My most effective DIY Organic fertilizer for container plants

14 years ago

Hi everybody,

I know there are lots of debate or organic fertilizer on container plants. And Al give lots of sound technical explanations on the trades off of using organic fertilizer in containers.

After talking to a 60+ year old container gardener at my home town, he never used any non-organic fert in his containers, and his container plants are looking as good as they can be. His container garden was even on a TV show. Camellia plants as old as 30 years and hundreds of flowers each year. He indeed is using something similar to Al's mix, 2/3 or non-organic ingredients. His soil is made of pine needle compost, barks and lots of pea sized absorbent stones. The stone is all natural and primarily used on the orchid.

He always make his own organic fertilizer, now he is what he do:

Boil 1KG of soybean meal really well

Mix with 20KG of water

Let the mix settle for 2 or 3 days.

Seal the container really well, but not too tight, it might explode. If it does, the SWAD team will be deployed to your yard for sure.

Put the container under the sun, the hotter, the faster.

You will be hunted by some odor, your neighbour will always sniff around puzzled.

Normally after 2 or 3 months (the longer the better), the water will become black and less stink

The soybean meal will sink and take the still water

Mix 10 to 20 parts of water and optional FeSO4 (Ferrous Sulfate)

I did this year in my back yard. I used this mixture 10:1 on my Tea Olive and Michelia Alba just once and then water with rain water afterwards, after a week, they exploded with new growth. The other Tea Olive gets regular Foliage Pro every watering, it gets new growth too, but far few. The soybean is high in N, so if you want a new growth flush, this can be a good solution.

I like this idea just because it won't clog my precious gritty mix.

This experience just applies to me. And I only use it to supplement my Foliage Pro as it is high in N. If you want to use it, you have to experiment.

He also has other formulas, I would have to experiment further.

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Comments (3)

yellowthumb
Original Author
14 years ago
Just to clarify that this solution is slightly acid and great for acid loving plants. But never apply this solution to fig trees, you would get tons of leaves and inferior fruits.
emgardener
14 years ago
Thanks yellowthumb for posting. Interesting process, always good to read about different ways of doing things.

Do you ord anyone have a good explanation for the chemical or biological process that goes on in this "formula". Why boil the soymeal first? Is the meal fermenting, anaerobic decomposing?

Please post the other formula's, would love to read them.

I've just started experimenting with liquid organic fertilizer this year. I've had not so good results with solid organic fertilizer in containers in the past.

One interesting observation (and in hindsight obvious) on my current liquid organic results is that they perform much better in a well aerated mix.

One container with a turface based mix is doing great, Dahlia's in full bloom for 2 month straight so far. One container with bush beans doing great, mix is 4 parts leaves, 1 part soil, fast draining.

But my pole beans which I tried the organic liquid fertilizer on went downhill compared to when I was using chemical liquids. This mix is 3 years old and stays quite wet; 2 parts peat, 1 part pumice, 1 part bark.

Next year, I plan to do a comparison between
1. liquid organics, leaf & soil mix (no store bought materials)
2. Al's mix & foliage pro.

Should be interesting.
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yellowthumb
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, he has other formulas made of different things for different plant stages. I mean things, could be nasty things such as snails from the river, fish waste and spoiled milk. But there is a shared procedure, seal the container well. A slow anaerobic process to break down the organic. But not fermenting. The boiling is to accelerate the process, as this will break down the big Molecule, especially the oil.

Yes, this solution work very well with well aerated soil.

My most effective DIY Organic fertilizer for container plants

Comments (3)

yellowthumb
Original Author

emgardener

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My most effective DIY Organic fertilizer for container plants

Comments (3)

yellowthumbOriginal Author

emgardener

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yellowthumbOriginal Author

COMPANY

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CONNECT WITH US

yellowthumb
Original Author

yellowthumb
Original Author