I'm growing for my first time this summer, and for various reasons that I'm not going to go into detail about, I have no access to any fertilizers or potting soil other than plain old forest soil. I've decided I want to make my own natural fertilizer using things around the house, but I have no idea what will work as a substitute for store bought ferts. Another reason why I want to do this is because I've heard that natural fertilizers give the bud a better taste in the end. I would also like to create my own soil mix using forest soil and something else but I don't know what to use. If anyone can help me with these two things I would be very grateful, as I am germinating right now (one seedling is already about 2 inches tall) and I would like to plant in a forest sometime this week
Well, human urine is very good fertilizer, but if you made compost out of your daily vegetables you'd be doing a much better job. The thing is, in order for nutrients to be available they must first be broken down into molecules the roots can absorb, and that's what fungi and bacteria in the soil are all about. Now if you make compost with composting worms you'll have a very rich soil that also has enough micro-organisms to break down the compounds, and that's what your plants benefit from. So mix that old forest soil with some egg shells, peels, urine, algae (they are usually very rich in minerals), etc., and let it sit wherever you're gonna grow. With some luck the soil will be broken down to worm poop and then to simpler nutrients. You don't fertilize in nature, you simply prepare the growing medium properly. If you need cheap nutrients per se, then you can resort to fish oils. The best organic fertilizers are made out of fish oils. Very good stuff. And that's my grain of sand. Hope I've helped =]
organic ferts are CHEAP man. bone meal, blood meal, garden line, epsom salt (mag sulfate) and earth worm castings all can be procured for less than $35. get these 4 and your in business my friend. 1 gal soil 2 tbs bone meal 1 tbs blood meal 2 tbs garden lime 20% EWC 1 tsp epsom salt and youll be ready for the whole season. Allow the soil 1-2 weeks min to "cook", meaning time for the ingredients to break down a bit to a usable form for the plants.
in terms of stuff you should/may have laying around that you can use......the regular basic compost ingredients - fruit/veg scrapz paper your own urine as stated before..of course you have to make the compost before you can use it, you can also get some livestock manure that is manure from cows sheep horses etc and most definitely you should get your self some black strap molasses one other that I've found in recent times is corn meal