Home made organic fertilizer

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treeman
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Home made organic fertilizer

Post by treeman »

I have been asked many times how to make this and seeing as though I needed some I took some pics.
It is very simple and quick and results in high quality and cheap plant food.

I'm using roughly 3 to 1 Soya bean meal and blood and bone. You need to use the best quality materials you can.
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Mix the two ingredients dry. Here I've used about 10kg of soya and about 5 of b&b.
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I added about 300g of molasses. It's not a vital ingredient but it supplies the carbon needed for fast fermentation. It also has substantial quantities of minerals such as magnesium and many others. You need to disolve it well in warm water before adding.
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Then you add enough water and mix to achieve a reasonably sloppy ( but kind of firm) consistency.

This is too dry. It will dry too quickly and not hold together well
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This is about right
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Use a fine meshed tray or similar
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Place in tray to a thickness of about 20mm (more or less)
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As my farmer neighbour says ''make it all nice'' and cut into 25mm squares.
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Place the trays on some kind of drying rack where rats can't get to it. (By the way, this is a very nutritious food and rodents love it so you need to stop them getting to it. They do not view commercial products the same way)
Fermentation will be fast this time of year. The smell is not so bad during this process. If too wet, they will start to putrify (rot) which really stinks and will attract insects. However, it makes no difference to the plants.
Use when dry and hard (3 to 5 weeks).

20 trays....
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So, the cost. I used about $20 of the soya bean; around $8 of the Blood and bone and molasses was about $5.
Round it out to $35 for the lot.
This will last me about 2 years (at least. probably 2 and a half) for over 100 trees of various sizes. Each cube will last between 4 and 6 weeks. How does that compare with say dynamic lifter which releases all it's notrogen in 2 weeks?
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by KIRKY »

Are the rats still interested once they are cured/dry?
Cheers
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by Webos »

I made some a while back out of canola meal.. Didn't use molasses, might add some next time. I did notice a few disappear and found that birds and dogs also love them.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by wrcmad »

Thanks for this post Treeman! much appreciated.
I have been pondering making some of these... and you have made my job much easier! :tu:
Just a couple of questions:

Where do you source your soya bean meal?

Also, I am surprised at the molasses! :shock:
I have worked in the sugar industry, and molasses made the cheapest weed, tree, or anything-plant killer around? It worked just as effectively as roundup. :lost:
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by treeman »

KIRKY wrote:Are the rats still interested once they are cured/dry?
Cheers
Yes!
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by treeman »

wrcmad wrote:
Where do you source your soya bean meal?
Stockfeed joints
Also, I am surprised at the molasses! :shock:
I have worked in the sugar industry, and molasses made the cheapest weed, tree, or anything-plant killer around? It worked just as effectively as roundup. :lost:
I don't know where you got that info but it's wrong...unless perhaps if you pour it over the plant from the jar..

http://www.agriculturesolutions.ca/molasses
http://www.dayliliesinaustralia.com.au/ ... s-flowers/
Last edited by treeman on January 2nd, 2016, 6:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by wrcmad »

treeman wrote:
wrcmad wrote:
Where do you source your soya bean meal?
Stockfeed joints
Also, I am surprised at the molasses! :shock:
I have worked in the sugar industry, and molasses made the cheapest weed, tree, or anything-plant killer around? It worked just as effectively as roundup. :lost:
I don't know where you got that info but it's wrong...unless perhaps if you pour it over the plant from the jar..

http://www.agriculturesolutions.ca/molasses
http://www.dayliliesinaustralia.com.au/ ... s-flowers/
Thanks for the info - appreciated.
Yeah. I have seen it with my own eyes - molasses spills kill fully grown trees. And guys used to take it home to use as weed killer.
They also used it in the fitters workshop to strip cast machinery parts down to bare metal.
It must be OK diluted in small doses. :)
Last edited by wrcmad on January 2nd, 2016, 6:16 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by treeman »

wrcmad wrote: Yeah. I have seen it with my own eyes - molasses spills kill fully grown trees. And guys used to take it home to use as weed killer.
It must be OK diluted in small doses. :)
That's right. A spill of superphosphate or ammonium sulphate or even fresh chicken manure would do the same thing.
Last edited by treeman on January 2nd, 2016, 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by wrcmad »

Thanks!
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by shibui »

Yeah. I have seen it with my own eyes - molasses spills kill fully grown trees. And guys used to take it home to use as weed killer.
We used sugar to kill weeds in a uni project. The carbon in the sugar ties up available nitrogen for a short period and kills a lot of the plants in the area. We were trialling it as a way to reduce annual weeds so that perennial native pasture would get established. Definitely suppressed annuals like pattersons curse and grasses. Eventually the nitrogen becomes available again and things return to normal.
Maybe that's what molasses does? Even so it should not actually kill established perennials like trees? Maybe something else happening here?

Treeman has supplied plenty of N in the soy meal and B&B to counteract the nitrogen potential nitrogen draw down caused by the sugar in molasses.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by evan »

Definitely agree with what Shibui is saying about sugar acting as a "nitrogen substitution" in the soil. I think that maybe the microbial activity that occurs during the curing process possibly breaks down the carbon chains in the sugar (similar to fermentation). Hence negating the possible "nitrogen substitution" that occurs. Just my theory....
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by boom64 »

Thanks for a great post Treeman. All can say is look out neighbours. :whistle: Cheers John.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by treeman »

evan wrote:Definitely agree with what Shibui is saying about sugar acting as a "nitrogen substitution" in the soil. I think that maybe the microbial activity that occurs during the curing process possibly breaks down the carbon chains in the sugar (similar to fermentation). Hence negating the possible "nitrogen substitution" that occurs. Just my theory....
Your theory is correct evan. The sugar is converted into organic acids and C02 etc within a matter of days. If conditions are right you will get fermentaion even without the molasses. You can tell this by the strong vinegary smell coming off the cakes. Same process as making :beer: But I would not recommend eating them! Sometimes this does not occur and they partially rot until the moisture content is too low (a different process caused by different bacteria)
You often get a white mold growing all over them as well which is obviously a fungus. But again it does not matter as it all stops after they dry. They can then be stored in an air tight container for years and used when needed.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by wrcmad »

shibui wrote:We used sugar to kill weeds in a uni project. The carbon in the sugar ties up available nitrogen for a short period and kills a lot of the plants in the area. We were trialling it as a way to reduce annual weeds so that perennial native pasture would get established. Definitely suppressed annuals like pattersons curse and grasses. Eventually the nitrogen becomes available again and things return to normal.
Maybe that's what molasses does? Even so it should not actually kill established perennials like trees? Maybe something else happening here?
Was driving past this morning and thought I'd take a pic to ensure I was not imagining it.
This is the sight of a molasses spill about 4 weeks ago.
The spill occurred in the area circled in the foreground, and residual molasses can still be seen on the ground.
The effect on a once healthy tree can be seen in the background.
The smaller tree (same species) was unharmed - my guess is the root spread of the smaller tree didn't reach the spill area.
molasses.jpg
molasses2.jpg
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Last edited by wrcmad on January 5th, 2016, 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Home made organic fertilizer

Post by Scott Roxburgh »

Treeman, how do you stop rodents eating them once they are on your trees? I was thinking of trying citronella, but wasn't sure if that would harm the tree?

I've tried chilli powder, Tabasco, but the only thing that helped was the citron scent spray I sprayed on the teabags.
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