Homemade fertilizer experiment

[Chic Rustler]

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Just so happens i need some fertilizer for the garden. I have been doing alot of reading and found people making home made fish emulsion, compost tea, etc. So i was looking at the garden and looking at the rabbit hutch and i thought why not make some manure emulsion?

So i scooped enough rabbit manure to fill half a bucket, wet it down and squished it up with a hoe. Then i filled the bucket with water and stirred it up. I pit the lid on it and i plan on letting it sit for a couple days before using it.

Im not sure how its going to work out or even how much i want to use. Im thinking ill start out diluting it and seeing how the plants react.

Anyone with experience with this type of thing feel free to chime in. Id love to hear what u guys have to say on the subject

 

[Chic Rustler]

This was taken 5/28/17 i used my homemade fertilizer on 5/30/17 then i spread rabbit manure around the plants on 6/1/17

This was taken on 6/3/17 (this morning) the growth looks good. We have also had alot of rain the past few days so that could be a big part of it as well

 

[Chic Rustler]

Will do. This time im going to take the less is more approach. When i broke ground on the garden i tilled in ALOT of manure. The areas where no seeds sprouted were where the manure was the heaviest. Too much of a good thing i guess

 

[lcertuche]

I remember one year I got a lot of old cow manure and put it in an old pillow case. I sat it in a big tub of water and let it set until it was dark brown. I just dipped it out and poured it around my plants. My plants produced better with little disease or insect damage. I also mulched deeply with shredded leaves and cardboard. The chickens ran in the garden all winter. I guess I can't say for sure what really helped but I suspect it was all of above. I think anything could be used for this. I've heard good things about comfrey tea but rabbit poo should be fine and I wouldn't think you would need to worry about it being too hot.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I found this on rabbit manure tea...

http://www.healthy-vegetable-gardening.com/rabbit-manure-tea.html

Looks like you're doing it all the right way.

I might have to get me a rabbit!

 

[Chic Rustler]

Ok im not imaging it. Things have perked up quite a bit. Im noticing alot of bigger leaves and growth. .....but we have had a couole days of good rain.

 

[tortoise]

https://www.helpfulgardener.com//forum/viewtopic.php?t=43465

Link above addresses pale tomatoes and manure tea

 

[Chic Rustler]

Well things are going so well i figured i would press my luck. Actually i just wanted to get tid of the other bucket of poo water before it got much worse.

I rendered 2 1/2 gallons from this bucket and diluted it to 10 gallons and then spread it on the plants. I joticed today that the plants with less manure pellets around them didnt make as much growth as the others. I may have scewed the experiment results a little when i had them spread the manure on the garden.

After more reading i have found that soaking the manure in water in a sealed bucket creates an environment thats void of oxygen and this causes an anerobic environment that only breeds anerobic bacteria. Seems thats where the horrible smell comes from. From what i read we want aerobic bacteria for best results. So on the next batch i will use a fish aerator while the tea is brewing and see how that works.

 

[Chic Rustler]

The squash are loving it

 

[Chic Rustler]

Tomatoes are growing slowly and look a little pale. They may need more nitrogen? ??