It requires surprisingly little effort to make your own organic fertilisers from various waste materials we generate every day around the house. Not only does this help the environment, it also saves money in fertiliser and potting mix costs. It can also be done effectively in very small spaces, so even if you live in an apartment, it is still very practical to make your own fertiliser.
There are a number of options as to the type of organic fertiliser you can create. Liquid organic fertilisers give an instant boost to your plants as the dissolved nutrients are immediately available to the plant which is particularly important for very fast growing vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuce. In this article, I’d like to explore how to make your own worm tea.
Worm farms are one of the best ways to make organic fertiliser that is nutritious and also adds beneficial microbes to your soil and potting mix. As the worms chew through your kitchen scraps and other organic materials such as cardboard and shredded paper, they release nutrients and also add valuable humus, which helps to store water and nutrients. Collecting the liquid that accumulates naturally under your worm farm works quite well, however, it must be stressed that this liquid is generally quite concentrated and should be diluted to a light brown colour, about the colour of a weak cup of tea.
A second way to make your worm tea liquid fertiliser is to use a watering can to run about 10 litres of water through your worm farm. Putting a relatively large volume of water through at one time dilutes the fertiliser strength of the liquid down to something that is ready to use without further dilution. Be guided by the colour of the water coming from the worm farm. If it is dark in colour, you may need to run extra water through until it comes out in a light brown colour. See the above picture…..the lighter coloured jar of liquid is what you are aiming for. This process can be done every week if necessary.
For more information and to see the visual of how its done You can watch a video of how to do this on Angus Stewart Youtube.
For lots of information on home growing vegies, worm farming and lots more, check out the book
“Grow Your Own”….buy it here>>>>