Since you don't want to use items from outside the home, the best organic fertilizer you can make is to use leaves from your plants, weeds, grass etc and use it to make a compost tea. It'll smell terrible but that's what you want and you dilute it and your plants will be thriving. Also, if you buy bananas, you can use the peels in several ways by adding it to water and letting it steep. The stinkier the better. You can dry them and crush them into a powder and use directly in the soil or add to a compost tea. Or you can just bury it in the soil. So instead of throwing away your stems, leaves, stalks etc, use it to make a Green Compost tea and/or use Bananas.
Have you ever tried to add a bubbler into the tea? Curious if aeration would prevent anaerobic activity usually associated with smellyness. I have seen video of people who aerate fish waste and claim it does not smell bad at all so long as they aerate it.
Back to Eden absolutely works. Even here in the Nevada desert. I worked solidly for a year setting up a one and a half foot deep layer of tree shreddings in my back yard. One pick up load at a time. The first year after I lay it down, I didn't expect anything. The next year I grew monster sweet potatoes with minimal irrigation. The year after that, I was carting huge watermelons all over the neighborhood. the year after that, my wife wanted a smaller place so we sold our house and huge yard by southern Nevada standards, and moved into a smaller place with a postage stamp backyard. I tried Kratky and a grow room, with lights and had good success with greens and marginal success with fruiting plants like tomato. Then I had to give up my grow room when one of my kids had to move back in for a while. I medically retired as a nurse after 45 years of working. I garden with large containers and use hugelkulture in the base of the largish (30 gallon) pots and plan to get back into Kratky for greens again. I am currently digging out my grow room stuff from the garage and have my eye on moving a couple of my utillity shelves to a corner of the yard. Here in the Mojave the enemies are sun, heat, the dry, water use, and 10 to 90 mph winds that whip through my back yard. That and limited growing space. Kratky hydroponics, believe it or not might be the only way that I can utilize the limited garden area in the hostile conditions and the water rationing we have out here. I continue to watch your videos and rewatch the older ones for things to try out here. God bless \.
i have been following you over years, as in the beginning I was looking to improve health trough diet, I even made a hydroponic system, that later evolved to a aquaponic system, loved that one as produce was tastier and better, with time had the chance to even get a small piece of land, and started growing food in a more aggressive way, then the virus came with its lockdowns, and provide me with a new view, i see that you have evolved as well, this changes did great on my health and my family, hope it does as well with you.
You can get basically all your trace elements from wood ash extracted into water. Filter through gauze. The solution is more than adequate for Calcium, and also contains potassium and phosphorus. You need to add a nitrogen source (liquid fertiliser from compressed garden weeds (especially nitrogen fixing). Adjust the pH using some of your Lactic Acid (it will go off faster than phosphoric acid) I like to test and adjust NPK levels using a cheap NPK test kit, at least until you get the formula right. Use some of that Lactic acid in insect traps (great for mosquitos), and once it has decomposed, filter it and you have an extra phosphorus boost that you can add at the right time. Lemon juice (citric acid) if you have access to it is more resistant to biodegradation than Lactic acid. If you have access to seaweed, that's another good source of K and P. It can be composted after you wash off the salt and the compost tea will contain more P and K It can be done, but requires a lot of effort.
I made a tea compost with pelletised cow manure in place of masterblend : the result is quite similar comparing the organic and inorganic kratky system. Both system are similar for kind of fruits and taste. Obviously the Speed of growning is a little bit slow of 14 days..i tested It with eggplant and tomatoes
Mike, if you know a farmer with cows ask if you can have some of the cow poop. Get a 5 gal. bucket, drill some1 inch holes an inch from the bottom, fill the bucket with the cow poop, add some water and set the bucket half way into the ground and let nature do its thing. You can also add your food scraps in the same bucket.
Very Cool. My disability has drawn me to your hydroponics. How your methods would benefit so many people. But I am a compost fish fertilizer gardener.. So I love this new journey ,I'll be right here learning along. Thank you, Thank you.
Sir I used 1kg of cow dung manure in 20 liters of water to make a concentrate. I left this to ferment for about 15 days in aeration. (aeration is important!) I use 3 parts of this concentrate per 2 parts. That worked pretty well but sometimes the reesults fluctuate.
KNF! Yes! I knew we were heading in the same direction! This is exciting! (Due to unforseen family complications, I can't conduct the experiments I'd planned for this summer. Hopefully, when/if life gets back to 'normal' again, you will already have done some if it and I won't have to go so far to get back on track.)
I never heard of KNF until someone else commented on it. I looked it up and spent 4 hours last night watching it, lol. This is quite exciting. Let me know when you restart, it will be good to compare what we learn.
