokashi bucket can be found here.

Make your own natural fertilizer from coffee grounds, eggshells and the like

Natural fertilizers should provide nutrients and at the same time keep the soil healthy. 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 fertilizers	properties
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 horn shavings	- Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium - Natural long-term effect - Potassium has to be fertilized additionally
ash	- Only ashes from the burning of untreated wood, straw, other plant materials and non-glossy printed paper can be used for fertilization - Contains a lot of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements - Very high pH (10 to 13) - Effective quickly
Eggshells	- Consists almost entirely of calcium carbonate (carbonate of lime) - High pH - Slowly effective
Horse manure	- Made up of urine, feces and litter from the horse stable - Contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as trace elements - Structural material can stimulate humus reproduction - Fresh horse manure is a plant fertilizer, composted horse manure is a soil conditioner and long-term fertilizer
Mammalian urine	- Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium - Not germ-free, which restricts use - May contain substances that the respective producer has ingested through food
guano	- The mining of guano is harmful to the environment at the mining site - Some of the dismantling takes place under inhumane conditions

Tip: The composition and effect of horn fertilizers is similar to that of our own nails. There is not much of this, but you can safely dispose of this small amount on the compost, because it provides the appropriate nutrients.

Benefits of homemade organic fertilizers

The advantages of homemade fertilizers are obvious:

• They are almost or completely free because they are recycled from materials that are already used in the home or garden. If you use homemade fertilizers, you are independent of the prices of the fertilizer manufacturers and you have to take fewer trips 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 the ingredients that are contained in your fertilizers. So you don't have to worry about hidden ingredients and exposure to toxic substances.

Tip: Compost from the Compost toilet and Fertilizing with urine

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

Use of homemade fertilizer

Even if the self-made fertilizers are “home remedies”, you should not use them carelessly. If used in the wrong amount, at the wrong time or on the wrong plant, your plants may well be damaged. So always pay attention to the application recommendations for the respective homemade fertilizers.

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

What else to look for in the Fertilizer purchase To learn more, read this article.