7 Practical Homemade Organic Fertilizer Recipes You Can Make For Free

Looking for homemade organic fertilizer recipes for your garden? It's your lucky day! I've got here not just one but 7 homemade organic fertilizer recipes for the smart and frugal gardener in you!

Homemade Organic Fertilizer Recipes For Smart Gardeners

Call me stingy, or a cheapskate even, but when it comes to composting, pest repellents, and fertilizers, I prefer low-cost–even better if it's free! It's no longer a question whether organic fertilizer is best for your plants and garden. While you can easily purchase synthetic chemical fertilizers with faster results for your vegetables, they can have a devastating after-effect in your soil and environment. This is why secondary to frugality, I'm also thinking of long-term, sustainable solutions for my plants. If we're of the same mind, you can help yourself to these homemade organic fertilizer recipes for your garden.

 

How To Make And Use Homemade Organic Fertilizer

Before we get to our homemade organic fertilizer recipes, it is important to analyze your soil or your garden first. Identifying any problems with your soil or your plants will help you address specific soil or plant needs.

1. Comfrey Liquid Fertilizer Recipe

Comfrey plants have long been recognized by gardeners as a great garden help with its high levels of essential nutrients and elements. You can use ‘bocking 14' comfrey variety to make your homemade natural fertilizer.

Use a large bag to put the comfrey leaves. When harvesting, use gloves for your protection. The plant's hairy leaves may cause skin rashes. Squash them into a large container with a wide lid, and leave covered for a few weeks.

After a few weeks, pour the liquefied comfrey into a container and label it. Keep it out of children's reach. To use this as fertilizer, dilute 15:1 with rainwater. When using watering cans, water the soil and not the leaves.

2. Fish Fertilizer Recipe

Fortunately, you can make your own homemade fish fertilizer considering how expensive it is. This nitrogen-rich fertilizer is great for boosting plant growth and stimulating the microorganisms in the soil.

You can make fish fertilizers from store-bought fish through a fish emulsion. Any fish will do, so those you can get for free are more than able to the job. You can also use the scraps from cleaning fish for this recipe. Take a bucket and fill about 2/3 with fish scraps or pieces and layer with an equal part of brown organic matter. You can also add in molasses and seaweed to boost nutrients.

Stir the mixture occasionally for several weeks and it will be ready to use. Strain the liquid and use the scraps or whole pieces for composting. Prepare one cup of fish fertilizer for every gallon of water and your fertilizer is ready to be poured over your soil or sprayed on the leaves.

3. Eggshell Fertilizer Recipe

It's no secret eggshells are a rich source of calcium, which is helpful to your vegetable garden. Apparently, tomatoes and peppers respond especially well to eggshells in the soil. Make an eggshell fertilizer tea by boiling some 20 pieces of clean and dry eggshells.

Let it stand overnight and strain the liquid to get the tea. You can also reuse the eggshells with any of these ways to use eggshells in the garden.

4. Fertilizer Recipe To Amend Low pH Soil

This may sound unappealing but wood ash and human urine make a great fertilizer recipe which can boost your soil and plant growth. Wood ash is rich in calcium and magnesium, while urine is high in nitrogen, essential elements that are ideal for plant growth.

However, it is also important to note that the urine should be organic and not collected from a source on medications. Research shows that when both materials are combined, urine and ash fertilizer can increase the yield in tomatoes. You can take this inspiration for your own homemade organic recipe.

 5. Compost Tea Fertilizer

Amazingly, compost is not limited to growing plants or amending your soil, you can also make a fertilizer out of your homemade compost. Find out first how you can make your own homemade organic compost here to make your compost tea.

Your homemade organic compost is rich in most of the essential nutrients needed for fast and healthy plant growth. You can follow the step-by-step guide for making a homemade organic fertilizer from compost or a compost tea.

6. Potassium Fertilizer Recipe

It's no secret bananas are rich in potassium, but did you know banana peelings also contain phosphorus, calcium, manganese, sodium, magnesium sulfur, and 42% potassium when dried? These are the wonderful essential elements your soil will get with a banana fertilizer.

To make some banana peelings homemade fertilizer, you will need banana peels, a tablespoon of Epsom salt for every 4 peelings, 3 eggshells, and water. Dry your banana peels as well as your eggshells after washing them clean. Once your banana peels are dried, process them with the eggshells in a food processor or blender until they are a fine powder. Add the powder and Epsom salt into a spray bottle with water then shake to mix.

You can apply your fertilizer to the soil or the base of the plant and not directly on the leaves of the plants.

7. Weed Tea Fertilizer Recipe

Like the weeds that they are, they can really be annoying, growing under our very own feet. But like grass fertilizers, weeds such as chickweed, nettles, and horsetail are high in nitrogen.

Fill a 5-gallon bucket with 2/3 parts of freshly pulled weeds then top off with a few inches of water. Let the mixture to sit for three days at room temperature and stir it at least once a day. After three days, you can strain the liquid and dilute it with equal parts of water.

You can apply fertilizer by spraying it directly on your plants for faster growth.

 

Follow this video to make a complete homemade organic fertilizer:

There you have it, frugal gardeners! Homemade organic fertilizers you can make on a budget or for free. Raid your home, your garden and your community for free sources to make your own organic fertilizer for tomatoes. Happy gardening, green thumbs!
How're your vegetables doing with your own homemade organic recipe? I'm interested to hear all about it in the comments section below. 

Before you can make an organic fertilizer from compost, make an organic compost first. Find out the natural ingredients you can use to make organic compost here.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter for more smart gardening ideas!

 

Feature image source via Ugaoo

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