Questions about making your own feed

[iam]

I`m not sure where this should go as I am after information
When I was a boy and my father made his own liquid feed from a small sack of sheep`s droppings suspended in a (wooden) barrel of water he always added rusty nails or an old horse shoe to the sack.
So questions.
1/ was the metal to add minerals to the feed.
2/ why is this never suggested now.

[binley100]

Haven't a clue but my grandad used to suspend a sack of soot from the chimney sweep in his.........

[veggiechicken]

My grandad used to make soot water and manure water, after he'd followed the 'orse 'n' cart around the streets with his shovel and bucket
I presume the rusty nails added iron to the mix.

[iam]

Haven't a clue but my grandad used to suspend a sack of soot from the chimney sweep in his.........

My Dad did that too but I wasn't going to mention it, less flack

[rustylady]

I think the reason home-made fertilisers aren't widely publicised these days is because the big companies like to sell us their expensive packaged fertilisers.

[iam]

I think the reason home-made fertilisers aren't widely publicised these days is because the big companies like to sell us their expensive packaged fertilisers.

You may well be right with that. I wonder how many people think that you need top grade compost for seed growing etc. when home made compost or even soil will do the job just as good.

[gardenpassion]

I use sheep manure tea!! An old pair of tights stuffed with sheep poo - tied to a large bucket and filled with water. leave it for a week and use at will!! Not sure about nails and the benefits but this is cheaper than shop bought. :0

[BertieFox]

Why use mucky sheep muck or any other animal product when you can simply make comfrey or nettle liquid. The locals here swear by 'purin d'orties' which is simply nettles put in a water butt or large container and soaked in water for a few weeks. The result is a wonderfully pongy brown liquid which you can dilute as a liquid feed for almost anything. Comfrey does much the same but not everyone has a supply of it and nettles are easier to collect in quantity.
I'm sure there is an analysis of the liquid somewhere on the net, but it is obviously high in nitrogen but has a reasonable amount of potash too.

[roitelet]

Nettles for nitrogen and Comfrey for potash. They even sell it ready made here! Much cheaper to make your own!!!

Dilute 10 - 1 with ran water.

[mesteve]

Wow dose it pong !

[dim]

things have changed from the old days .... Science has advanced .... this is what I do (and it works wonders on my plants)

I brew actively aerated compost tea ....

for a basic compost tea, you need 5 cups of worm compost (vermicompost), 5 cups of good topsoil from your garden or a wooded area, 3 heaped tablespoons of organic unsulphered blackstrap molasses....

all in a bucket with a decent sized aquarium airpump, (this is critical and a good sized koi pond airpump is what is needed) .... 20-25 litres of water (rainwater is best and if you use tap water, you need to bubble it for 12 hours to remove chlorine), and an aquarium heater set at 20 degrees C .....

let it bubble and brew for 24 hrs then add it (undiluted) to your plants .... it should smell sweet and smell of soil .... if it smells sour/rotten, it has not worked and don't use it

the above is a basic recipe that I use and many people have their own recipes ....

I now 'supercharge' the compost tea by adding nutrients such as biobizz fishmix, rootgrow root food (humic and fulvic acids .... it's not the same stuff as Rootgrow Mycorrhizal fungi), alfalfa, seaweed extract, bloodmeal etc ... If you have made your own compost from kitchen waste, add a bit of that aswell

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