Best Organic Plant Foods Liquid and Solid: Coffee grounds for nitrogen and soil texture, banana to boost flowering with potassium, ca, and phosphorous, dried eggshells for slow release of calcium and improve soil, grass clippings for nitrogen, and mulching.
Compost tea & green tea promotes microorganisms, and are good for easy nutrient intake by plants, and also to increase soil acidic levels for acid-loving plants.
Animal manure and fish emulsion for enough macro and micronutrients and promote new growth and flowering.
Fertilization is a key part of gardening. Several gardeners agree that the most successful part of gardening especially crops gardening, depends on the process of fertilization.
No doubt you can buy different types of readymade fertilizer in the market for different sorts of plants.
However, using your homemade organic fertilizers always come with a completely chemical-free quality. They also seem inexpensive too.
So, here we come up with the best 9 plant food recipes to make your plantation experience more succulent than ever-
9 organic plant foods – updated
Best Homemade Plant Foods to Nourish Your Plants
Liquid Coffee Ground Fertilizer:
Why This?
Coffee ground is rich in nitrogen content and can make your soil more acidic naturally. Using the coffee ground as fertilizer is more beneficial when you have acid-loving plants.
How to Prepare It:
Simply gather some used coffee grounds in a pot and use them to your feed your plant properly.
How to Apply It:
- Take some coffee grounds and sprinkle them around the base of your plants
- You can also make the coffee ground mixture to fertilize your plant
- To do so, place a thick layer of ground coffee in a watering can and fill it with water
- Steep the coffee ground in water for 2-3 days and use that mixture to water the soil entirely
Caution:
Try to avoid this item if you don’t have an acid-loving plant or your plant needs neutral or alkaline type soil.
Related: Using wood ash and coffee grounds as fertilizer
Grass Clippings for Lush Garden:
Why This?
Grass clippings contain a good amount of nitrogen and a lot of essential nutrients. You can use this component as mulch and plant food both.
How to Prepare It:
- If you are going to use raw grass clippings, then, simply collect them while mopping your lawn in a large garden pot
- If you are making grass-clipping tea then, place some clippings in a 5-gallon bucket and fill it with water
- Let it steep there for 5 days and then use the mixture accordingly
How to Apply It:
- Mulch your plant base with a handful of fresh grass clippings and water through it
- To use grass-clipping tea, take out 1 cup of prepared tea in a watering can and add 10 cups of plain water to it
- Now use that mixture to water your plant thoroughly
- Don’t forget to mix 10 cups of water with 1 cup of grass-clipping tea every time you apply this mixture to your plant
For mulching just like grass clippings, you can also use hay or straw as mulch for your garden bed.
Caution:
Don’t apply this natural plant food if your garden soil is already highly fertilized.
Banana Peel Fertilizer:
Why This?
Banana peel is a great source of potassium, calcium, and phosphorus. They also decompose easily into the ground. Fruit and flowering plants get more benefits from this food.
How to Prepare It:
- Gather the whole peel of 10-12 bananas in a garden pot
- You can cut them into small pieces also while collecting
- To make tea out of this, blend the peels and take it in a large bucket
- Now, fill that bucket with water and let it be like this for 4-5 days
How to Apply It:
- Lay peel or peel pieces directly into the ground
- Then, spread a thin layer of potting or planting soil over the top
- This will help to break down the peel more quickly
- To use liquid form, simply use the peel-mixed water at the base of your plant frequently
Caution:
Let the banana peel break down into the soil with the proper process, otherwise, it won’t work consequently.
Use Eggshells (slow but works):
Why This?
Eggshells are rich in calcium content and have phosphorus in adequate amounts. It helps to reduce the high acidic quality of planting soil naturally.
How to Prepare It:
- Collect ample eggshells after washing and making them dry
- Now crush them properly before feeding your potted or garden plants
- To use the liquid form, steep crushed eggshells into the water overnight and then, use it
How to Apply It:
- Spread crushed dry eggshells around the base of your plant whenever you want to fertilize them
- Or you can use that eggshell-steep mixture to water your plant
- This will fertilize your plant and fulfill its water needs in one receptacle
Caution:
Don’t forget to clean the inside membrane of eggshells and make them dry before using them as fertilizer.
