How to make fertilizer from waste at home?

As well as having rich organic matter soil, plants often need an application of fertilizer to get the nutrients that they need. If you’ve harvested plants in your garden, these crops would take up the necessary nutrients from the soil, and those nutrients should be replaced before you plants new crop there. This is the time when fertilizer (organic or processed) plays a vital role. Fertilizers replace lost nutrients from the soil, which ensures that nutrient are at an acceptable level for healthy growth of the plants. So here we are going to see how to make the fertilizer from waste for your garden at home!

Fertilizing your garden is one of the important things that you should do for it. Proper fertilizing leads to abundant harvests, large garden with good bloom and happier plants. Inorganic fertilizers are not good for your plants.  Don't know how to start your garden. Take a look of ideas for rooftop gardening.

How can I prepare fertilizer from waste?

Mostly all kitchen waste is thrown into the trash or disposal area. However, these trashing kitchen waste is composed of organic matter which can be used for composting to make fertilizer. It is an eco-friendly and effective way of disposing food waste from your kitchen. And you can convert these smelly items from the kitchen waste into a highly organic product rich in nutrients that you can use to grow plants with it.

1. Composting

Composting is simply decayed organic matter like food scraps, plant waste etc., It’s a great way to improve soil fertility and provide nutrients for plants, and it might be all you need to fertilize your garden.

Simply "Dig And Drop" the wastes and allow it to decay. When everything has broken down into a soil, it's time to fan out it in your garden.

2. Coffee Grounds

Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, potassium and magnesium – all important nutrients that are required by plants. These are which remains left when we strain our coffee. These coffee grounds are not something to be trashed because these have numerous benefits to support plant growth and improving soil fertility.

And these Coffee Grounds are also acidic in nature, so they can help you to boost the acidity of the soil.

3. Weed Tea

By making weed tea, first you have to kill the weeds by drowning them in water and recycle the nutrients that have excreted out of the weeds back into the soil.

Stuff a bucket full of weeds and submerge them completely in water. But try to remove chlorine from water, which helps microorganisms to multiply easily. The weeds take upto 6 weeks, to dead completely and it can be strained out of the solution. Use the liquid, which will be rich in nutrients and have beneficial microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, protozoa etc., as a fertilizer.

Note: Mix one liter with five liters of water.

4. Wood ash

Wood ash from your fireplace or wood fired oven is a good source of calcium which helps for root growth, magnesium which is important in photosynthesis and potassium which improves disease resistance and increases quality as well as other trace elements. While burning, the key elements such as nitrogen and sulphur are lost as gases, so it’s not a complete fertilizer. This is the best source to make fertilizer from waste.

5. Egg shells

Shells of eggs are helpful in controlling disease in plants. Egg Shells are rich source of Calcium. Lack of calcium in plants leads to the condition where there would be dark, rotted sores on vegetables. Place a layer of crushed eggshells in the planting hole for these vegetables like tomatoes, is simply means of combating the disease. As they decompose, the eggshells enrich the soil, providing a slow, steady source of calcium, preventing blossom end rot from occurring.

6. Use Fish Tank Water

Save the water from your fish tank while you clean the tank next time. Use it bountifully and often to water any plants. Because used water from fish tank is full of nitrogen and other nutrients and that helps plants to thrive. This fish tank water can be used to replace any other type of fertilizers that prepared from waste.

Sourcing Ingredients to prepare fertilizer at home:

At the end of the growing season, cut the excess leaves from herbs and other plants and hang them to dry at the place where they will get good air circulation. Store these leaves in paper bags or glass jars. Crush these dried plant materials and add to soil to provide support for seedlings.

Conclusion

The quantities of specific nutrients found in fertilizer that prepared from waste within each plant are not as exact as they are in a commercial fertilizer product. Every garden is unique, and some host of factors like number of plants, soil type etc.,  are influencing the quantities.