David the Good already mentioned. Here are some top dudes in the fertilizer area (and compost / compost tea): Nigel Palmer book and YT channel, Chris Trump for all KNF/JADAM approaches, Nature’s Always Right for good practical examples of composting with KNF approaches, Matt Powers for all things “living soil” related plus compost and super charged compost tea. You’ve got Nate already, another practical couple is Bare Mountain Farm on YT. Think those are my top references for now. Edit: forgot Growing Your Greens (John Kohler), majorly into amendments so likely to boost cost and reliance on external inputs, but plenty of good info on the channel
Yes, those and for natural container gardening only using things from your property to fertilize... Robbie and Gary gardening easy channel. They each have their own gardens and gardening style. And, they grow different things so you can see a lot of variety of crops and different ways to grow them.
I heard that homemade blood meal bone meal and homemade fish fertilizer and making leaf mold works great on your garden. You should look up those homemade recipes. I know it works for growing in soil but I would love to see if you can add it to the water to work for a hydroponic system
If you are going to incorporate in-ground gardening I reccommmend watching the survival gardener (David the Good). He has combined several methods to create 'the grocery row garden' as well as many videos for DIY fertilizers and soil improvement. He is near you in Alabama.
His ebooks are great and he just came out with another one called Minimalist Gardening I don't have yet. I've also ordered seeds from his kids on eBay.
Really Good stuff there. Since we have to use the LABS within like a week, I'm going to try it with a half gallon of milk. Thanks for the tip on the Walmart charcoal, too!
You have to try aquaponics !!! This is the organic hydroponics, and you even get proteins from the fish. I'd love to try it out but I live in an appartment ...
Do it small scale in your apartment .. 2 great sources to study, the guy in Florida who sells breeder colonies, and has researched it since the 60s, and the guy in Australia who IMHO is the leading authority, both are really in tilapia and aquaponics,,, more hours of videos to watch than I can say. Basic rule of thumbs, 1 inch of fish per gallon of water per 1 Sq ft of growing space... unfortunately it can get expensive in startup....
I just made my fist LAB from the GLAV channel as well. I was wondering if we could replace the hydroponic solution with stuff we can make. There is also David the good fitted swamp water or the guys who use Mexican sun flower to make a liquid solution. Have you tried either of those? Do you see being able to move away from any store bought solutions any time soon?
It's going to take some trial and error. Organics work but with circulation and aeration. Kratky makes it tough. The lactic acid is just one piece of the puzzle, plants need a lot more.
Hope you and your family are doing well. This is a little different from what I have been doing but has been weighing on my brain for a while. Thank you for all you do and all the people you help along the way. You rock.
@KeepOnGrowin we are wonderful Mike ❤️ I do both in ground and hydro...so this is perfect for me ! I'm also a 99.9% organic gardner... ( once in a blue moon I gotta do something desperate...lol)
Hi. I am very very new to making food for growing, so take my statement with pinch salt.😊 So if aqauponics works for plants using the ammonia, should that not be starting point.
Since you don't want to use items from outside the home, the best organic fertilizer you can make is to use leaves from your plants, weeds, grass etc and use it to make a compost tea. It'll smell terrible but that's what you want and you dilute it and your plants will be thriving. Also, if you buy bananas, you can use the peels in several ways by adding it to water and letting it steep. The stinkier the better. You can dry them and crush them into a powder and use directly in the soil or add to a compost tea. Or you can just bury it in the soil. So instead of throwing away your stems, leaves, stalks etc, use it to make a Green Compost tea and/or use Bananas.
That's fantastic! Thank you!!
Have you ever tried to add a bubbler into the tea? Curious if aeration would prevent anaerobic activity usually associated with smellyness. I have seen video of people who aerate fish waste and claim it does not smell bad at all so long as they aerate it.
Can you use ivy leaves?
Back to Eden absolutely works. Even here in the Nevada desert. I worked solidly for a year setting up a one and a half foot deep layer of tree shreddings in my back yard. One pick up load at a time. The first year after I lay it down, I didn't expect anything. The next year I grew monster sweet potatoes with minimal irrigation. The year after that, I was carting huge watermelons all over the neighborhood. the year after that, my wife wanted a smaller place so we sold our house and huge yard by southern Nevada standards, and moved into a smaller place with a postage stamp backyard. I tried Kratky and a grow room, with lights and had good success with greens and marginal success with fruiting plants like tomato. Then I had to give up my grow room when one of my kids had to move back in for a while. I medically retired as a nurse after 45 years of working. I garden with large containers and use hugelkulture in the base of the largish (30 gallon) pots and plan to get back into Kratky for greens again. I am currently digging out my grow room stuff from the garage and have my eye on moving a couple of my utillity shelves to a corner of the yard. Here in the Mojave the enemies are sun, heat, the dry, water use, and 10 to 90 mph winds that whip through my back yard. That and limited growing space. Kratky hydroponics, believe it or not might be the only way that I can utilize the limited garden area in the hostile conditions and the water rationing we have out here. I continue to watch your videos and rewatch the older ones for things to try out here. God bless \.
Awesome! Thank you! Does my heart good to hear how you experiment, analyze and adapt. Keep up the great work.
