So Umm... What Is Your Favorite Compost/fertilizer?

Are you a coffee drinker? We compost raw vegetable peels, egg shells, coffee grind and tea bags, add grass and leave clippings and you have a great compost. If you are not a coffee drinker check with your local coffee watering holes. They love giving away their discarded coffee grinds.

When I gardened many years ago, I also used the beautiful compost Iris describes. Epsom salt is also good for the magnesium sulfate that gardens need, and a little tiny bit of organic hen manure at the beginning of the season, but it has to be from a local organic farm otherwise it can be very expensive.

Mike,

Do you buy the CHEAPEST LENSES? CAMERAS? COMPUTERS?.....

Milorganic and stuff like that is the best. If you want less than the best veggies, use cheap stuff.....

https://www.milorganite.com/blog/fruits-vegetables/fertilizing-vegetables

Rich

Monty Don, who is the presenter of BBC's Gardeners World tv program seems to use liquid Seaweed or Comfrey as a general purpose plant food (as well as garden compost and well rotted manure).

I have always gotten results from Alaskan Fish Fertilizer. It smells awful but it really works.

I use Garden Tone for fertilizer https://www.espoma.com/product/garden-tone/

When I'm prepping garden beds in the spring, sometimes I put in Black Kow Manure https://www.blackkow.com/black_kow_mature_manure

We compost yard, kitchen waste, and various other organic matter that we generate around the home and gardens.

In the fall I shred up all the leaves I pick up and mulch all the garden beds. I rake off what doesn't break down in the spring when it's time to plant. Sometimes I use the leftover leaves for mulch around the veggies, and sometimes they just go in the compost pile to break down further.

It may be that the variety of squash that you have simply produces more female flowers. I know that you can get cucumbers that do that. Then you need to plant another variety along with them to get pollenation. The best fertilizer I've used is composted chicken poo. If you don't have your own chickens you can buy organic fertilizers that contain chicken manure.

Anything peat free. Do not get peat based. You may have to water it a little more as peat stores water better, but it is killing the wildlife that needs peat bogs to survive

Well-rotted male urine makes a superb nutrient rich plant feed!

@rich
Cheap lens - yes.
Cheap cameras - no

do I try to get the best for the very least? Yes

mostly I need something I can sprinkle now and then. I used epsom salts in the past as a watering thing and it did work for a while. Added to the ground however, killed the plants.

If I had chickens poop and feathers would work for me. I have black kow which is cheap, but clumsy and I want fast results.

I have some seaweed in the form of food from a fruit store that used to be near me. Now its gone and I have some left giving it to tomato plants usually midsummer on. But its only a finite amount and hard to use on squash because it blows away.


For compost I use old plants, weeds, leaves, grass, wood chips, newspaper, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags and banana peels. At the end the old plants go there and old rotten bug ridden tomatoes go there as well. And this year I ended up with so many random tomato plants. I planted 15-18 as seeds. And they planted themselves I think I have 32 plants growing out there. Every day I seem to find another one. So I add another stake, I have stakes everywhere.

I don't think anything of mine has peat. For water storing I either use water crystals or orbeez. The take in the water and give it back as needed plus they look neat. The crystals look like jellyfish chunks.

Some years I had nothing but boy flowers 50 at a time. Now its all girls. One year I had a lot of things growing till an armada of squirrels came in and ate them all. I thought it was just 3 of them, turns out there were dozens taking turns. Now they seem to leave for the summer going someplace else, hoping to get good stuff. Sunflowers are a good companion plant, helps the squash a lot, but it attracted the squirrels that ate the plants. And now I seem to have a big fat ground hog. But it doesn't seem to like either tomatoes or squash, so I leave it alone. That said none of my flowers came up, it might have eaten them.


----Mike Savad

@jack - human male urine? And how does one rot that?


Because I can make a lot of that.

----Mike Savad

I heard that Pig Poop is the best from a gardener in NJ who already has huge veggies that are pickable.

I had a friend in college who used to pour the dregs of beer cans and bottles on her tomatoes. It did wonders for tomatoes.

Go fishing, catch some fish, and bury the inedible parts by your plants.

Steer manure from Home Depot.

You don't really need to 'rot' the human urine, although you can put it on your compost. But if you water the plants with it instead, you'll want to dilute it a lot with water first because the nitrogen will burn them otherwise. If you've got a good compost pile going, you can make compost tea for the garden.

Compost tea or Composted manure tea when we lived in the country.

Alaskan Fish Fertilizer --- Joseph is right it stinks but it's GREAT. You can always make a small trench, pour it in and fill in over the wet soil to keep smell down.

I use some Miracle grow. One box will last for years. You mix it up with water, and pour it on. Plants that are not doing well I add Coffee grounds by the plants, and water it.
There are 2 kinds of Miracle grow. Don't get the kind for evergreen plants. You want the kind in the green box.

The best is your own homemade compost
Also the cheapest
If you add anything go organic as you will eat this later

Goat poop + composted chicken poop. But obviously that'll be hard to come by where you are, unless there is an urban farm somewhere.
Good compost as described by Iris.
Also, stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) "tea", which isn't tea at all but a stinking mess that is a superb fertilizer for demanding crops. Lots of vids online about it.
Comfrey "tea" or mulch is also good.

Https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VJN8QFI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I found this stuff, which was similar to another one I had in the past. I don't know if its any good or not.


----Mike Savad

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VJN8QFI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I would avoid Milorganite on food crops. It has high mercury and other heavy metals. From Wikipedia:

""The EPA has shown that biosolids can contain measurable levels of synthetic organic compounds, radionuclides and heavy metals. USEPA has set numeric limits for arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc.
The presence of heavy metals is a source of concern. The facility reports that they have been substantially reduced over the years.

