Homemade Fertilizers

Part of being self reliant is to use all of everything. Every viable seed is stored, plastic containers kept and reused and old wood is transformed into new useful home or barn items. But what about food? We reap the rewards of a harvest, eat the foods and discard the skins and shells to the compost heap. Don't get me wrong, putting these types of items into the compost bin will benefit your gardens, next year. You don't have to wait until next year to benefit from things like egg shells, banana peels and orange peels and even coffee grounds, though. We don't have to spend a fortune on chemical fertilizers or even organic fertilizers, when we have a whole pantry full of fertilizer in our kitchens. Most of the fertilizers provide nitrogen, along with beneficial minerals that have been depleted from our soils.

Egg Shells 
When you cook and eat eggs, don't throw the shells away or into the compost bin. They are filled with necessary calcium and other minerals the soil needs to produce healthy foods. Lay the shells in the sun for a few hours until they crumble easily. Once they are dried, use a coffee grinder to grind them into a powder. Sprinkle the powder over the garden soil when preparing the soils for planting, when planting seeds or seedlings or whenever you feel your plants need a boost of nutrients. I have read that I need to cook my eggshells before adding them to my compost or garden soil, to prevent salmonella possibilities. I have never done this. I think possibly I have either gotten lucky or laying them in the sun to dry is enough to kill the yukkies. I don't know. I don't remember my mom or grandma cooking their eggshells before composting them either, so I am not sure. If anyone knows for sure if sunning them is enough, please let me know.

Orange Peels
Orange peels are packed with vitamins that our bodies need, so it only makes sense they will add nutrients to the soil once dried or decomposed. Orange peels add nitrogen to the soil, and repels ants and aphids as well. A double duty dose of good stuff for the garden. Dry them in the sun or on a low setting in the oven. Then use the coffee grinder to powder them and sprinkle the powder over the soil around the roots of plants. This will give your plants a nice boost making it easier for them to produce and hold an abundance of fruit. To use as an insect repellant, cut slits into the orange peel and hang it from infested plants or lay pieces of the orange peeling around the roots of affected plants. The oils in the peeling are undesirable to the insects, driving them away.

Banana Peels
Banana peels offer the same basic nutrients as orange peels, except they decompose a lot faster in the soil, so drying them to make into a powder is not necessary. Simply bury banana peels in your garden areas as you eat them, to give your soil extra nutrient it will need to provide the best way for your garden to grow. Banana peels also control some garden pests such as aphids. Cut the peels into small pieces, maybe 2 inches long, and bury them around the roots of affected plants. 

Coffee
I enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the mornings. What a nice way to start the day. Coffee is acidic, and many plants need acidic soil to fully mature and produce the kind of harvest people dream of having. Before adding coffee to your plants' soil, make sure the plant is an acid loving plant. ( a list of acid loving vegetable from the University of Colorado) Once you have determined which plants are acidic soil plants, you can add cold coffee in your watering can to foliage feed the plants or with a deep root watering. Coffee is acidic, but coffee grounds oddly enough are not as acidic, and they are full of potassium and phosphorous, as well as, smaller amounts of calcium, nitrogen, copper and magnesium for plants. I add coffee grounds to most of my powder fertilizers. But coffee itself is something I only use to feed my tomatoes, peppers, roses, eggplant and citrus trees.

Seaweed and Fish Emulsion
If you live in a coastal community it should be easy to walk along the sea shore and gather seaweed. You can use seaweed two different ways. It can be placed into a bucket of water and allowed to decompose naturally in the water, leaving a nutrient rich liquid. Add the seaweed water to your regular watering can cutting it at least 50/50 with water. I use 1 cup of seaweed water per gallon of clear water and feed plants, when I have seaweed, but I don't live on the coast, so getting seaweed isn't always my top priority.  I have read about people using lake seaweed as fertilizer for gardens, but I have never tested this to know how well it works. I would think the lake seaweed has similar nutrients since it grows in a similar way to ocean seaweed, but I don't know this to be true. Fish emulsion can be pricy to buy. I have an aquarium, so I make my own version of this fertilizer. I just use the water I remove from the aquarium each week, and mix it 50/50 with water to feed my plants. I don't know if this is technically using fish "emulsion" but it does have fish poo and leftover food bits and such in it, so it has to have most of what a commercial fish emulsion has, especially when combined with seaweed. No matter if it is technically fish emulsion or not, my plants go crazy for it. So whether you buy commercial organic fish emulsion or just use water from a fish aquarium, fish and plants go hand-in-hand.

My homemade fertilizers consist of nothing more than this: I take the ground egg shells, orange and banana peels, and I grind them into a powder (or at least a fine granulation), I add a handful of coffee grounds and I put a little into the soil when I plant, and then about once a month after that I will sprinkle the powder around the plants (when I have enough materials with which to do so). I use water from my fish aquarium once a week to feed them, and I mix in the seaweed water too when I have it.  I add coffee to my peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, oh and to my citrus trees and coffee trees that grow inside, and I water them with fresh clean water when they are dry. My water, currently, is chlorinated, so I let it set out in a bucket for 24hours before I use it on my plants to allow the chlorine to dissipate. Don't think I do this religiously, as I am probably one of the most scatterbrained people you will ever meet. This is my schedule, but I often forget or I just don't have the materials on hand to use. The fish water is weekly though, as I have to clean my aquarium to have happy, healthy fish, and I refuse to throw the water away. Remember: This is all a learning curve. My results have been wonderful so far, but I am sure others have had great results with other means. I figure, that as long as I keep letting God grow my garden, then I can't lose.
I am sure there are many other organic things I can use, and as I learn of them and try them, I will share. Have fun playing in the dirt!!