Hi I’m Erin and today I show you how to make an inexpensive homemade fertilizer that
you can use on all of your vegetables on Our Wyoming Life
When you go to a garden store and look in the fertilizer section you will be bombarded
with all kinds of different fertilizers.
It seems you can find a fertilizer for almost every individual plant nowadays.
I’m going to show you how to make an all-around fertilizer that is not only good for your
plants but good for the soil.
3 ingredients and some water is all you need.
Alfalfa pellets, molasses and fish emulsion is all it takes.
It’s super simple to make and once you purchase the items required you’ll have enough to
make several batches and your plants will thank you!
First on the list is Alfalfa pellets.
Just straight alfalfa, not rabbit food pellets which can sometimes have salts and other minerals
added in.
This bag of 100% alfalfa was purchased from my local feed store.
They will know exactly what you waant if you say 100% alfalfa and the smaller the pellet
the better.
Or it can be purchased online.
The recipe calls for one pound of alfalfa pellets for every 5 gallons of water.
This large black tub holds enough water for a triple batch so 3 pounds of alfalfa are
weighed and added to the bucket.
Alfalfa is a good source of nitrogen for the garden as well as other minerals like phosphorous,
potassium, calcium and many more.
It also helps build organic matter in the soil.
Organic matter helps other organic material decompose, helps prevent compaction, holds
moisture in the soil, and improves the soil structure.
The pellets need to soak in water overnight in order to break down.
They will soak up quite a bit of water so make sure that they have room to float and
plenty of water to drink.
But don’t fill your bucket all the way up unless you are nearby your plants.
Moving a full bucket of water to the garden is never fun and is always messy!
The next morning the bucket with the soaked alfalfa pellets is moved into the high tunnel
where the additional ingredients can be added and the fertilizer will be applied to the
tomatoes and peppers.
Black strap molasses is added at a rate of one tablespoon per gallon of water.
This gallon jug was purchased online and was not horribly expensive and I will be able
to make several gallons of fertilizer before I run out.
Molasses is amazing for plants and the soil.
It provides food for the healthy microbes in the soil.
The more microbe activity the healthier your plants will be.
Molasses is also high in calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Tomatoes love all of these.
Molasses also has several trace minerals that plants require to be healthy.
Last ingredient is fish emulsion.
Just being honest here, fish emulsion looks and smells pretty horrible but it’s amazing.
It’s the availability and presence of micronutrients that make the fish emulsion so awesome.
It also helps unlock the micronutrients that are already in the soil and restore them into
a form that the plants can utilize.
The application rate for the fish emulsion is on the label and 2 tablespoons per gallon
of water is the recommended rate.
The soil in the high tunnel is already high on the nitrogen side as super nitrogen rich
compost was added this spring so 1 tablespoon per gallon is added to the bucket so as to
not nitrogen burn the plants.
Make sure to shake the bottle to loosen the emulsion up before measuring.
Once all 3 ingredients are in, the bucket is filled with water.
After it’s full give it a big stir.
Yes it’s stinky and looks disgusting but your plants will think it’s the best meal
you’ve ever given them.
Once you’re ready to apply, add one cup of liquid fertilizer mixture to each plant.
Just pour on the ground near the stem so the roots can absorb it right away.
It’s okay if there are alfalfa particles in the water.
There’s nutrients in them still and they will break down as the garden waters in the
future.
After you’ve applied most of the liquid to your plants there’s going to be a lot
of alfalfa residue in the bottom of the bucket.
Don’t throw this away.
It’s can be a great addition to your compost pile or I added mine to an area that I’m
getting ready to plant winter carrots in.
There’s still lots of nutrients in that alfalfa and you don’t want to waste them.
The mixture that was made today can be applied to your garden once every two weeks.
It’s super versatile and can be used on all vegetables and works great on flowers
too.
Links for all the ingredients used today will be below in the description as well as the
recipe.
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more happening on the ranch and the gardens in the coming weeks and thanks for joining
me in Our Wyoming Life.