Organic vegetable garden fertilizer is a great alternative for you to boost your vegetable garden. It’s a long-lasting method that could accelerate your plants and soil quality.
When most people think of fertilizing their organic vegetable garden they start looking for crappy chemical fertilizers. But the thing is, organic vegetables are only grown without chemicals so why would you use those in your organic vegetable garden?
It doesn’t make sense. In this article, you will learn how to fertilize your organic vegetable garden organically.
Organic fertilizers are better for the environment and they are better for you too since a lot of it ends up on your food.
Before we learn about organic fertilizer, let’s take a look at fertilizer.
Fertilizers are a really important part of gardening. Fertilizing plants with products like tree seeds is important because it helps them to grow stronger and produce better quality fruits and flowers—it also helps the soil to improve its quality.
Soil is crucial in the growth of crops and plants. Farmers have to spend a lot of resources on buying fertilizers which can be quite expensive.
By using organic fertilizers, farmers can boost the growth of their crops at a low cost and without any toxic by-products of chemical fertilizers.
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What is organic fertilizer?
Organic fertilizers are made up of decomposing organic matter, such as manure, animal carcasses, and leaves. They break down and release nutrients into the soil slowly over time, which helps plants grow healthier roots while also preventing them from rotting.
Moreover, organic fertilizers contain vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate. They also contain valuable elements that are crucial for fertilizer production, such as magnesium, sulfur, and iron.
If you want to improve the quality of your soil, use organic fertilizers. These organic fertilizers contain a range of nutrients that are needed by plants and they’re the most natural way to add extra nutrients to your soil.
Organic fertilizers can be found in the form of solid or liquid, which are used to improve the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil.
Why you should use organic vegetable garden fertilizer?
1. Organic fertilizers can increase soil humus levels
Organic fertilizers help vegetables thrive because they are designed to be absorbed into the plant’s roots and their soil.
They also have a tendency to be less processed, which means most of the beneficial matter can remain in the soil.
Organic fertilizers do need a long time to take effect, but they are also able to produce durable compounds that can make plants grow healthier over time.
2. Organic fertilizers help maintain soil moisture
A balanced blend of ingredients is important in maintaining soil moisture and preventing nutrient exhaustion. If the soil gets too dry, it loses its structure and decomposition slow.
If the soil loses enough water, it becomes very compacted and difficult to work. This causes problems with available water or the availability of nutrients.
Organic fertilizers help the soil retain moisture and hold plants in place, making it easier for them to grow.
3. Organic fertilizers help prevent topsoil erosion
It’s important to protect the environment while growing your own vegetable garden. When topsoil is eroded, crops can quickly die. Organic fertilizer helps prevent erosion of the soil by ensuring rich and healthy planting materials.
4. Organic fertilizers keep nitrogen and phosphorus dissolved in the soil
Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential elements of the fertilizer that keep it dissolved in soil.
In addition, nitrogen is an important factor in crop growth, and phosphorus compounds are essential to plant health.
Each of the two minerals is needed by a variety of different living things, and they play important roles in plants, trees, and livestock.
5. Organic fertilizers make your vegetables healthier
Organic fertilizers are a great way to take care of your food investment. By applying organic fertilizers to your vegetables, you make sure your vegetables will be healthy and at the right stage for harvesting.
Also, organic fertilizers do a great job at cleaning the dirt from your soil, which makes it easier to prepare your vegetables.
The most important thing is organic fertilizers make your vegetables healthier. It is also are a great way to take care of your food investment.
By applying organic fertilizers to your vegetables, you make sure your vegetables will be healthy and at the right stage for harvesting.
Best organic vegetable garden fertilizer
There are a lot of organic things which can be used as fertilizer.
Based on experience, sources of organic fertilizers are organic compost (various types of plants and human waste), manure (livestock, poultry, and wild fish), crop residues (straw, corn cobs, coconut husks, bagasse, grain sheaves, roots, sprouts, and cuttings), and livestock waste.
In general, these are materials you can use as organic vegetable garden fertilizer
1. Weeds
Weeds are considered unwanted plants. Some people consider them a nuisance and want them eradicated as soon as possible. However, these same weeds can be used for their nutrients.
