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home made soil amendments

 
Posts: 69
Location: Yakima County, E WA
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This is going to be my first year gardening on my current lot and I want to build up a stock of diy fertilizer/amenders and try to work them in appropriate proportions.
So far I have made:
Wood ash
Char
Eggshell powder
Ground seashells
Bonemeal
Compost and manure, if you count those. And uh, homemade liquid fertilizer, I excel at making that.

I would also like to make rock powder, or at least learn if making it is worth the effort. Much of this so far has basically been breaking or burning stuff (which i am quite skilled at) and grinding it into a powder.

What other soil additives can be made at home?
 
pollinator
Posts: 1781
Location: Victoria BC
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Roderick Lane at Forbidden Fruit in BC (http://www.forbiddenfruitfertilizer.net) makes several live-culture fermented liquid fertilizer products out of various plant mixes, might serve as inspiration.

The less sophisticated soak-some-Comfrey-in-water option seems like an easy addition to your list. I think some folks do the same thing with horsetail and stinging nettle. I tend to just mulch with the stuff, but I'd love to see comparison plot using no comfrey/mulch/tea...

Have you moved from compost to compost-tea yet? Hoping to experiment with that this year myself.
 
Thomas warren
Posts: 69
Location: Yakima County, E WA
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Haven't made it to any liquids other than wee. I've been in an apartment for years, just gardening in a little spot I cleared the garbage out of, and delightfully my old neighbors have taken it over.
I think I'm going to stick with mostly solids for the short term, but I plan on being here for the foreseeable future so I got time.
I'll give a good looksy to that link.
 
Thomas warren
Posts: 69
Location: Yakima County, E WA
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Horsetail grows in the canals around here. My wives late aunt used it as some sort of stomach ache remedy.
I got some comfrey planted. Perhaps I could find some way to incorporate that in a similar manner as the site dude.
Nettles I don't think grow here, they do I know on the westside but I really don't want to drive cross state with a carload of nettle. Too many bad memories.
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