Organic or better fertilizer for potted plants? (that doesn't stink)

Anyone got some great organic (or better) recipes or products you use for fertilizing houseplants?  What's your magic sauce to make potted plants happy?  

Hi R,
Are you thinking of liquid fertilizer or solids? I would just take some well composted compost and use that. If it's well composted it won't stink. I would also try liquid kelp. I don't think that smells, but I have not used it, so I can't swear to it.

I have very good luck scratching  ~1/2 inch of dried worm castings (no, they don't stink) into the top layer of the potting soil once per year. If the roots are exposed on top of the soil, don't disturb them. Instead, mix the worm castings with pea gravel, perlite, or coarse sand and use that as the top dressing to encourage water to seep through the top dressing castings. Worm castings are essentially a nutritious tea every time you water. I don't mix castings with water because too much is lost out the pot's drainage hole. Misting the foliage also really helps perk up the plants in the dry winter!

Another thing besides applying fertilizer is to make sure the potting mix that comes with the plant is of good quality to hold the nutrients. If not, make your own potting mix with home made compost.

A few months ago, I bought a key lime in a gallon pot. It sat there and did nothing, I gave it some liquid fertilizer made from compost and it grew one new shoot. I figured the nutrients were leached out and only a few lucky roots got access of some. I repotted the plant and the old mix looked like simply wood chip pieces. Anyway, the new mix I made has garden soil, coconut coir and compost in it and just one week later, every branch tip had new growth showing up.

When my potted plants are unhealthy, I would check the soil mix first.

I haven't tried this out yet but going to give it a go this year hopefully once I move and start growing things.

Seems like an easy organic liquid fertisier to make up.

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/expert-advice/garden-management/soil/comfrey

I've used a seaweed liquid plant food on my container plants and it doesn't stink. It was very concentrated and a little goes a long way - you dilute it with water. I'm not sure if it was kelp based or other seaweed, but I think they are pretty good for trace elements as well as the main nutrients.
I've also used the dregs from the teapot, which is fine, but don't put tea-with-milk on your plant pots, it makes them smell like foul sports shoes! I had a colleague who would do this at work once, and I had to completely repot the plants once we'd tracked down the smell!

I have not had any success with houseplants recently.

Years ago, my favorite way to give houseplants nutrients was to use compost tea.

It is easy to make.  This would not stink if the compost is well composted (it looks like soil).

Here are some threads that you or others might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/185538/composting/Liquid-fertilizer-Compost-Compost-tea

https://permies.com/t/169864/composting/compost-tea-brewer-Geoff-lawton

https://permies.com/t/53922/composting/Compost-Tea-easy

Anne Miller wrote:I have not had any success with houseplants recently

Maybe it has to do with the potting soil. I bought a bad batch for repotting last year and ruined many of my houseplants, including monocots.

The fertilizer made from compost doesn't stink. I guess using dilute fresh urine will have unpleasant odor indoor but aged one sitting outside for a while should be fine.

Here is key lime plant I mentioned above. Noted the bigger new leaves and stunted small old ones. It's been less than two weeks and you can see at least 9 new shoots in the photo.

This isn't for everyone, but we have a ficus with a wood louse colony living in it. We keep a thick mulch of leaves in the pot, and the wood lice go about their business, turning leaves into poop. It just smells leafy. No bad smells at all. We actually have to scoop out the pot periodically cause the frass builds up and fills the pot to the brim. That gets put in other plant pots to fertilize them. I absolutely love watching the wood lice and don't mind picking them up off the floor occasionally.

May Lotito wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:I have not had any success with houseplants recently

Maybe it has to do with the potting soil. I bought a bad batch for repotting last year and ruined many of my houseplants, including monocots.

It is more like a brown thumb. Could also be that I live in a tiny crowded house and houseplants live in the machine room that used to be very very hot no matter what time of year. And these are easy to forget to water.

I was given an aloe vera.  Dear hubby put it out in the sun and it got sunburned.  He did not harden it off.

Then there were several others... none lived long enough to have soil problems.

I can grow stuff outdoors with no problems.

Coffee grounds are said to be good sources of nitrogen.  After you make the coffee.

Dilute blood, if you have a source….  In a hospital where I once worked, the people in the lab kept a few house plants.  They used to squirt blood into the soil (from extra, they always drew more than they needed, instead of going back for more).  In this, I think it would be easy to over do… and get an odor or kill the plant, unless it was slaughter day, in which case, mix the blood into sawdust or woodchips, to dry and store it.

I find that it is the UNfresh urine that stinks.  Also depends on what the donor has been eating (asparagus for one thing, makes very stinky urine, but only some people have the ability to smell it— a genetically determined factor)

If a person has been taking large amounts of B-complex vitamins to the extent the body is passing it through, then the urine smells like vitamin B.  I have no idea whether b vitamins are helpful to plants ….

I would not recommend using urine as fertilizer if a person is on antibiotics as some passes through, and might harm the soil community in the pot.  Or chemotherapy!

I love the idea of the wood lice but have no idea what they are other than soil organism, but I think encouraging a healthy soil microbiome would be a good idea, including earthworms😊.