Nowadays, fertilizer is understood as a nutrient supply for a crop. But this idea is not sustainable. Plants and soil form a unit. The fertilizer must therefore not pollute the soil. A real fertilizer gives the plant what it needs and builds up the soil flora and fauna. This strengthens the plant. Because a healthy soil makes for a healthy plant. Basically, we have to get away from the idea that a fertilizer only has to provide nutrients. It has to be much more. We must learn to think in terms of “closed cycles”. First of all, there must be a soil that can produce healthy plants on its own. It is clear that when soil is used intensively, nutrients are also removed from it. The balance that exists between soil flora and fauna, as well as the plant, must be promoted. So we do not bring the fertilizer to the plants, but to the soil. The soil then ensures that the plant gets what it needs. Please also refer to the article on soil improvement. It is about maintaining the existing balance and counteracting environmental influences. These are often underestimated problems. Industry, traffic etc. also “pollute” our soil via precipitation with substances that do not belong there. You can only get rid of these if the microorganisms in the soil are in an optimal state and can break down these substances.
Let us now take a practical look at some of the nutrient suppliers. We will be adding to this article in the near future.
Nettle, comfrey, tansy and garlic are an unbeatable combination. If you want to do something good for the microorganisms in the soil and at the same time provide the soil with a non-harmful dose of trace elements, you can use this simple herbal liquid manure. This slurry can also be used as a compost starter. The only disadvantage is that it must always be prepared fresh and then processed quickly.
It is best to create a corner in the garden where you can compost. There you can deliberately sow nettle, comfrey, tansy and garlic. This means that these plants absorb everything that seeps out of the compost. Place the compost in such a way that you have enough space behind it to grow these four plants in sufficient quantities.
For a garden of 100 m2, 2 m2 of these plants are sufficient. Get good seeds. In early summer, when the stinging nettle, tansy and comfrey are vigorous, harvest so that the plants sprout again. It is best to cut the stems 15 cm above the ground.
For 10L of fertilizer you need :
– 300 g of fresh leaves and stems of each variety, coarsely chopped.
– 50 g of garlic harvested the previous year, well chopped
– 10 liters of water and a 20 liter container, preferably a large bucket.
Place the chopped herbs in the bucket and pour the water over them. The herbs will float, which can be prevented by using a precisely fitting plate or wooden disk and weighing it down. It is important that the herbs lie in the water. The whole thing is placed in a
shady place. Depending on the temperature, the fermentation process is over after 3 weeks. You filter the whole thing, it won’t smell very pleasant, so do everything outside, and dilute this slurry 10 times, i.e. 10 liters of water to 1 liter of slurry. Spray this solution on the soil, not on the plants. The pomace goes into the compost. If you grow vegetables that are heavy feeders, you should treat the soil with it every three weeks. This is best done in the evening so that everything can be slowly absorbed into the soil overnight. If you have created a food forest, once a month is enough.
Sheep’s wool is often no longer used. It is therefore burned. In our opinion, this is a senseless waste. If you have a shepherd at hand who shears his sheep but doesn’t know what to do with the wool, you can take it off his hands. You want to keep snails away from your salad? Well, place the sheep’s wool around the lettuce so that it is mulched. There should be no soil on the wool. The wool decomposes very slowly, within 6 – 9 months. Snails cannot advance on wool. Make sure that they do not crawl under the wool. It is therefore necessary to apply a sufficiently thick layer of wool and work a first part of it into the soil; the wool breaks down and provides the soil with trace elements such as nitrogen. The lettuce will thrive very well Seaweed.
When the French and English came to Canada, they saw how the indigenous people went to the coast at low tide at the end of winter and harvested large quantities of seaweed and took it to the fields. The Europeans thought that the indigenous people were not quite in their right minds, but when it came to harvesting, the Europeans were proved wrong. Seaweed is an excellent fertilizer and, thanks to a polysaccharide called alginate, significantly improves the topsoil. This means that less irrigation is required as water is retained better and the remaining nutrients from the algae are stored very well in the alginate. This means that these substances are available throughout the entire growing season. In recent decades it has been discovered that seaweed contains growth stimulants, i.e. substances that strengthen and regulate the growth of cultivated plants. The composition of these substances varies depending on the type of seaweed. However, the indigenous peoples of coastal Canada knew exactly which ones to take in order to achieve a good harvest, and today seaweed extracts are widely available in horticulture. We do not recommend these extracts because they are extracted using aggressive acids and bases. It is better to process such algae yourself. Nowadays you can buy seaweed ground for horticulture for little money. These are mixed with water and then worked 5 cm deep into the soil around the crop. The result is more than impressive. If you have Terra Preta soil, you will soon realize that the soil fertility hardly needs any input for several years. The carbon in the Terra Preta absorbs the algae constituents and stores them for years.
What appears to be very simple here is knowledge that has been used for centuries. The Ratioars team and the Symbioars team have developed a number of studies and applications. We will report on this by expanding the article.