table of contents
- Home remedies as fertilizer
- Garden compost
- Horse manure
- Herbal manure
- Wood ash
- Coffee grounds
- Horn shavings, horn meal or horn meal
- frequently asked Questions
Some love him, others hate him. With the right processing, it is a really delicious vegetable. An abundant harvest naturally requires an optimal supply of nutrients. Read here what you are doing rhubarb should fertilize
In a nutshell
- Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) is one of the heavy consumers
- Permanent culture with high nutritional requirements
- An adequate and balanced supply of nutrients is the main component of care
- fertilize regularly, ideally organically, for example with home remedies
Home remedies as fertilizer
Rhubarb prefers moist, humus and nutrient-rich soils as well as a constant supply of water and nutrients. The most important nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulfur and trace elements. Which type of fertilizer you ultimately choose is up to you. In principle, however, you should prefer organic fertilizers and avoid chemicals as much as possible. Especially since even home remedies are very suitable as fertilizers, as the following examples show.
Garden compost
- very good fertilizer for rhubarb
- Apply when planting
- together with three hands full of horn shavings
- work into loosened soil
- about three liters of compost per square meter
- Mulch the root area immediately after planting
- with a thick layer of sifted compost
- for example from composted bark, leaf compost or grass clippings
Later, during the growth period from March to May, work a thin layer of well-rotted garden compost into the soil every week. After the harvest around the end of June, this plant has to replenish its nutrient reserves. You can help them by spreading another layer of compost on the ground.
Tip: If you want to do it particularly well, plant the rhubarb right next to one Compost heap.
Horse manure
Horse manure is another home remedy that is great for fertilizing rhubarb. However, it should be well seasoned, ideally a year. It is applied around the plant as early as January and only worked shallowly into the soil. In this way, the nutrients are available to her when it begins to grow. As a rule, no further application is required, the fertilizing effect of horse manure lasts for a long time.
Tip: When composting horse manure, it is advisable to mix it with leaves or grass clippings and compost together. It should not be stored for more than a year, because the nutrient content gradually decreases.
Herbal manure
Plant manure from nettles, field horsetail or Comfrey herb are reliable nitrogen suppliers for the rhubarb. These home remedies are easy to make, effective and also ecological. In particular, they are essential for the regeneration of the plant after the harvest. They are applied generously. If necessary, you can add a dose of compost to the whole thing. Follow-up fertilization in spring during the main growth phase is recommended.
Make manure
- 1 kg of fresh or 150-250 g of dried herb of your choice is required
- and ten liters of water, ideally rainwater
- Herb should not yet have flowers or seeds
- Cut into small pieces and put in a bucket
- Pour water on top and add some stone flour
- Place the bucket in a sunny place for about two weeks
- Stir the liquid daily, cover the bucket
- Liquid manure is ready when it stops foaming
- Dilute slurry 1:10 before fertilization (1 kg herb to 10 liters of water)
Wood ash
Wood ash is one of the possible fertilizers in terms of home remedies. It supplies lime, potassium, iron and phosphate, but no nitrogen, which would have to be supplied elsewhere.
- Wood ash has to meet different requirements
- Plant ash from burned wood, straw or other plant material
- only use ash from untreated wood
- Ashes from brown or hard coal, briquettes unsuitable for fertilizing rhubarb
- as well as glossy printed paper or lacquered, surface-treated and impregnated wood
Tip: You should also do without common lighting aids, such as normal newspaper, egg cartons or commercially available lighters. On the other hand, you can safely use dry twigs, small split pieces of wood, sawdust, nutshells or lighters made of wood wool.
use
- before fertilizing Soil pH testing
- Ash has a very basic effect
- mainly use on loamy and clay substrates
- a maximum of 30 g of loose ash per square meter
- Apply in autumn on a windless day
- or stir into the watering water
- then spread over the area to be fertilized
- Work dry ash into the ground with a rake
- Enrich and fertilize with horn shavings in spring
Tip: If used correctly, wood ash is not only a good fertilizer, but can also stop fungal pathogens from multiplying.
Coffee grounds
Coffee grounds also contain nutrients that are important for rhubarb, such as sulfur and nitrogen. Before you can use it for fertilization, you should collect it and dry it in a dry and airy place. If there is a sufficient amount, you can spread a handful of it over the root area and then work it in flat.
Coffee grounds should only be applied in small quantities, especially with this plant, as they can easily acidify the soil. But there is also the option of composting coffee grounds and using them indirectly as fertilizer. To do this, you simply distribute the moist set on the compost heap.
Tip: Coffee grounds also have the ability to attract earthworms and can also keep pests away.
Horn shavings, horn meal or horn meal
Horn meal or horn shavings provide the rhubarb with nitrogen just like liquid manure from nettles. They strengthen the resistance of the rhubarb plants for a long time. As a rule, horn shavings are mixed with ripe compost and then administered.
- A mixture of 100-150 g of the finer horn meal or horn meal and three liters of compost is recommended
- Spread out on the ground and work in gently
- Soil organisms like fungi and bacteria do the rest
- decompose horn meal or horn shavings
- thus release nitrogen
Note: Incidentally, horn shavings have no influence on the pH value of the soil.
frequently asked Questions
As a rule, over-fertilization is not possible if used properly. Burns to the roots are also not to be expected.
Yellow leaves in summer are a completely natural process, because the rhubarb moves in from August and sprouts again in the next spring. However, if they occur during growth, horse manure, for example, can be responsible. If it is not stored long enough, it can cause root damage and, as a result, yellow leaves.
In general, not too much ash should be worked into the soil. We recommend intervals of four to six weeks between the individual fertilizers. In the case of wood ash, an overdose can certainly occur. To avoid this, you can mix them with earth, sand or rock flour before fertilizing.