Compost Tea Liquid Plant Food:
Why This?
Compost tea is rich with all essential nutrients like compost and mostly works great for vegetable gardening. Compost tea acts as a health booster for garden plants along with fertilizer.
How to Prepare It:
- Take 1 -a gallon bucket and add 1-2 handfuls of compost from your compost bin
- Include ¼ to ½ cup of any food source for bacteria and fungi
- Fill the bucket with plant water and combine the whole thing with a large stick
- Now, wait for 24-36 hours to prepare the tea and strain the tea with a garden strainer
How to Apply It:
- Pour the prepared compost tea into a sprayer and spray the mixture into your planting soil
- Try to spray around the base soil of each garden plant whenever you want to feed your plant
- You can even make the tea lighter by combining 1 cup of composted tea with 4 cups of water
- Now, use this mixture for watering your garden or potted plant to get the same outcome as composting tea as a fertilizer.
Caution:
Don’t use stored compost tea, and always use freshly brewed compost tea to avoid any harmful effects on your loved plants.
Go for Green Tea for Nitrogen Boost:
Why This?
Green tea is the powerhouse of nitrogen and some other nutrients. Thus, it can nourish your plant deeply like any liquid fertilizer. Like coffee grounds, it can also escalate the acidic quality of your plating soil naturally.
How to Prepare It:
- Collect some used green tea bags from your regular use
- To brew green tea bags, place some bags into a large bucket and fill it up with water
- Let the bags steep this way for 2-3 days ad then use the liquid accordingly
How to Apply It:
- You can place some used green tea bags around the base of your plants over the top surface of the soil
- Or apply that green tea brewed water to water your plants through a watering can or sprayer
Caution:
Don’t use this if your garden soil is already high in acidic content.
- Use Kitchen Scraps:
Why This?
Kitchen scarp is the most inexpensive organic fertilizer for our houseplants. It also lets the soil retain moisture for a long while along nourishing the roots.
How to Prepare It:
- Simply gather kitchen waste like fruit peels, vegetable peels, eggshells, cardboard boxes, tea bags, etc. for some days
- Put them in your compost bin and let them decompose for a couple of days
- You can even keep them underground too instead of compost bin to decompose
- Try to mix them once every few whiles to let them break down more rapidly
How to Apply It:
- Once they are decomposed properly, add them to the garden or potting soil directly
- You can also make some cups of compost tea using this to use them in liquid form
- or you can even add kitchen scraps directly to the garden soil, but in that case, it will take a long time to break down and feed your plants properly.
Caution:
Try to cover kitchen scraps with a layer of soil if you add them directly. Otherwise, they won’t decompose and fertilize your plant at all, no matter how long you wait!
Apply Farm Animal Manure:
Why This?
Manure is rich in nitrogen and contains ample nutrients along with a higher amount of acid content. It blends into the soil more quickly than other normal fertilizers and increases the water retaining quality noticeably.
How to Prepare It:
- Collect animal waste like poo from cows, chickens, horses, etc. animals
- You can use manure from individual animals or use them after combining too
How to Apply It:
- Take 1 part of manure and 2 parts of potting or planting soil in a pot to mix them up
- Now, use this soil to plant your plants and water it thoroughly
- To use them in already planted soil, spread a layer of manure over the base of the soil first
- Now, till it into the soil with a plow or rototiller properly
Caution:
Check the nutrient value of the soil before using manure, as it is high in nutrients and could damage plant health unwantedly instead of nourishing it.
Fish Emulsion:
Why This?
Fish emulsion is also rich in nitrogen and can enrich your planting soil with acidic quality deeply. This fish fertilizer is a good option for green vegetable gardening.
How to Prepare It:
- Place some fish parts and some water in which the fish were swimming into a 5-gallon bucket
- Make sure you cover 1/3 part of that bucket with this waste
- Now fill the rest part with plain water and cover it properly
- Let it steep there for 24 hours and your fertilizer is ready to use
How to Apply It:
- Now take some liquid and spread it over the gardening area and especially around the plants
- Try to follow the ratio of using 3 gallons of this fish emulsion liquid to cover 100 square feet of garden area to the fertilization
Caution:
This homemade fertilizer has a very bad odor, so make sure you use this solution for outside garden plants only.