How To Make Organic Vegetable Plant Food

Growing vegetables in the home garden requires rich soil high in minerals and nutrients to support the growth of plants. Chemical fertilizers available at gardening stores and nurseries may seem like the logical choice, but for many concerns over the addition of chemicals to the soil has lead to the use of organic fertilizer for the home garden. Purchasing natural fertilizers can be expensive. Luckily making organic plant food at home is inexpensive and simple to make.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vegetable scraps
• Grass clippings
• Dry organic material (leaves, corn stalks, wood chips)
• Composted Manure
• Burlap Bag
• Barrel

1. Start a compost bin. This can be as simple as a pile on top of the ground or as complex a large barrel cylinders that require turning on daily basis. For a simple compost heap, place a 3-inch layer of coarse plant material like twigs, cornstalks or shredded wood on the ground. Add 10 inches of dried leaves, grass or other dry matter from your yard. Create a 2 to 3 inch layer of fresh grass clippings and vegetable scraps from the home. Sprinkle with garden soil and moisten the pile with a hose. Continue to layer organic matter alternating dry and wet material. Turn with a garden fork to mix all ingredients and allow to compost in the sun. Keep the pile moist and turn once a month to keep it aerated. Compost is ready when it turns dark brown and crumbles when touched.

2. Make compost tea. Fill a burlap bag with well-rotted compost. You can use your own compost or purchase this at the gardening store. Place the bag in a barrel of water. Agitate the bag to distribute water to all areas of the compost and allow to steep for 3 days. Use the tea to water garden plants. Reuse the bag of compost until the water no longer turns brown.

3. Fill a burlap bag or sack with well-rotted manure and follow the same procedure to create manure tea. Fresh manure should not be used for manure tea as it carries the risk of contamination by E. Coli or other pathogens. Manure tea is stronger than compost tea and should be diluted with four parts water to one part tea before applying to plants. Use caution when applying close to roots as the nitrogen in the tea may burn young roots.