The Best Homemade Plant Fertilizers

Want luscious plant growth without buying chemical fertilizers? Of course you do! Here are the best homemade plant fertilizers you can make.

It is entirely possible to grow a garden without buying any fertilizer at all! Growing a garden with natural inputs that you make yourself is better for you and your garden.

While I love a few organic garden fertilizers I still rely on many of my homemade fertilizers to nourish my garden.

Here are my favorite homemade fertilizers with steps to making each one.

Compost

Without a doubt compost is the single best fertilizer for your garden! Compost is full of beneficial microbes, nutrients, and organic matter.

Homemade compost can be made out of kitchen scraps, dead plants, or animal bedding. The majority of my compost is made from my chicken's bedding.

I use a compost tumbler to make my compost. I fill it up with brown and green composting materials and start the whole composting process.

If you want to learn the specifics on composting this is a great read.

Fermented Nettles

Fermented nettles, or nettle tea, is a very common fertilizer in Europe. It is made by soaking fresh stinging nettles in water until the ferment.

The fermentation builds the microbiome and pulls the nutrients from the nettles. Nettle tea is full of nitrogen, potassium, and many other micro and macro plant nutrients.

To make nettle tea you must forage for nettles. If you aren't sure what nettles look like read this guide.

Once you have harvested your green nettles you will soak them in a bucket full of water. Stir the nettle and water mixture daily for a few weeks.

The nettles will eventually disintegrate and the mixture will become odorous. Once this happens, you can strain the mixture and dilute it 1:10 with water.

Use the tea to water your plants and watch them grow!

Compost Tea

If you make your own compost, but don't have enough for your whole garden, making compost tea will help you stretch your compost.

You can buy fancy compost tea making kits to make professional grade compost tea, but I do it the inexpensive way.

I fill an old pillow case with compost and tie it up. I then put it into a bucket full of water and let it soak.

While the "tea bag" is soaking I stir it once or twice a day to incorporate oxygen into the mixture. After a week of soaking you can remove the compost.

Straining compost tea — I used this makeshift filter for my compost tea.

You can use this compost tea full strength or dilute it to water your plants. Compost tea has all the benefits of compost, just in liquid form.

Worm castings

Worm casting are literally worm poo. Under the soil, worms are eating organic matter, breaking it down, and excreting it into the soil.

These worm castings are full of bio available nutrients for plants. You can make your own worm castings with this simple worm farm.

I also use worm castings in my homemade potting soil. Worm castings can help you grow amazingly healthy plants!

Vegetable water

If you have boiled potatoes or other vegetables in water there are many nutrients in that water. Instead of pouring it down the drain, let it cool and water your plants with it.

This homemade fertilizer may not contain an abundance of nutrients, but it has more than just fresh water. It is also a great way to use water that normally just goes down the drain.