Home made organic fertilizer

[FreddieV]

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?

Hi Mike. I just bought some rape seed meal and plan to use this recipe for the azaleas. It'll be ideal for maples and beech to. You think I can use it as a general fertilizer on other "non acid" prefering species to?

[FreddieV]

In fact I might as well share my whole formula, and I would appreciate your input on it plz...
The ingredients I plan to use is..
Rape seed meal (it has a low N content)
Fish meal (nitrogen)
Seaweed meal (micro nutrients)
Molasses

What ratios do you think?

[treeman]

In fact I might as well share my whole formula, and I would appreciate your input on it plz...
The ingredients I plan to use is..
Rape seed meal (it has a low N content)
Fish meal (nitrogen)
Seaweed meal (micro nutrients)
Molasses

What ratios do you think?

Looks ok to me.
I would use the ratio of 10 4 4 or something like that. Where did you get fish meal?

[treeman]

. You think I can use it as a general fertilizer on other "non acid" prefering species to?

yes anything.

[FreddieV]

[/quote]

Looks ok to me.
I would use the ratio of 10 4 4 or something like that. Where did you get fish meal?
[/quote]
Thanks. You have some kind of formula for adding molasses?
I'm getting fish meal from a local company here in NZ
Don't yet know how to link it...
Fertilefields they are called.

[FreddieV]

Apologies I don't yet know how to properly use the forum. I'll work on it...

[Rare plant Pat]

Hi Mike,

would it make any difference to ferment your recipe before forming it into squares, or does it ferment in the drying trays? If yes to fermenting it before hand, how long do you guess?

[FreddieV]

I just made mine. It don't think it fermented at all...maybe because of the cold and high humidity. It smelt like freshly made cake/bread dough for a few days. It started molding over after a week. It's half way dry now. I'll still use it.
I've been wondering what the purpose is of the ferment process...is it so the microbial life can start breaking down the particles to aid in absorbtion ?

[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.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

I'm keen on trying this after I finish off what's left of my dynamic lift (DL). It would be great to have the garden not stink every month (not to mention having to spoon the DL into teabags).

Does the fermentation process make the nutrients more readily available to the bonsai? I ask because I'll have a heap of teabags left over. Could I just spoon the raw ingredients into the bags and then apply like I've been doing with the DL?

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Should have read the whole thread before I posted last. Now I know the fermentation process is necessary.

I bought a bag of soy meal and a tub of molasses today, going to pick up the "grow better" blood and bone tomorrow. Planning to make this over the summer.

[treeman]

Regarding fermentation, it doesn't really matter that much. The more fermentation takes place the more quickly the fertilizer will take effect. The difference is only a matter of a week or two. Either way, all the nutrients will become available eventually. So the raw ingredients placed on the soil might take 2 weeks to start actually feeding the tree and the well fermented stuff might take 1 week or less. Depending on how warm the weather is. The organic feeding does not have much affect in winter in Victoria. If you want to feed then you're probably better off with a very dilute hydroponic type fertilizer with mainly nitrate-N. Manutec is pretty good.. https://stratagreen.com.au/soil-improve ... ient-500g/ Note - this has too much P for some plants but not for most.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

The cakes need to be in intimate contact with the soil.

Why is this? Won't they work if placed in teabags? I do notice the bonsai gardens that use this type of cake (Bonsai Mirai uses it, as do a few Japanese gardens I've seen on YouTube) place them directly on the surface - not in any bag or basket. I'm just curious why it doesn't work as opposed to Dynamic Lift which is commonly placed in teabags.

Also, it seems like 1 month is be the "optimal" amount of time for fermentation? I just had a thought that one could control this by maturing in a covered greenhouse - opening the flaps when it gets too humid. This would also protect it from any rain.

The Japanese article linked earlier states:

Keep it for a week at least. Usually we keep it for a month until the fermentation should be completed.

Never get wet with rain. When it will be rain, you have to move. After a few days, the fermentation must be started by bacteria in the cake. So the temperature of the cake must be going up by fermentation to be over 40 C. 　By the high　temperature, bacteria will be dead, the fermentation will be decreased and the temperature going down. After that, the fermentation begin once again. The fermentation will be finished after 4 or 5 times of cycles. It will takes about one month usually. We have to keep it for a few weeks at least. This period is very important. If you finish at the fermentation incomplete , the cake will not be fermented enough but will be rot.

[treeman]

SuperBonSaiyan post_id=302169 time=1698884384 user_id=14220]

Why is this? Won't they work if placed in teabags? I do notice the bonsai gardens that use this type of cake (Bonsai Mirai uses it, as do a few Japanese gardens I've seen on YouTube) place them directly on the surface - not in any bag or basket. I'm just curious why it doesn't work as opposed to Dynamic Lift which is commonly placed in teabags.

Bags are fine. The baskets dry our quickly so I use some coco fiber or sand or something to enclose the cake to keep it moist for longer. If they dry out they stop working and are useless.

If you finish at the fermentation incomplete , the cake will not be fermented enough but will be rot.

Yes that is for orchids which are more sensitive and grown indoors. Outside on trees it doesn't matter if they rot. In fact they all do eventually.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Made a small batch today. No more DL smell in my garden

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