Homemade fertilizer experiment

[Chic Rustler]

Oh, i forgot to mention. The cantaloupe, water melon and cucumbers are starting to take off and spread. The okra is starting to get some large leaves and making gains as well.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Well the aeration made a mich better product. Alot less stink, and all the solids were decomposed in the bottom of the bucket.

I fed the garden again today. We have noticed more heavy growth as well. The tomatoes are starting to produce, the melon and cucumber vines are spreading well and have flowered, and the okra is finally making decent gains.

 

[sumi]

I think so too.

I've made compost tea before with comfrey leaves and the plants loved it. Manure always went on the compost heaps, so I'm curious to hear how this turns out. Please let us know!

 

[sumi]

Some vegetables like a heavy feed. I remember our pumpkins thriving in the compost heap, for example.

If you ever overdo it with manure and made the soil/compost to acid, you can neutralise it VERY quickly with some wood ashes. Chicken and pig manure is very acid, so go easy on those two if you use it. Pig manure is garden gold though, once it's aged enough. We used to let it age for a year.

 

[Chic Rustler]

I kinda want a leave shredder. I think it would be a great layer of mulch with the wood chips.


Well i checked the buckets today and im pretty sure they were already ready. The water was pretty dark, like chocolate. So i used one bucket. Let me tell ya, its not for those with a weak stomach! It was raw sewage.


So after skimming it i ended up with about a gallon (3 gallon bucket) of liquid. I then diluted that with a couple gallons of water and gave each plant 1/2-3/4 cup of the diluted solution. After that i diluted the remaining gallon again and used that for the pole beans. About 1/2 a cup.
I then gave the garden a heavy watering just before dark.

I kinda wonder if i should have diluted it much more. I guess we will see in the next couple days.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have high hopes it'll be just fine!

 

[sumi]

Chicken manure is very acid and not all plants like acid soil or growing conditions.

Re nitrogen, mulch in the garden uses up some nitrogen, so if you can get the right balance, you can top up the nitrogen levels with the rabbit manure tea on the mulched beds and they will even things out for you. Getting the balance right is the tricky part though! I guess experiment and see how the plants perform. Some plants, like corn, pumpkin and squash are heavy users of nitrogen though, so you can be generous with them, with the manure tea.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My husband had gigantic pumpkins when he was growing up because they planted them right in the pile of horse manure. I think I'll put down my goat manure heavily on my pumpkins, I had forgotten that!

 

[Chic Rustler]

So far so good. Nothing is dead yet. The tomatoes i bought are quite a bit darker than the tomatoes that sprouted in the garden. Im hoping they will darken up but that hasnt happened yet either. The squash and corn are doing well.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I imagine it is a combination of your fertilizer and rain - but as long as it's working that's awesome!!