It's been a while since I was in charge of vegetable gardens. I used to tend an estate garden of about a quarter acre and we did everything the old world way. We used bone meal and fish blood. For slow release nitrogen composted manure works well and has less poison than human biosolids, which is what Milorganite actually is. I also worked in a leaf composting facility and we had demonstration gardens as well as a public gardening area. Leaf compost works well but you have to add lime.

The Native American added shad to their corn beans and squash. It's still probably the best fertilizer. Shad run up rivers in the spring. Just in time for planting.

You do know you can actually bury a fish, if fishmeal is what you're after? If you have a fishmonger or a good butcher that does seafood near you, you can probably get fish scraps for free if you smile pretty at them. It works great, I learned this trick (and using eggshells) from my grandmother who was a very serious gardener.

Edit: Make sure you bury the fish at least 6" or so, you don't want it to be a feast for wildlife. Also, don't use canned seafood.

Edit also: If you don't want to deal with making your own compost in the garden, you can get a little composter for the kitchen. They are very cool, you just throw all your organic kitchen scraps in (no meat of any kind).

I think I read something about that for Milorganite it seems to be focused for lawns mostly. The price wasn't bad but mercury, not so good.

I don't fish, so I can't go that route. And I bet it could attract racoons.

Egg shells I can do. I even tried blending some ugly sea shells in the soil. They are super hard to break by the way.

The compost I have I use to plant seeds, put on top of the newspaper I use to block weeds, and dump on squash vines to create new rooting points to outsmart the squash bugs. But its not good for general fertilizing, it would be messy to toss around. I like a handful of something just tossed now and then with some water every other day. That's all the maintenance I want to put into it.


----Mike Savad

I have tons of wildlife here including raccoons, but if you bury it deep enough they can't smell it. Never had 'em dig it up.

Mike,

I wouldn't be concerned with Milorganite and mercury. Probably get more mercury from a can of tuna....

" The average level in canned light tuna, 0.118 part per million,"....

Use as directed,

Rich

I have goat and chicken/peacock poo, plus household compost, but there's not enough for my gardens so I buy loads of mushroom compost. Has to be rotted enough to be cool, not still steaming. It can be pricey unless you find a local mushroom farm and buy spent compost directly from the source. It is beautiful stuff.

1 part urine 10 parts water. Free.

I'd stay away from mushroom compost. The amount of pesticides used in those operations is unreal.

Everyone is worried about fire control. Last summer some nearby neighbors had all there fallen oak leaves raked and put in bags.
They said they did not want them. I loaded up about 20 bags. How easy for mulch and compost all bagged up.

There are horse stables nearby me. They pile the manure up in an area where I can shovel it into my truck for free.
Mix in vegi scraps and egg shells also.

If I had the space I would collect more leaves. They say to keep the leaves under the porch to be used as the brown layer for mulch. Oak leaves are supposed to have the best plant yummies. That is a technical term.


Living in the country does have its advantages, free stuff, lots of room. Free poop. I see people tossing lawn clippings all the time. But I don't have the space to keep it all. Once a dump truck lost a huge pile of leaves in the street. I ended up bringing all those to the yard. I wouldn't mind more of that. I do think that in the fall I may start looking for those leaf bags near me and drag some home. Toss it on the garden itself for spring.

I once used just woodchips as mulch, and all I ended up with that year was starving plants and a lot of mushrooms.


----Mike Savad

Plant fertilizer will have 3 numbers on them like this... 20-20-20. Triple 20 is a basic fertilizer. The numbers refer to the nutrients the plant needs. I forget what they are.

You have to look up what nutrients squash need and get the particular fertilizer. For flowering it will have more of one nutrient than another.

Nettle plants can be made by soaking in water for a few days and pouring into the plants for both indoor and outdoor plants. Nettle is also good for cooking or making an infusion for regular health.

Mullein is great and is used like nettle. Mullein plants can be steeped over night and even the dried plant can be used.

Bunny tea is a good one. Just take rabbit poop and soak in a 5 gallon bucket for a few days and use on outdoor plants only.

Find nearby sheep owners and use sheep manure. It is great for sprinkling around plants in the garden and elsewhere and doesn't burn up plant like other hot manures can. Also, there is usually plenty of it so Shepard's are happy to give it away free.

Humus (plant material such as leaves from the forest) is great for keeping plants healthy, by retaining the moisture in the growing soil.

All information is from personal experience.

You are welcome to come to my yard and take all the oak leaves you want. How many trucks ya got?

Add a side dressing of epsom salt or dissolve a teaspoon in a qt of water and water each plant with a qt of epsom water..

Ps. epsom salt is the active ingredient in miracle grow.

Adding: I put a sprinkle of it in each hole when I was planting all my seed ( of every kind) . I have 3 ft tall squash plants and a jumonji jungle of tomatoes. My okra is now 5 ft tall and making lots of fruit everyday... my beans are ready for a second 7 qt canning day.

It really works...

For fast results, I use a chemical fertilizer like Miracle Grow. Then I also sprinkle some slow-release pellets from Osmocote to get me through the season. Fertilome is a good, cheaper brand with a variety of fertilizers if you have it in your area. Fish emulsion concentrate (that you mix with water to your own strength) seems best all around, though stinky at first the smell does go away. SUPERthrive Plant Vitamin Foliar Spray was recommended by several gardening friends and FB garden groups and it worked well on my houseplants (didn't try it outdoors) but I found I didn't like spraying it indoors - but I think it would make a good outdoor quick fertilizer. Good luck!

You could try the Honey.

https://www.ruralsprout.com/honey-in-garden/

Very weak, diluted fish fertilizer for plants. Too strong, and it burns them dead though.

Mike, how about cow manure or bull manure same chit. :-)