natural fertilizers?

[Mali52]

Hello everyone! I am not convinced to buying fertilizers and I have never used them. I was thinking that maybe you know some "recipes" or some tips for natural fertilizers? I want them mainly for my tomatoes to grow better. If you know some share them here please.

[nickdub]

Quite a lot of people grow comfrey and use thta to make a liquid feed for their tomatoes - Bocking 14 is the popular sort as it doesn't set seed, so doesn't become a nuisance that way - seaweed also works well of course if you can get some .

[cheops]

As Nickdub says seaweed works well. I collect it and half fill an old black plastic bin with it. Then fill the bin to the top with water. I let it steep for months. Now you have a fantastic liquid feed - more than you think as it needs to be diluted. Strain through an old towel. After straining you have of course a concentrated liquid feed but also you have a great mulch which personally I use around the base of gooseberry and currant bushes.
Use the same method with grass cuttings for a great nitrogen rich liquid feed and a great mulch as well. [Cut any available nettles and throw them in with the grass cuttings].

[rary]

There's an allotment site in Farlie where they let seaweed dry till crumbly and put this round their plants, though to be honest I don't know how well this acts as a fertiliser. But I can understand folks wanting to go organic and making their own feeds, but with the likes of growmore which was developed during the war, to help feed the country, you are supplying some of the required nutrients for plant growth, but personally I think there are key elements missing, as with most fertilisers, when I first started to make my own feed (adle)with sheep droppings I was told to always put a rusty nail in with it, which I think was to add some minerals, in theory the best feed should be from worm casts as that comes from a mix of various vegetative sources

[keat63]

My dad has been using manure soup for 50 years or more.

In the spring he collects horse manure from the local meadow, places this in a net bag which he drops in to a water butt.

He has the biggest sweatest stongest tomatoes i've ever seen.

[ESBkevin]

I use nettle tea for the early growth and then add comfry tea once the first flowers form becoming more comfry once fruit are definately evident. I add some dilute urine as a nitrogen source too.
In real terms any compost or manure tea will help but seaweed and Comfry are rich in the required nutrients for fruiting and can usually be had for free depending on where you are. The leaves of other deep rooted weeds like Dock, Burr, dandilion etc. have a better chance of being richer in the desirable nutrients than surface weeds that while good may not be quite so good.
Youutube for methods of making 'Tea' from compost/cumfry/nettles etc. Beware it becomes smelly so a sealed bucket or keeping it away from folks/houses is well advised.

[bikermike]

Now you have a fantastic liquid feed - more than you think as it needs to be diluted. Strain through an old towel.

What is the reason for straining?
I currently have a black bin full of Marestail tea (and most of a bag of next year's contents - I'm trying to make sure this collection is properly drowned before it goes on the compost). I'm not sure if I've noticed any improvement, but I'm not making changes in a sufficiently structured way to know.

[rary]

I would think if you are applying it through a watering can rose you would need to filter it, but if applying just using the spout there would be no need to filter?

[planetologist]

Compost toilet. Recycle the same nutrients. Doesn't get more natural than that.

[Chris11]

My dad...has the biggest sweatest stongest tomatoes i've ever seen.

He sounds like a very impressive man

[Jimmy]

See one of many articles
https://natsol.co.uk/

Jimmy

[Jimmy]

I bet everyone is thinking UGH!
But you will happily shovel tons of horse/cow/chicken dung !
Jimmy

[Jay-ell]

See one of many articles
https://natsol.co.uk/

Jimmy

Night soil is an ancient and traditional fertiliser used a lot more before chemical fertilisers came into play. This is just an aged version.

I still remember my grans outside privy - it was solid, built like a brick...
Mind you the council had plumbed it in by then.

As a side note, urine used to be Newcastles third largest export. I'm not taking the ...
To think, half the House of Lords was covered in Geordie Pee

[cheops]

As rary says -needs strained if needs to be applied carefully around small plants etc. Otherwise it blocks the watering can rose and has on occasions even blocked the spout with no rose attached. I don’t waste the ‘strainings’ - a great mulch with lots of goodness still there.

[bikermike]

the problem with human poo AIUI is making sure that you aren't recycling diseases through it.
As a general rule of thumb, I have always understood herbivore poo to be safe and carnivore poo not safe.