Homemade fertilizer

[gixrj18]

Epsom salts is good for magnesium, vitamin b complex (capsule form) is good for rooting, and molasses is very high in potassium and carbohydrates....and it has a decent amount of magnesium, iron, and calcium. I use all three of these regularly, in conjunction with my fertilizers. Winter time is the best time t0o use the molasses....if you get it from a health food store, it has up to 500mg of potassium per serving.

[BlakeeBoo]

Okay so this is what I am going to make my homemade orchid fertilizer out of.


Guano- Which I will dry and grind. It will be used for it's phosphoric acid and it's multiple forms of nitrogen, none of which are of an urea form.

Bones and Eggs- Which I will dry and grind. They will be used for there calcium and Potassium.

Epsom Salt- For it's trace minerals.

Potash- Which is in the water soluble part of wood ashes. It is used for it's trace minerals and potassium.

Molasses- For trace minerals and potassium.

Rice water- Which will be used to put the fertilizer into a liquid form.

I will play around with the combination and I will share all my results with you but won't give away all my secrets. I will keep the end recipe to myself because I intend to sell it. This fertilizer is completely organic and urea free to those who it may concern so I think it will be widely appealing.

Thank you all so much for the help!!!

[gixrj18]

How are you going to know your N-P-K, to write on the label? There is no way to tell what percentage of what nutrients your final mixture will have.....good luck with that!

[BlakeeBoo]

Well I won't exactly but I will document the results enough for people to feel comfortable to use it.

[Jan Pahl]

Originally Posted by BlakeeBoo

Okay so this is what I am going to make my homemade orchid fertilizer out of.


Guano- Which I will dry and grind. It will be used for it's phosphoric acid and it's multiple forms of nitrogen, none of which are of an urea form.

Bones and Eggs- Which I will dry and grind. They will be used for there calcium and Potassium.

Epsom Salt- For it's trace minerals.

Potash- Which is in the water soluble part of wood ashes. It is used for it's trace minerals and potassium.

Molasses- For trace minerals and potassium.

Rice water- Which will be used to put the fertilizer into a liquid form.

I will play around with the combination and I will share all my results with you but won't give away all my secrets. I will keep the end recipe to myself because I intend to sell it. This fertilizer is completely organic and urea free to those who it may concern so I think it will be widely appealing.

Thank you all so much for the help!!!

Is better when you don't have the same quality control capacity has a industrial fertilizers have, that you simply cut all futile homemade attempts to do partially riskily fertilizers and do what orchids does in nature...

All epiphytes grow in branch places were beneath the "moss-liken-fern-roots layer" is a small but present layer of dirt composed of all type of decayed leaves, the other way epiphytes grow is on healed wounds with plenty of decayed wood, that is the only kind of home made fertilizer that actually can ""compete"" with industrial ones.

One or two soup spoons of black soil in your plants every 2 or 3 months (or more spoons diluted in water) will ensure all the extra stuff they need without any chance of killing by error your plant. You can buy "black soil", gather it in nature (outside pine forests) or prepare it at home decaying wood and leaves... and if you want more safety for your plants, you can sterilize it boiling it at kitchen.

If you don't have the chance tu buy true orchid market fertilizers or you like "natural things" them the other solution is not fertilize at all!!!... Orchids don't die because of that

[BlakeeBoo]

I know you guys think i am crazy lol but i think it is worth a shot the formula that i am working on is lacking nothing that industrial formals have.

[camille1585]

I use home recipes a lot for my garden plants but for orchids I prefer to stick to the normal fertilizers. For one, I want to be able to control exactly what my plants get. And organic sources (like the bone, eggs and guano) of fertilizer are not immediately available to the plant. They must be broken down by micoorganisms first. I don't know if bark based mediums have as much micro organism activity as normal soil, so it's possible it takes much longer for them to be broken down and available to the plant. And seeing how airy the medium is, at every watering the fertilizer will be washed out before it has become of use to the plant. I may be wrong, since my courses on this sort of stuff were 4 years ago, but I'll still stick with my trusty orchid fert!
Good luck in your fertilizer business though.

[BlakeeBoo]

Thanks lol.

[RoyalOrchids]

Originally Posted by BlakeeBoo

Urea is a type of nitrogen but i don't know why some think it is bad for orchids. I think it is just a myth that has woven into orchid society through years of personal preferences getting mixed with actually orchid culture fact.

I may be wrong though so don't be to mean when correcting me.

Nobody here is mean. Nitrogen as urea requires a step or conversion to available nitrogen (into a from a plant can use). Since we grow our orchids in free draining media, any nitrogen needs to be available. If the fertilizer were to persist in soil, urea would eventually be converted by soil microbes - making it available. But since most of our orchid fertilzer just runs through the media and does not persist in "soil", there is minimal conversion from urea to usable N.

Oh, and some beers (stouts mostly) are bottled or canned with NO2, but most are carbonated. All "real" or natural beers are just bottle conditioned and are carbonated by continued yeast metabolism. I'm no orchid expert - but I know my beer!

[BlakeeBoo]

Lol I knew someone would originally correct and thank you. Also I worded it poorly when I was talking about the beer I should have stated it as you stated it.