Topic: Homemade Plantfood

[Fork]

We all know that we can make it with Comfrey,Nettles and Rhubarb leaves but does anyone know if its feasable to mix those three things together in the same container?

[queenbee]

Don't do it !!!! you may finish up with a weapon of mass destruction.

[davyw1]

Don,t know about a weapon of mass destruction....but definitely a smell of mass distinction

[Fork]

I can imagine the smell would be something to behold.

What I should have said was,can it all be fermented down together?

[lincsyokel2]

The problem is you dont know what complex chemical  interactions might take place, and you'd need a lab test on it costing £75 to get an idea of exactly what you had in terms of nutrients, minerals and anything else, which is hardly economic, unless you're going to make about 100 gallons.

[rog_pete]

i have put comfrey and nettles in the same container 210 litres of it, all fermenting down lovely.  Have made a smaller tub of the same and been using it as a feed and everything is loving it!

as for chemical makeup etc, be silly sending off for a lab test as every batch made wud be different, unless you are going to weigh everything

why not make it and use it, it aint gonna kill anything is it?

[lincsyokel2]

i have put comfrey and nettles in the same container 210 litres of it, all fermenting down lovely.  Have made a smaller tub of the same and been using it as a feed and everything is loving it!

as for chemical makeup etc, be silly sending off for a lab test as every batch made wud be different, unless you are going to weigh everything

why not make it and use it, it aint gonna kill anything is it?

each to his own!! bit too hit and miss for me !!

[Unwashed]

It is possible you might synthesize something really nasty fermenting an organic soup with whatever bacteria or yeast came along.  Most troublesome is probably Clostridium botulinum because it lives in the soil, ferments in the kind of conditions you're creating, and the neurotoxin it produces is from the devil's own backside.  Whether anything nasty would translocate into your crops is a different question.  Using it as a foliar spray might not be such a good idea.

I think another question to ask is whether these "teas" actually have any beneficial affect.  It's not obvious to me how fermenting comfrey, nettles, or whetever is any more useful then direct mulching with the wilted leaves, especially not when the tea is diluted down in homeopathic proportions.  Given the god-awful stink it takes to make this stuff I'd want to know that it really, really worked.  Has it been trialled?  And I mean scientifically, not by someone who stirs the bucket clockwise on a Tuesday to incorporate the energy of the earth goddess.

[Digeroo]

I have certainly used nettle and comfrey teas for a very long time.  I have tested it out and my very unscientific results are that if there is a lack on nutrients then nettle tea has a beneficial result.  So on a batch of climbing beans with no other feed (no manure or compost) those feed with nettle did considerably better.  But where there was a considerable amount of compost or manure it make little difference at all.

My very unofficial conclusion was it was better than nothing but compost or manure is better. 

I also think it gets seedlings off to a good start.  I think that the soil needs biomatter and nettles and comfrey are a good cheap way of providing it.   I also had a squash plant looking rather pale and sorry for itself so it got some nettle for a few days and greened up very nicely and a couple of weeks later had the start of a nice squash forming. 

No experience of rhubarb this is a poison and I personally would be rather worried about the effects of it.    What are you killing in the soil which you cannot see?

I certainly do not dilute to homeopathic portions it goes on good and dark - the colour of strong tea. 

It is supposed to bolster the immune system not sure how to test for that.  Do I have green fingers or is it all the nettle tea? 

[Ellen K]

Alys Fowler has a video on The Guardian website where she suggest you do this with your weeds - fement them in a barrel of water then chuck the whole thing in the compost bin.

But when you see her garden it is Weed City so I don't know if that deals with the seeds as effectively as she thinks.

So why not mix it all up?  It's just green stuff after all.

But I find Miracle-Gro is very hard to beat and not too pricey if you shop around.

[Fork]

Thanks for all the replies folks...much appreciated.

I have comfrey rotting down in a small barrel as we speak but with so many nettles around too and lots of rhubarb leaves also.....it just set me wondering :-\.

Think I will just stick to the comfrey

[kypfer]

Well ... my tuppence worth ... I used nettle "tea" a few weeks ago for the first time. I'd read that it's "good" (or is that bad) for blackfly, so sprayed it over my nasturtiums ... flowers for the bees, leaves for me ... and behold, no blackfly !

So onto the next test. My Mustard Spinach had had problems with little white grubs eating the roots, unless caught at the first sign of wilting, dug up and "dealt with", the plant died. A good "slosh" of nettle tea diluted at 10:1 and no wilting Spinach since.

Not scientific, I know, and quite possibly coincidental, but nothing's died, it's all looking very healthy, I'm still here to talk about it, and it didn't cost anything ... gotta be worth a try  ;)

As for mixing different types of leaves, I can't see a problem, you're only copying the sort of thing that happens in the compost heap, all sorts of stuff rotting down together. The net result won't be any more concentrated than with just one type of leaf, as you can only put so many leaves in a container before covering them with water. I don't have ruhbarb or comfrey so I can't do any tests, but I'd have no reservations about doing so if they were available. It's not as if you're making some sort of super-concentrated acid, just the liquor from a few fermented leaves that you're going to dilute anyway ... go for it !

