liquid fertilizer

[nickdu]

I've got a vegetable garden. I want to enrich the soil as I think it needs some enriching. The problem is that I can't add any volume to the soil unless I remove some as the soil is already overflowing a bit. I was therefore wondering whether there is some good organic liquid fertilizer I can add.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Chuck]

I've got a vegetable garden. I want to enrich the soil as I think it needs some enriching. The problem is that I can't add any volume to the soil unless I remove some as the soil is already overflowing a bit. I was therefore wondering whether there is some good organic liquid fertilizer I can add.

Thanks,
Nick

Liquid fertilizers feed plants and they mostly bypass soil enrichment. They also are short lived. If you want to enrich your soil and feed your plants at the same time use a good pelleted organic fertilizer. The added volume of the pelleted fertilizer when watered in is extremely minimal

 

[nickdu]

Thanks. I will check out pelleted organic fertilizers. Any brand suggestions?

Nick

 

[Chuck]

Thanks. I will check out pelleted organic fertilizers. Any brand suggestions?

Nick

Most organic pelleted fertilizers are regionalized. Here in Texas the most easily found is Medina. Where you are I don't know but I think Espoma is nationwide and it is good stuff.

 

[headfullofbees]

There are numerous organic liquid feeds, but most of them are home-made. They work really well because the nutrients in them are available immediately to the plants.
Manure leachate or "tea".
Herbivore Manure in a bucket of water, which has had time to de-chlorinate.
Left for a few hours, or, better still, stirred every hour, it will still be aerobic, but will have leached some goodness from the manure, and there will be some beneficial bacteria in the water.
Comfrey
Comfrey is a nutrient/trace element "miner" which brings goodness to the surface via its deep roots and has leaves bursting with plant food.
"Chop-and-drop" the leaves where you want to feed, or submerge them in in a bucket of water, with something heavy to weigh them down, whilst they rot down into a foul-smelling, but nutrient-rich brew.
A corner-stone of vegan-gardening.

Two of many organic liquid plant feeds.
I can't think of one which would poison your plants if you over-applied.

 

[Beth_B]

I think Dr. Earth is sold nationwide, it's what l use. There are spray bottle applications and a dry product you can work into the soil, or soak to make compost tea.

http://drearth.com/

 

[Novelangel]

I use fish pond water as my liquid fertilizer. When my plants start to sag and turn a little yellow in the leaves, I'll give them a shot of the stuff and the plant perks right up again. After that, it will stay strong and healthy looking for several weeks before it needs it again. Pond water contains a lot of nutrients, in the form of fish feces and beneficial bacteria, that while perhaps not smelling so great, really work wonders on vegetation. Any more-or-less stagnant water source works great for this purpose.

 

[MaryMary]

Herbivore Manure in a bucket of water, which has had time to de-chlorinate.
Left for a few hours, or, better still, stirred every hour, it will still be aerobic, but will have leached some goodness from the manure, and there will be some beneficial bacteria in the water.

@headfullofbees, Does the manure have to be aged, like putting manure into the garden? Or can you use it... umm... fresh from the source?


@Novelangel, I use the dirty water from cleaning my aquarium in much the same way! Better than flushing it down the toilet!

 

[headfullofbees]

Either.

 

[Corzhens]

I use fish pond water as my liquid fertilizer. When my plants start to sag and turn a little yellow in the leaves, I'll give them a shot of the stuff and the plant perks right up again. After that, it will stay strong and healthy looking for several weeks before it needs it again. Pond water contains a lot of nutrients, in the form of fish feces and beneficial bacteria, that while perhaps not smelling so great, really work wonders on vegetation. Any more-or-less stagnant water source works great for this purpose.

I think that's the best liquid fertilizer you can find that is organic. It is always advised by an agricultural columnist to use aquarium water or fish pond water to fertilize the plants. I agree with @Chuck that liquid fertilizer does not last long in the soil but if you give your plants fishpond water twice a week then I guess that's good enough ration. We have no aquarium but we use the water that we rinsed the fish with as fertilizer for our plants. Not only fish but water used to rinse meat of any kind. They are rich in minerals good for plants.

 

[Novelangel]

@Novelangel, I use the dirty water from cleaning my aquarium in much the same way! Better than flushing it down the toilet! [/QUOTE]
Oh, absolutely. This is a wonderful use for that old aquarium water. Plants love it and if you store it for a while, like in a glass fishbowl in a window for a week or so, it might even turn a lovely green, which makes it even tastier for your plants. I do the same thing when I clean out my tanks. I just pump out the water, save it and gradually feed it to my ever-growing collection of house plants. They seem to grow much faster, which is fun for me because I love to see them thrive and I love doing little gardening chores like re-potting and stuff like that.

 

[remnant]

You can make excellent liquid organic fertilizers by mixing rice with water and then draining the rice. The whitish rice wash can be fermented with molasses after keeping it under a bush for several days in a sheltered container to be inoculated with microorganisms. This is an excellent foliar spray. Boiled stinging nettle makes for an excellent fertilizer.

 

[headfullofbees]

My own view is that the main show with plants is water + CO2 + sunlight is the main show.
Macro/micro-nutrients are more like vitamins and minerals, and that plants are no better off with too much in the soil (and high levels can do more serious harm, as they tend to form toxic salts) than too little.
Liquid feeds come into their own here, especially with plant where we have defined growth stages, like tomatoes, for instance, which, when they begin producing fruit, we give them a high potassium feed to encourage this.