Home made organic fertilizer

[treeman]

That is a story in itself!!!
I kept the cakes in the blastic baskets and I found that they slowly disapeared from here and there. I thought I was losing my mind at first. Much later, I was weeding under a bench in the shade house and found more than 30 empty baskets neatly piled up. The lid still on and a clean hole chewed out of the side.
Burying them doesn't help..they find it and dig it up.
I've tried holding them down with 1 and later 2 U-shaped bits of wire. That kind of worked for some but the only answer was poison in the end. That works for several months until a new population moves in. I'm in the process at the moment.
Someone should design some kind of inverted hemespherical cup made of stainless steel with some long spikes. Maybe some cheap tea strainers from the local $2 shop?..

[KIRKY]

Thats what I was afraid of. I planted seeds and they dug them up kindly left the husks, no JBP this year and the pots were on tables. Blasted things get into everything. Even eating the seeds off the Silver Birches at the moment. Poisons work best. But like you said Mike, only good till the next lot move in. I figure the fertilizer cakes would last a couple of nights here.
Cheers

[hugh grant]

Hi treeman
Do you have any idea what the NPK ratio levels might roughly be in the fertiliser cakes your making ?

[treeman]

Hugh, I would average it out at around 5-2-1. (very roughly) I also use kelp and other liquids to boost the K etc. But I have fed things exclusively with these many times and have not noticed any deficiencies.
Note also that the P in bone is only slowly available so in the end the P which the plants actually see could be half the above due to repotting etc.

[Paul W]

I grow orchids for the show bench and use molasses all the time at 4mm per litre, the orchids love the sugar as a supplement to the other fertilizers .Does not kill plants in moderation like everything else in life.

[hugh grant]

Hugh, I would average it out at around 5-2-1. (very roughly) I also use kelp and other liquids to boost the K etc. But I have fed things exclusively with these many times and have not noticed any deficiencies.
Note also that the P in bone is only slowly available so in the end the P which the plants actually see could be half the above due to repotting etc.

Cheers mate
have you had experience with these being acceptable with P sensitive trees?

[melbrackstone]

Fascinating! Great recipe, thanks Treeman.

On another note, I have a Brown Turkey fig tree that has been getting stripped every year by fig leaf caterpillars. I found a recipe for molasses spray that seems to have solved the problem. On the same page was another recipe they suggested using for drenching the soil to kill curl beetles and worms.... It's quite amazing what molasses will do. Glad to file away all this extra information.

Regarding blood and bone, does that mean the bag I bought will probably be attracting rats too? Should that go into a sealed container?

[treeman]

Hugh, I would be careful using it on some natives in the proteacea. The P in B&B has been shown to damage some Banksias I believe but some of them are ultra sensitive. Normally there's no problem.

Paul, That's interesting. What types of orchids?

melbrackstone. Also interesting about the worms and caterpillars. I wonder if it will work on elm leaf beetle? I know it has been used to reduce nematode populations too.
Definitely keep the b and b in a sealed container!

[Jow]

Also worth noting is that most "blood and bone" is not just blood and bone but also has chemical fertilisers added and trace elements depending on the brand.

[treeman]

Yes. ''Grow Better'' blood and bone is the only pure stuff I can find.

[melbrackstone]

Cheers treeman. I put the blood and bone into a galvanised rubbish bin with tight fitting lid. Hopefully that'll keep it safe from rats and mice

[thoglette]

Poisons work best. But like you said Mike, only good till the next lot move in.

I don't like poisoning things but there seems to be no other way of dealing with rodents. The blue wax blocks seem most effective.

Any other suggestions welcome - I have plenty of fruit & veg and if I leave the rats alone they eat the lot.

[treeman]

So I did a little experiment with the cakes.
This is a Hibiscus with had not been fed the whole summer. In fact not since last summer.
Here it is before I gave it 15 cakes. Absolutely nothing else but water. This was on the 27th of Jan.

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Here it is today:

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[Lane]

Is that 15 cakes all at once or three or four every two weeks?

[treeman]

Is that 15 cakes all at once or three or four every two weeks?

all at once. I have just put on another 15 as well as the first ones are just about finished.
But I wanted to see definitively if all the necessary elements were present in sufficient amounts in the cakes only (without supplements like seaweed or liquid fert)
It seems there is! There are no signs of deficiencies at all and the colour of the leaves is very good.