Homemade fertilizer

[BlakeeBoo]

Okay so this is what I am going to make my homemade orchid fertilizer out of.


Guano- Which I will dry and grind. It will be used for it's phosphoric acid and it's multiple forms of nitrogen, none of which are of an urea form.

Bones and Eggs- Which I will dry and grind. They will be used for there calcium and Potassium.

Epsom Salt- For it's trace minerals.

Potash- Which is in the water soluble part of wood ashes. It is used for it's trace minerals and potassium.

Molasses- For trace minerals and potassium.

Rice water- Which will be used to put the fertilizer into a liquid form.

I will play around with the combination and I will share all my results with you but won't give away all my secrets. I will keep the end recipe to myself because I intend to sell it. This fertilizer is completely organic and urea free to those who it may concern so I think it will be widely appealing.

Thank you all so much for the help!!!

[gixrj18]

How are you going to know your N-P-K, to write on the label? There is no way to tell what percentage of what nutrients your final mixture will have.....good luck with that!

[BlakeeBoo]

Well I won't exactly but I will document the results enough for people to feel comfortable to use it.

[BlakeeBoo]

I know you guys think i am crazy lol but i think it is worth a shot the formula that i am working on is lacking nothing that industrial formals have.

[camille1585]

I use home recipes a lot for my garden plants but for orchids I prefer to stick to the normal fertilizers. For one, I want to be able to control exactly what my plants get. And organic sources (like the bone, eggs and guano) of fertilizer are not immediately available to the plant. They must be broken down by micoorganisms first. I don't know if bark based mediums have as much micro organism activity as normal soil, so it's possible it takes much longer for them to be broken down and available to the plant. And seeing how airy the medium is, at every watering the fertilizer will be washed out before it has become of use to the plant. I may be wrong, since my courses on this sort of stuff were 4 years ago, but I'll still stick with my trusty orchid fert!
Good luck in your fertilizer business though.

[BlakeeBoo]

Thanks lol.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by BlakeeBoo

Urea is a type of nitrogen but i don't know why some think it is bad for orchids. I think it is just a myth that has woven into orchid society through years of personal preferences getting mixed with actually orchid culture fact.

I may be wrong though so don't be to mean when correcting me.

Nobody here is mean. Nitrogen as urea requires a step or conversion to available nitrogen (into a from a plant can use). Since we grow our orchids in free draining media, any nitrogen needs to be available. If the fertilizer were to persist in soil, urea would eventually be converted by soil microbes - making it available. But since most of our orchid fertilzer just runs through the media and does not persist in "soil", there is minimal conversion from urea to usable N.

Oh, and some beers (stouts mostly) are bottled or canned with NO2, but most are carbonated. All "real" or natural beers are just bottle conditioned and are carbonated by continued yeast metabolism. I'm no orchid expert - but I know my beer!

[BlakeeBoo]

Lol I knew someone would originally correct and thank you. Also I worded it poorly when I was talking about the beer I should have stated it as you stated it.

[BlakeeBoo]

I figured out why rice water is good for orchids. Rice is very high in potassium about 880mg per cup. The temperature at which water boils is more than enough for the bonds that holds the K in the carbs of the rice grains.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by BlakeeBoo

Lol I knew someone would originally correct and thank you. Also I worded it poorly when I was talking about the beer I should have stated it as you stated it.

I'm glad you took that as it was meant - kind of in jest. You're going to fit in great around here. It sounds like you have lots to add to the mix. Welcome, and keep the interesting threads coming. Oh, and don't forget to post pics.