Alternatives to purchased fertilizers

RedStateGreen

What I'm thinking of are the soil amendments. In particular, does anyone know how to make blood meal at home?

I've read that soaking rusty cans gives you water that can be used in place of commercial iron supplementation.

Worm castings and worm tea are a good overall fertilizer.

Compost and compost tea are good for plants also.

ETA: Urine at a 1:10 dilution is a great source of nitrogen and phosphorus. With rock phosphorus 'peaking', this is a good alternative.

Let's brainstorm here and see what else we come up with.
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diemaker · Coal Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 2

Here's a company that seems to working on the problem. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080415/cltu042.html?.v=101&printer=1

oxj

I thought the reasone one used calcium to fix the urine was to produce calcium urate, a precipitant, which prevents the nitrogen from being washed away, holding it in the soil so the plants could use it. Otherwise, uric acid will wash away. This was a particular problem solved in the past by using rock phosphate. You could read about this in a 1918(?) edition of Lippincott's Productive Farm Soils.

Calcium is generally the cheapest and most widely available source of an ion which will form a precipitant.
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socrates1fan · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 04, 2008 Posts: 284

left over veggies and fruits seem to work well.

Grifter

I just posted this on Spec's sort of companion planting thread

kuidaskassikaeb

I've been wondering for some time about bone meal. (If you don't know bones are 75% calcium phosphate, with collegen protien for the remainder) We have dogs and they chew up a lot of bones. I have tried to break them up but cow thighs are tough. I looked up on the internet and it says that that bone collegen becomes soluble at 60C. Has anybody tried to boil bones and crush them or just throw them in a fire and crush them. The road kill alone around here would keep my farm going.

green_achers

Mother Earth News did a comparison of organic fertilizers in a recent issue. They used N as their standard and found that the best bargain was grass clippings, at $0/#N. The best commercial source was alfalfa pellets. The worst was the commercial worm casting liquid, at about $40,000/#N.

I collect grass clippings and other yard waste everywhere I can find it.
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Mudpuppy · Tar Sands Joined: Dec 31, 2006 Posts: 33 Location: Japan

RedStateGreen

That reminds me, I read that you could roast bones in the oven and grind them. Probably after making soup would be the best time!
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green_achers

Correction on my post above. The worm casting liquid rate was actually about $16,000/#N. Not quite as bad. According to the article, the NPK numbers are extremely small. Not sure what this means, since I've always heard that worm castings are supposed to be very high in nutrients. Maybe it's because liquid fertilizers are mostly water.
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Ludi

DoubleD · Last edited by DoubleD on Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

Compost - well made from a good variety of inputs is one of the most balanced natural and long acting fertilizers you can use. It should be the foundation of garden soil management. After that... here are good organic souces for NPK that may be readily available to you - depending on where your location is.

Nitrogen:

Grass Clippings

Alfalfa - can be hand scythed from the edge of a hay field or any area that it is growing wild - often shows up in ditches next to a hay farm area - or you can sweep the chaff from a hay barn if you have one at your disposal

Fish - can be buried in the garden directly (but will attract critters which can be a problem) or you can whack it up with a good knife and then "blender it ala "bassomatic"" and make your own fish meal puree. Place in a bucket with some chopped kelp, a little molasses if you have it (helps with the decomposing process) - cover tightly and let sit for a few weeks - stirring it once a day if possible. Will turn into a foamy on the top gooey mess. Just dilute with water and you have a fish meal drench. Those of us near the seashore can find "dead critters" on the beach if you just head out as the tide is going out.

Manure - steer, chicken, etc are higher in nitrogen but must be aged before applying to an area with plants - or it will burn them. Good to mix into the garden soil in early spring a few weeks BEFORE you plant the first items so it has time to mellow.

Green manure/cover crops - I plant crimson clover in the fall for areas that are not in food production mode through the winter months. I use bush beans or buckwheat in the summer months if an area is not planted up until later or I will plant them as an understory to heavy nitrogen feeders - such as a stand of corn. I also plant peas in the spring and the fall - and after harvesting the produce - the plant material and roots are either turned under or composted.

Phosphorous:

Kelp - rinsed to remove salt first

Fish meal (see "bass o matic" discussion above in nitrogen discussion)

Potassium:

Wood ash - raises PH though and it leaves salts in the soil - so this should be very very sparingly used - as in no more often than once very 3 years or so for a garden bed area - and only a dusting at that.

Kelp - rinsed to remove salt first

Personally... for phosphorus I prefer to buy large bags of rock phosphate and keep them on hand... periodic applications to the garden - every 3 or 5 years is more than enough... as the rock minerals release over a period of up to 10 years. It is still inexpensive to purchase - stores forever with no special handling - and is the one nutrient that is HARD to substitute with natural products and is the most likely to be the limiting factor in your gardens production capabilities. Nitrogen can be too - but there are many many natural sources for that - not so many for "P".

(edited to add a sentence that was needed and missed the first posted this - sorry)
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DoubleD

I forgot to add to my previous post - as you can see if you look carefully at my list - that if you make a fish/kelp emulsion and use it diluted into a tea to fertigate your garden plantings ... it is almost the ideal nutrient shot - as it is a good supply (when combined) of "N", "P" and "K". Really diluted it is the perfect first food for young seedlings.

I use it alot in my gardens as a result.
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alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 873

stink brew with comfrey, borage or nettles.

frankthetank

Thing that sucks about grass clippings is that so many yards are treated now, the only ones i use are my own.

What a guy should be doing is bow carp fishing. Using a bow to shoot unwanted carp and using the dead fish for fertilizer. Carp are very large fish (i've caught them over 20pounds).
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