# Share your homemade gardening fertilizing tips



## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Looking for some unusual ways to get nice healthy plants this year. I use Epsom salts on my tomatoes and peppers. I am going to try my hand at compost tea this year. 
Not sure fit he Epsom salts really do anything. I have a pile of wood ash I am thinking about using on the garden, but I have read mixed reviews on this.
Any other ideas?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

lilmissy0740 said:


> I have a pile of wood ash I am thinking about using on the garden, but I have read mixed reviews on this.


 Do a Ph test on your soil first! 
If you already have a lot of lime in your soil, ashes will make your soil worse.

Ashes work well if the soil is very acidic.... but only the test will tell you which direction (higher or lower ph) you should go!


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

Wood ash does benifit cucumbers growth. I would suggest doing a ph test as well. Lots to learn from that.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

lilmissy0740 said:


> Looking for some unusual ways to get nice healthy plants this year.


Is there any way you can get some manure or rotten hay/straw? Got an old swamp nearby you can get dirt from?


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

when I make cinnamon sugar banana chips on my dehydrator I also dehydrate the banana peels and then crush them up in a blender to be used as fertilizer.

From what I've read if you don't pulverize them first, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and what-have-you will dig them up for food, so turn it into powder before mixing with your soil. 

5 lbs of banana's yields about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of dehydrated peel powder.

If you know anyone that raises rabbits, the rabbit pellets are supposed to be AWESOME fertilizer. From what I've read about that, the people into roses pay well for rabbit fertilizer because it wont burn the plants like others can.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Plan for next year as well! ANYTHING from your home that is biodegradable will make compost. Get junk mail? Rip it into strips and put it in the pile, same with newspaper. No scraps from your kitchen should go to the dump, compost them! Anything except infected plant materials should go into the pile as well, be creative and ask the neighbors for theirs too!


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I raise chickens, I always make compost from their coop. Last year I put my meat birds in my garden. Hopefully that gives everything a big boost. Used wood chips for their bedding. I am guessing that will make my soil acidic? Crap, that really just dawned on me.

Never heard of the banana peels. That is good to know 


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## pawpaw (Dec 21, 2011)

*Not to Hijack the thread, but-*

How & where would I get my soil tested? Is it expensive?
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread......


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Pawpaw, check with your county extension office. They probably have a connection with a testing service where you can do it through them (the extension office) for a small price (like $15 per test sample). They can also tell you how to collect the sample(s). 

And if they don't offer that service (each state is different), the extension office should still be able to point you in the right direction. If you have to go this route, check on pricing from several companies, as prices can really run the gamut when you're working directly with testing companies.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

pawpaw said:


> How & where would I get my soil tested? Is it expensive?
> I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread......


What would you want to test for? There are test kits sold at stores if you need them. The only thing I test for is ph. I sprinkle Dolomitic lime around every year as we have acidic red clay here, not a lot of lime, just a sprinkle. If you have a good compost program, or another form of improving your soil that should take care of everything else. I do use additives though. For the corn, which is a heavy feeder I sprinkle bloodmeal at planting and just before tassel. On the squash I mix it with bone meal and stir it into the hills. Things like radishes and carrots are said to like more barren soils so it sucks to be them in my garden, but they always do fine. Tomatoes always need extra calcium, so they get a dose before planting. I do crop rotations so after a few years pretty much everywhere has had a dose of one or another 'additive'.

I have never done an official testing of my soil to see what nutrients are needed or missing, the plants will tell me that as they grow. There are lots of books and websites with pictures to show you the different nutrient deficiencies.

I would look more to soil 'tilth' than content. Tilth is the structure or... I can't think of the other word... feel of the soil. Is it sandy? Is it hard clay? is it nice rich black soil? Mine started as hard red clay with granite rocks in it. After 9 years of tilling in leaves, bark, sand, compost and all, it actually looks like soil now!

Did you have any specific issues or were just wondering?


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

We always fertilized in the fall, after the harvest and tilled into the soil. Cow and/or chicken crap is what we used. Normally chicken.

Now for tomatoes.... Fish heads buried around the base of the plants will give you more of them than you can eat.... Yeah I did that one year after catching a bunch of catfish.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

lilmissy0740 said:


> Used wood chips for their bedding. I am guessing that will make my soil acidic? Crap, that really just dawned on me.


No worries about acid... ashes form burning hardwoods make a lot of lye when wet and will take the acid away.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks Tex, wood ashes it is 


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

lilmissy0740 said:


> Thanks Tex, wood ashes it is


....but *ONLY* if and when the soil needs it.

If you start with soil very "basic" (high PH) and add pine chips to bring the PH down, then that is a GOOD thing .... unless you add ashes and ruin it again!!

Unless you do a soil sample test you know NOTHING.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

cnsper said:


> Now for tomatoes.... Fish heads buried around the base of the plants will give you more of them than you can eat.


My grandparents used to save their fish heads/scaps in the freezer until it was tomato planting time. Just be sure to bury it deep or the critters will dig up your tomato plants to get to the fish :club:

They also had a buried refrigerator that they used for night crawlers. They put their kitchen scraps & newspaper in there & the worms composted it. Grandpa sold the night crawlers as fish bait & used the compost in the garden.

We rinse & save our eggshells all year to crunch up & put around the tomato plants. It slowly releases calcium for the tomatoes & acts as a physical barrier against soft-bellied pests. Our tomatoes grow as tall as me & all for free artydance:


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