[lincsyokel2]

Well ... my tuppence worth ... I used nettle "tea" a few weeks ago for the first time. I'd read that it's "good" (or is that bad) for blackfly, so sprayed it over my nasturtiums ... flowers for the bees, leaves for me ... and behold, no blackfly !

So onto the next test. My Mustard Spinach had had problems with little white grubs eating the roots, unless caught at the first sign of wilting, dug up and "dealt with", the plant died. A good "slosh" of nettle tea diluted at 10:1 and no wilting Spinach since.

Not scientific, I know, and quite possibly coincidental, but nothing's died, it's all looking very healthy, I'm still here to talk about it, and it didn't cost anything ... gotta be worth a try  ;)

As for mixing different types of leaves, I can't see a problem, you're only copying the sort of thing that happens in the compost heap, all sorts of stuff rotting down together. The net result won't be any more concentrated than with just one type of leaf, as you can only put so many leaves in a container before covering them with water. I don't have ruhbarb or comfrey so I can't do any tests, but I'd have no reservations about doing so if they were available. It's not as if you're making some sort of super-concentrated acid, just the liquor from a few fermented leaves that you're going to dilute anyway ... go for it !

the problem is you dont know the nutrient levels, and you dont know the nutrient balance or the pH. Its like taking the label off a bottle of liquid plant food and giving it to someone to use blindly. All you can do is try and make every batch the same, then you'll have to conduct various experiments  over several years to work out what you have got. You probably can have a lot of fun doing it, but the results will be erratic adn unpredictable, and you have equal chance of doing good or killing the plants stone dead. You also have a possibility of making something lethal or dangerous!!! There nothing wrong with experimenting, but you'll have to be methodical about it.

[kypfer]

the problem is you dont know the nutrient levels, and you dont know the nutrient balance or the pH

Well, that's a bit of a red herring, isn't it. We're looking at a dilute fertilizer made from the sort of components that would be normally used to mulch the soil once composted ... how many people actually investigate the nutrient levels and pH levels of the layer of rotting vegetable matter they've just spread all over their plot, much less worry about it?

A bit of judicious "Googling" will turn up figures, which are probably as reliable as any, quoting this sort of fertilizer having a composition of the order of 1:1:0, (plus doubtless trace elements), a level, as an earlier posting has shown, that is only better than nothing.

My very unofficial conclusion was it was better than nothing but compost or manure is better

... it's certainly not strong enough to cause problems to anything other than possibly the tenderest of seedlings, let alone affect the pH level of the soil to any degree.

[lincsyokel2]

the problem is you dont know the nutrient levels, and you dont know the nutrient balance or the pH

Well, that's a bit of a red herring, isn't it. We're looking at a dilute fertilizer made from the sort of components that would be normally used to mulch the soil once composted ... how many people actually investigate the nutrient levels and pH levels of the layer of rotting vegetable matter they've just spread all over their plot, much less worry about it?

umm, actually i have access to a lab, i get sample analysis done free.....i know for a fact the EC of my current compost  pile is 2200 in the middle, so if  i mix it with the multipurpose from work at 6:1 i get a mix with an  EC of 700 and a start balance of 20/28/14

but then im a bit of a nerd  like that   8)

[Digeroo]

I have used lots of nettle tea and in my experience it has never killed any plants.  I spriay it on my golden delicious apple which often seem to get mildew on the leaves and it has always been effective.   

It is a great free resource.

Any chance of an analysis of nettle or comfrey tea?  It would be fascinating..

It is supposed to be good for humnas as well but I personally drink it well before it gets to the smelly stage which I use on plants.

[kypfer]

Any chance of an analysis of nettle or comfrey tea?  It would be fascinating..

There's some interesting facts and figures about comfrey tea here http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/comfrey/index.php and some info on compost teas here http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html (get the pdf at the top of the page, it's more detailed than the web-page itself)

There's a wealth of other data available from a "google" using appropriate search parameters, it'll be as easy for you to find them yourself than for me to list them all here.

[Kepouros]

I must confess to having made both Nettle Tea, and Comfrey soup - mainly as a result of buying Lawrence D. Hills`s book "Down to Earth Vegetable Growing", nearly 50 years ago, which has largely remained my bible ever since.

However, alhough I made both at the same time I made them in separate 50 gallon butts, which stood next to each other.  After several hot days, my nearest neighbour - 100 yards away - complained bitterly, my wife and family threatened to leave home until I`d used it all, and I had to plug my nostrils when I used it.  I never worked out whether it had done any good because I was never able to remain in the vicinity long enough to check, but I`m sure that any pests would have vacated the area even more quickly than I did.

With the greatest of respect to Lawrence - never again

[Cabagepicker]

Never tried the homemade stuff with nettles, but worm wee is great and they eat all the ends of the beans, potato bits, and absolutely love cucumber and lettuce that has bolted!  ;D