How to Give Your Flowers and Vegetables a Disease-free Start with Jell-O

Yes, you read that correctly - Give Your Flowers and Vegetables a Disease-free Start with Jell-O.

If you start your vegetables or flowers from seeds (or even if you purchase young plants from the nursery), why not give them a healthy start and sprinkle a little Jell-O on them.

Things You'll Need

• Lemon flavored Jell-O powder
• Powdered SKIM milk
• Clean salt shaker
• Newspapers
• Seeds/plants of your choice

Instructions

1. First, you can use only the Jell-O if you want to or you can give your plants an extra shot of calcium and use the Jell-O with the powdered skim milk.

   The powder form of this mix will be used for seeds. If you are purchasing plants from a nursery or your plants are all ready starting to sprout, you will want to use the liquid version that is described in step 5

2. For Seeds:

   If you are using Jell-O and powdered skim milk, you will want equal amounts of the Jell-O and powdered skim milk in your salt shaker.

   I mix the two in a small bowl first and then put the dry mix in the salt shaker. I mix only enough to fill the salt shaker once at a time, so that I make sure I am getting as close to equal amounts in my salt shaker as I can.

3. 

   Get your peat pots ready and place seeds in each pot. Using your salt shaker, sprinkle each seed hole lightly with the Jell-O and powdered skim milk dry mixture.

   Finish covering with a light layer of potting soil.

4. Moisten the soil and cover it with dampened newspapers.

   Remove the newspaper after 4 days and then make sure you keep your seeds in a warm area (55' - 65'F).

   The nitrogen in the gelatin helps the seed sprout quicker and will boost growth.

5. 

   If your plants are all ready sprouting you can still use the Jell-O to keep them healthy.

   Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Jell-O powder to 1 gallon of organic liquid fertilizer (compost tea).

   Mix well in a bucket or sprinkling can and pour this mixture directly on the soil. You don't want to get it one the sprouted plant in case it starts to gel.

6. You can use this for indoor and outdoor plants.

   The plant will hold water because of the gelatin in the Jell-O and the sugar will feed the organisms in the soil.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use whatever flavor of Jell-O you want, but the lemon odor seems to chase away the bugs.

Resources

• How to Make an Oak Leaf Tea for Your Acid Loving Plants
• How to Make Homemade Fertilizers for Your Houseplants
• How to Make Organic Fertilizer for Your Roses
• How to Make the Easiest Compost ever
• How to Wet-weather compost
• How to Dry-weather Compost
• eHow Spring Guide