Here’s how to make your own DIY container garden fertilizer!
My favorite way to fertilize my container garden is in my watering can. It’s just so easy to add fertilizer to a task I already am doing: watering. No digging in fertilizer (which can be a pain if you have mulched or top dressed your pots). No trying to convert instructions meant for huge yards into something workable for a container garden. Perhaps the only thing as easy is slow-release fertilizer, but very few of those are organic, and if you live somewhere with a lot of spring and summer rain, slow-release fertilizers can be transformed into very-fast-release fertilizers.
So, how does one make their own liquid fertilizer? It’s easy, actually. You just add a small amount of organic, dry fertilizer to a full watering can, and let it soak for a while.
Organic Liquid Fertilizer Recipes
Most watering cans are either 1 or 2-gallon cans. It’s important to know how large your watering can is because most of these recipes call for 1-gallon increments. If you have a two-gallon watering can, simply double the recipe.
- Guano Tea – Let 1 Tablespoon of seabird or bat guano soak in 1 gallon of water for 24 hours. Water with the guano tea twice a month.
- Clean Air Worm Tea – Add 2 cups of worm castings and a half teaspoon of molasses to one gallon of water. Allow soaking for 1-2 days, stirring often. Add 1/2 cup of the liquid to a spray bottle, along with 2 cups of water. Spray it onto the leaves of your plants. Peppers especially like it. The remaining liquid can be used to water your plants. Here’s the detailed recipe.
- Dry Fertilizer Turned Liquid – If you have an organic fertilizer that looks like coarse dust, you can add a cup of fertilizer to a gallon of water. Let it sit for a day. Water your plants twice a month with the tea.
- Moo Poo Tea – Let one manure tea bag soak in a five-gallon bucket filled with water. Place the bucket in the sun for 1 to 3 days. Water your plants as frequently as once a week with the moo poo tea