For gardeners, weeds are important because they act as a natural fertilizer, especially if they’re composted or turned into mulch.
Weed seeds are filled with nitrogen. This makes them a very effective fertilizer.
To get the most nutrients from your weed fertilizers, it’s important that you only use weeds that are free of any pesticides and herbicides.
To ensure that weeds are not a problem in your garden, you need to make pot liquor. To do so, fill a five-gallon bucket no more than 25% full with weed plants.
Then fill the bucket the rest of the way with water, and let them soak for a couple of weeks. Once the water turns brown, pour it into your garden.
2. Grass clipping
Grass clipping is an important type of fertilizer because it’s a natural way of feeding the grass, balancing its nutritional needs.
Do not waste your grass clipping. If you have a natural lawn, which contains natural grass, take care of it. It’s good for the environment. You should collect your grass clippings to use in your vegetable garden.
That’s where they belong. Both in the lawn and the garden, clippings are an essential part of fertilizing soil and enriching it with a necessary nutrient: nitrogen.
3. Manures
Manure is a by-product of animal waste that can be used to improve soil fertility. Manures improve the aeration of the soil, enrich it with nutrients and ground materials that boost the overall health of the soil and its plants.
Composted manure is the best fertilizer because it has a lower nutrient density and is less acidic. It’s also much quicker to use than fresh manure, so you don’t have to wait long for it to break down, and it doesn’t smell.
4. Organic leftovers
When food goes bad, it goes to waste. However, leftovers are a great source of organic fertilizer! This is great for watering plants in your yard.
The leftover bits from cooking can easily break down into natural ingredients and become things like compost and manure.
If you have leftover food left in your refrigerator at the end of the week, mix them with dirt to use as compost fertilizer. This practice of mixing organic dairy leftovers with dirt is known as vermicomposting.
5. Eggshells
Eggshells are a great source of calcium both in soil and houseplant soil. In its natural form, the eggshell powder will also add calcium to your plants.
This is good as an organic fertilizer in both its dry and wet state. All you have to do is crush them up and put them in the soil.
6. Leaves
Leaves are good as garden fertilizer. They decompose over time and provide a rich source of nitrogen for your plants.
To add the best organic fertilizer to your plants, use them as mulch in your garden. The leaves will make the roots of your plants stronger and will make them grow faster and better.
7. Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, potassium, and micronutrients that plants need to grow healthy roots.
Instead of throwing away your coffee grounds, use them as an organic fertilizer for your vegetable garden.
8. Tea dregs
Tea contains high amounts of nitrogen, ammonia salts, and vitamins, so putting used tea leaves on a vegetable garden can provide the nutrients necessary for plants to stay green and healthy.
Adding tea dregs to your vegetable garden is an excellent way to boost its health and growth.
Dregs from absolutely any kind of tea can be used as natural organic fertilizer. By putting a tea bag in compost, the nutrients that are released act as natural stimulators of microbial activity and improve the nutritive value of compost.
How to make organic vegetable garden fertilizer with leftovers
Are you interested to make your own organic vegetable garden fertilizer? Okay, follow these simple steps:
- Prepare leftover and other organic waste to be processed
- Prepare a large container that is equipped with a cover, to be used to process compost
- Put enough soil into the container and adjust the dose to the amount of organic waste in the container
- Flush the soil surface with water
- Put the rest of the organic waste back into the container evenly. Make sure the amount of waste is in accordance with the size of the soil
- Put the remaining soil back into the container, where its function is to cover the garbage
- Close the container tightly and let it rest for about three weeks
- Avoid the container from sunlight or rain water so that the quality is maintained well
- Wait one to two weeks until the color of the soil looks darker and blends with the leftovers
- Your organic vegetable garden fertilizer is ready to use
Conclusion
If you want to fertilize the soil naturally, organic vegetable garden fertilizer is a smart choice. You can choose the fertilizer according to the availability of the organic material in your area.
These are the best recommendations if you want to make organic fertilizer:
- Weeds
- Grass clipping
- Manures
- Organic leftovers
- Eggshells
- Leaves
- Coffee Grounds
- Tea dregs
If you want to do a serious summer vegetable garden, I recommend you to use one of the lists above to get high-quality soil. Also, you can combine it with a mulch vegetable garden to get the best result.
