The ULTIMATE BOOK of MIx-IT- YOURSELF CONCOCTIONS for Your GARDENfast, Tun, and Fabulous Fertilizer Quick-Fixes Feed the soil, and the soil will feed your plants. That's one of the basic tenets of or- ganic gardening. In most cases, an annual application of rich compost or well-aged manure will provide enough nutrients and organic matter to sustain your plants all through the growing season. Even so, your garden will probably need a quick pick-me- up from time to time. That doesn't mean that you have to run out to the garden center and drop some cash on an expensive fertilizer. Chances are you have the ingredi- ents for making your own inexpensive, earth-friendly plant food right at hand We've polled garden experts from around the country for their favorite fertil- izer formulas. Many of these fertilizer mixes, blends, and solutions provide more than the big three nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. They also include vital mi- cronutrients, plant growth hormones, soil conditioners, and even disease and insect fighters. Some of these time-tested fertilizer formulas include traditional, easy-to-find materials like fish emulsion and manure Others make use of more unusual ingredi- ents, like Epsom salts and vinegar. Still others make the most of kitchen and garden wastes, including coffee grounds and weeds We hope these gardener-to-gardener formulas will inspire you to cook up some of your own creative mixes by making use of locally available materials for fertilizer. Collect wastes from local breweries, ma- nure from 2008 or local farms, leaves from curbsides, and kitchen scraps from restau- rants or grocery stores, Many establish: ments will be glad to have your haul away their wastes for free 1 Kvow Your uegenients Some of the recipes in this chapter include fertilizer products that you'll need to buy at a garden center or through a mail-order supply company. If you're new to using organic fertilizers, you may not know the names of some of these products. Here’s a rundown of some products you'll use: Blood meal: dried blood produced as a | __ by-product of the meat industry; con- = tains about 13 percent nitrogen Colloidal phosphate: clay washed from rock phosphate when the rock phos- phate is mined; good source of phos- phorus Cottonseed meal: a waste product left after cottonseed oil is pressed out of cot- tonseed; may contain chemical residues Fish emulsion: a liquid by-product of the animal feed industry, made from fish; © good source of nitrogen Greensand: mined mineral deposits; good source of potassium and other minerals Guano: aged, dried bird or bat droppings; = high in nitrogen and phosphate 4 TBO} Fe ay 2 3 S 8 S z 3 SB sBaairs ‘aia1 teaspoon chili pc FOZMULAS harvests of vegetables and fruit will require more frequent fertilizer applications, particu- larly before and immediately after flowering, Pick Your Mix You'll find both dry and liquid fertilizer formulas in this chapter. Dry fertilizers, such as long-lasting granular or powdered mixes, are great for sidedressing actively growing plants. These power-packed organic fertl izers not only supply nutrients, but also im- prove the texture and moisture retention of the soil by feeding a vast army of beneficial microbes (as many as 900 billion in 1 pound of soil). And these fertilizers will keep on working for weeks, even months In most cases, you can just spread dry fertilizer on the soil around individual plants and lightly scratch them into the soil. If your soil is low on any of the major nutrients (nitrogen is especially soluble, so it leaches out quickly from the soil), these Bucxers Beat Bass dry fertilizers may be the best way to pro- vide them ‘The liquid fertilizer formulas we've col- lected take the form of fast-acting teas and mixtures for foliar feeding (spraying the leaves of a plant) and soil drenches. While its no substitute for a balanced soil, foliar feeding can be the best way to supplement your plants’ diets. Like the vitamin and mineral supplements we humans take to combat high stress levels or to make up for poor eating habits, foliar feedings don't replace good soil fertilizers, they merely supplement them. If major nutrients or trace minerals are missing from the soil, these liquid fertilizers, sprayed directly on the leaves, will provide them fast! Plants will immediately absorb the micronu trients from liquid fertilizers like manure tea, compost tea, and seaweed solutions. Since plants can't store excess nutrients in their leaves and draw on them later, you'll have to repeat foliar feedings at regular intervals. It’s cheaper to buy fertilizer ingredients in bulk and split the costs and the resulting mix with a gardening friend or neighbor. But splitting a batch isn’t always possible, and it’s a good idea to be prepared in case there are leftovers. You'll need containers, of course, but labels are just as important. Always label fertilizer containers before you fill them so there's no chance of forgetting a label or confusing the contents with another garden product. Store homemade fertilizer in 5-gallon plastic buckets with lids. That way, mois- ture (and pests) can’t get into the mix and spoil it. You can get buckets for free—or for a small fee—from grocery stores and restaurants. Attach your labels, or use a permanent marking pen to write the date and ingredients on each bucket. &