Homemade Organic Garden Fertilizers You Can Make at Home

Vegetable plants pull nutrients out of the soil as they develop and produce food, so gardeners needing vegetables typically require balanced organic fertilizer as part of their soil management system. Compost can help, but balanced organic fertilizer products should also be part of their plan.

Many natural ingredients found around your house can help you make homemade organic fertilizers at home, including these six homegrown garden fertilizers!

Banana Peels

Banana peels provide plants with essential potassium, phosphorus and calcium nutrients they require. Plus they decompose slowly in the soil for slow release fertilization – just add banana peels to your compost pile or garden for long-term benefits! Alternatively, run banana peels through a blender with water to make a slurry to side dress plants with or soak plant roots with.

Liquid fertilizer such as banana water is ideal for outdoor plants that produce fruiting or flowering flowers, like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Use it alone or combine it with compost and manure for maximum nitrogen uptake by plants. Be careful when applying indoor plants as banana water may attract pests like flies and gnats – if it seems too acidic add more water before spraying on them to dilute.

Dehydrate peels by placing them on a baking sheet or dehydrator for approximately 48 hours. Once they’re dry, toss them in your compost pile or use them in your garden to help replenish nitrogen needs in your soil.

Organic waste material that can be used as natural garden fertilizers includes:

Eggshells are an excellent source of calcium and can strengthen cell wall strength in plants, making them a fantastic natural fertilizer solution. Add them to the compost pile or crush and spread across garden beds or containers as a quick natural fertilizer boost! Fish emulsion is an excellent source of phosphorus for vegetables; however, due to its strong smell it should only be used sparingly. Kelp extract also offers micronutrients which help enrich soil. Both options can be purchased from most garden or feed stores. Dehydrating comfrey leaves will produce a powder that can be sprinkled onto soil or mixed with water for spraying plants, helping correct nitrogen deficiencies. You could also bury chopped leaves directly into the ground as slow-release fertilizer or use as mulch around trees and shrubs.

Eggshells

Eggshells provide gardeners with an invaluable source of calcium. Many vegetable gardeners struggle with deficient levels of this essential nutrient; by mixing crushed eggshells into compost, soil, or fertilizers helps replenish this lost source.

Without access to a compost pile, eggshells can still provide many uses. Ground up and used as mulch or added into homemade plant food or seed starting mix; their calcium-rich content aids seedling development while neutralizing acidic soil conditions and decreasing water loss.

Crushed eggshells offer more than just an effective recycling solution: they also serve as an effective deterrent against garden pests. When applied around plants’ bases, their sharp edges act as a physical barrier that slugs and other cutworms cannot cross. When added to plant containers as part of their soil mix mix, crushed eggshells help protect tomatoes against blossom-end rot.

Your broken eggshells can make an excellent and efficient fertilizer for new plants! Just mix finely crushed shells with some water until a paste forms; then apply with the tip of a spoon directly to planting holes for new seeds or plants – the calcium present will give the plants an immediate boost while their small holes provide anchor points when planted into the earth.

Crushed eggshells make an excellent seed starter if properly washed (pasteurization may even help) before filling them with organic soil or seed starting mix, then pressing down with cheesecloth over the top to seal the hole. When ready to transplant your seedlings into their planting holes in your garden, simply lift out of their eggshell home and plant directly into their appropriate planting holes using cheesecloth to protect their roots from soil ingress and prevent potential damages to them. The eggshell will break down and release nutrients to their young while protecting roots from soil intrusion while protecting roots from direct contact with its roots from getting damaged due to too much soil or even too much soil getting in contact with their roots when placed under cheesecloth covers overtop it all – perfect!

Coffee Grounds

If you own a coffee grinder, save the grounds to create an easy organic fertilizer for leafy greens and flowering plants. Coffee grounds contain nitrogen which provides vital nourishment. Add them directly to compost pile or soil before watering regularly – mulching houseplants with coffee grounds helps prevent dry soil conditions while protecting against slugs or other pests.

Make a liquid coffee grounds plant food by mixing some coffee grounds into water in a bucket and allowing them to steep for two or three days before using this mixture to water plants or apply as foliar sprays.

Seaweed tea is another easy homemade fertilizer option. Containing essential plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) as well as being an effective deterrent against many common garden pests, seaweed is an ideal source for creating this easy garden fertilizer by simply walking along the shore of any lake, pond or ocean nearby and picking up uncontaminated seaweed from washed-up shorelines or ocean surfaces.

Make Your Own Organic Fertilizers If you are short of time or money for making homemade organic plant fertilizers, there are other materials you can use as natural solutions for providing essential nutrition to your garden. Eggshells, banana peels and coffee grounds all contain potassium which should be buried or added to a compost pile for burial or added sparingly as compost pile additions. Wood ash from untreated fireplaces (when used sparingly) also has similar effects as commercial fertilizers while helping increase acidity levels in alkaline soil.

Before purchasing costly organic fertilizers, take a good, hard look around your garden for naturally occurring substances you could use to give your plants what they require – you might just be amazed what can be found there!

Peanut Shells

DIY natural fertilizers in your garden can be one of the best ways to maintain healthy plants, save money, and decrease waste. Fertilizer is essential for plant health because it supplies vital nutrients to vegetables, herbs, and flowers that aid their development into full bloom. Producing homemade natural fertilizers can be both rewarding and fun – you’ll see first-hand the fruits of your labor as your plants flourish under its care.

Organic materials provide you with many opportunities for making natural fertilizer at home, from banana peels and coffee grounds to leaves and peanut shells. By composting these materials into rich soil amendments for your plants’ benefit. Or you could make liquid fertilizer quickly by steeping organic material in water for quick results!

If you have an abundance of egg shells, they can be turned into liquid fertilizer by mixing them in with some water and leaving it to soak for several days before straining off any solids and using the liquid as plant food. Eggshell fertilizer provides essential calcium for vegetable gardens as well as flower gardens alike.

Peanut shells can be used as natural fertilizer when ground up and added to your compost pile or garden, providing essential sources of nitrogen for leaf growth, phosphorus for fruiting and flowering, moisture regulation and temperature regulation, as well as acting as natural mulch to conserve moisture levels in soil.

Another natural fertilizer option is adding wood ash to your soil, but only light grey ash instead of black chunks of coal. Wood ash contains high levels of potassium which promotes root development while raising pH levels in your soil. When using wood ash it’s important not to cover it with mulch or bark as this would absorb its nutritive value and prevent it from reaching your plants directly.