Ingredients for Organic Fertilizer

You can find the ingredients for organic fertilizer almost anywhere. Many gardeners have developed individualized formulas from just a few key components available in most garden centers, farm supply stores, and even neighborhood hardware stores.

Even if you don't have a green thumb, you can make a "green" fertilizer.

The Importance of Natural Fertilizer

Whether you have a little vegetable patch or a fully landscaped acreage, enhancing organic matter with more organic material instead of chemicals offers a number of benefits.

• It encourages healthy growth.
• The soil stores water more efficiently.
• The composition of the soil is more robust and open to better air circulation.
• Slow-release nutrients found in organic matter sustain plants and lawns.
• Earthworms, a vital element to any garden, thrive in organic matter.
• As you tend to your personal piece of the earth with organic fertilizer, you do a little extra for the overall health of the environment.

Getting Started

First, identify your goals for the landscape.

• Are you trying to increase blooms or food yield?
• Do you need to balance the soil’s nutrients?
• Do you have areas that can’t hold moisture well?
• Are you trying to establish a better root system or reduce transplant shock?

Next, test your soil. Most garden centers have testing kits, but if you’re just starting out, it’s probably a good idea to contact your local cooperative extension office. The representatives there will advise you on how and from where to take samples, test them, and provide you with remedies and further education.

Finally, once deficiencies are identified, you can gather the ingredients for organic fertilizers that suit your purposes.

Organic Fertilizer Recipes

Booster Tea

This is a good plant booster filled with a multitude of nutrients. It’s also incredibly easy to make.

Ingredients:

• Three shovels of compost humus

-or-

• Three shovels of one of the following: composted cow, horse, or sheep manure. If you don’t have your own livestock, you can purchase bags of composted manure at any garden center.
• Water

Booster Tea Recipe

1. Place compost in burlap or another leaching bag.
2. Tie the bag to a rake or broom handle and suspend it into a barrel or garbage can filled with water.
3. Steep for one week. When the water is a dark brown color, it’s done.
4. Apply at the roots once a month, or dilute the mixture with clear water to apply more frequently.

Learn how to make compost.

Slow-Release Stabilizer

This is a great organic fertilizer that you mix into the soil, either when planting something new, tilling a new bed, or when you just want to jazz up an existing bed. This formula is balanced with minerals and nutrients for a slow and steady maintenance release.

Ingredients:

• A form of calcium, such as powdered limestone
• A form of nitrogen, such as seed meal and alfalfa meal, equally combined
• A form of phosphate, such as rock phosphate
• A form of potassium, such as greensand and kelp, equally combined

Slow-Release Stabilizer Recipe

1. Combine one part each of calcium, phosphate, and potassium.
2. Add to that four parts nitrogen.
3. Mix all ingredients together.
4. Store the mixture and the base ingredients in secure containers.

Again, whether it’s by the handful or a shovel full, always work this fertilizer into the soil.

Finding Ingredients for Organic Fertilizer

Local garden centers and farm surplus supply stores are your best resources for the majority of the ingredients for organic fertilizer. Not only will they stock smaller quantities perfect for residential use, but also have a knowledgeable staff to consult with regarding substitutions and other questions.

There are also some online retailers that specialize in organic ingredients and ready-made fertilizer formulas, including:

• Dirt Works
• Earth Juice
• Extremely Green
• TerraCycle

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