Homemade fertilizers that help your pocket and your planet

You can play your part in making the world free of harmful chemicals by adopting homemade fertilizers that are good for the soil and reduce our dependence on chemicals and toxic compounds. In the following sections, let us look at some of the fertilizers you can create yourself at home.

Useful homemade fertilizers

Banana Peels: These are good source of Potassium, which helps in growth of plants. All you have to do is put a few peels close to the roots of the plant and let the peels decompose naturally. If you want to keep the insects and pests that get attracted to decomposing peel away, then blend a peel with four cups of water and then mix it in the soil.

Coffee Grounds: Coffee is rich in nitrogen and other minerals with byproducts also good in potassium, calcium and copper. All these are good for plants and roses, tomatoes, azaleas and blueberries. You can sprinkle over the soil or use it to drench the soil by first soaking about six cups of these coffee grounds in five gallons of water, let it stay as it is for three days and then pour it in the soil around the plants.

Egg Shells: You should first dry the egg shells and then blend them to make a powder of the egg shells which can be sprinkled in the soil close to plants. Calcium present in the egg shells helps to prevent blossom-end rots and is especially useful for peppers and tomatoes.

Fish Tank Water: Water in a fish tank is rich in nitrogen and other minerals which are good for the plants. However, make sure that you do not take water from a fish tank that has salt water.

Vinegar: If the soil is acidic then vinegar is quite useful for plants that grow in such type of soil. Vinegar contains acetic acid which is beneficial for plants. You can mix four liters of water with one cup of vinegar to water the plants once in 3 months to keep the acidic pH levels right in the soil.

Molasses: In a compost tea, molasses can result in increasing microbes as well as useful bacteria for these microbes feed on. Water the plants on regular basis using this homemade fertilizer and help the plants grow faster.

Summary

As it is quite clear, we need not depend upon chemical fertilizers available in the market since it is quite easy to create our own fertilizers that are good for the soil, save the environment and money as well.