I'm pretty sure aquaponics took off in Australia as well as it did because of their water rationing. Might be worth looking into.
i have been following you over years, as in the beginning I was looking to improve health trough diet, I even made a hydroponic system, that later evolved to a aquaponic system, loved that one as produce was tastier and better, with time had the chance to even get a small piece of land, and started growing food in a more aggressive way, then the virus came with its lockdowns, and provide me with a new view, i see that you have evolved as well, this changes did great on my health and my family, hope it does as well with you.
That is so awesome to hear! Good for you! I love hearing things like this. Thank you.
You can get basically all your trace elements from wood ash extracted into water. Filter through gauze. The solution is more than adequate for Calcium, and also contains potassium and phosphorus. You need to add a nitrogen source (liquid fertiliser from compressed garden weeds (especially nitrogen fixing). Adjust the pH using some of your Lactic Acid (it will go off faster than phosphoric acid) I like to test and adjust NPK levels using a cheap NPK test kit, at least until you get the formula right. Use some of that Lactic acid in insect traps (great for mosquitos), and once it has decomposed, filter it and you have an extra phosphorus boost that you can add at the right time. Lemon juice (citric acid) if you have access to it is more resistant to biodegradation than Lactic acid.
If you have access to seaweed, that's another good source of K and P. It can be composted after you wash off the salt and the compost tea will contain more P and K
It can be done, but requires a lot of effort.
I made a tea compost with pelletised cow manure in place of masterblend : the result is quite similar comparing the organic and inorganic kratky system. Both system are similar for kind of fruits and taste. Obviously the Speed of growning is a little bit slow of 14 days..i tested It with eggplant and tomatoes
That's awesome! Thank you! I may have questions on down the road.
Mike, if you know a farmer with cows ask if you can have some of the cow poop. Get a 5 gal. bucket, drill some1 inch holes an inch from the bottom, fill the bucket with the cow poop, add some water and set the bucket half way into the ground and let nature do its thing. You can also add your food scraps in the same bucket.
Very Cool. My disability has drawn me to your hydroponics. How your methods would benefit so many people. But I am a compost fish fertilizer gardener.. So I love this new journey ,I'll be right here learning along. Thank you, Thank you.
Thank you too! Have a great weekend!
Sir I used 1kg of cow dung manure in 20 liters of water to make a concentrate. I left this to ferment for about 15 days in aeration. (aeration is important!) I use 3 parts of this concentrate per 2 parts. That worked pretty well but sometimes the reesults fluctuate.
When you says. Your so happy and excited for all the out come. I get it happy your sharing
KNF! Yes! I knew we were heading in the same direction! This is exciting! (Due to unforseen family complications, I can't conduct the experiments I'd planned for this summer. Hopefully, when/if life gets back to 'normal' again, you will already have done some if it and I won't have to go so far to get back on track.)
I never heard of KNF until someone else commented on it. I looked it up and spent 4 hours last night watching it, lol. This is quite exciting. Let me know when you restart, it will be good to compare what we learn.
David the Good already mentioned. Here are some top dudes in the fertilizer area (and compost / compost tea): Nigel Palmer book and YT channel, Chris Trump for all KNF/JADAM approaches, Nature’s Always Right for good practical examples of composting with KNF approaches, Matt Powers for all things “living soil” related plus compost and super charged compost tea. You’ve got Nate already, another practical couple is Bare Mountain Farm on YT. Think those are my top references for now. Edit: forgot Growing Your Greens (John Kohler), majorly into amendments so likely to boost cost and reliance on external inputs, but plenty of good info on the channel
Thank you! That will keep me busy for quite some time. You totally get what direction I am headed.
Yes, those and for natural container gardening only using things from your property to fertilize...
Robbie and Gary gardening easy channel. They each have their own gardens and gardening style. And, they grow different things so you can see a lot of variety of crops and different ways to grow them.
Oh, and Live on What you Grow for a super easy biochar retort
Grow some Catnip for natural , safe and effective mosquito repellant equivalent in effectiveness to DEET.
Thanks for the tip! Kitty will love it too.
Catnip tea is good to help one go to sleep...my Daddy gave it to us, Old School....
I heard that homemade blood meal bone meal and homemade fish fertilizer and making leaf mold works great on your garden. You should look up those homemade recipes. I know it works for growing in soil but I would love to see if you can add it to the water to work for a hydroponic system
Thank you for this
If you are going to incorporate in-ground gardening I reccommmend watching the survival gardener (David the Good). He has combined several methods to create 'the grocery row garden' as well as many videos for DIY fertilizers and soil improvement. He is near you in Alabama.
Thank you! Will do!
His ebooks are great and he just came out with another one called Minimalist Gardening I don't have yet. I've also ordered seeds from his kids on eBay.
i been watching nate for few months he is brilliant just like yourself
Thank you very much!
Mike check out the instant garden method. It might help you. Keep up the great videos. I've learned a ton!
Love, love the raised bed. May need to copy ❤
Make a few! It's awesome!
Thank you for more good info, can't wait to see how it turns out 😊
Really Good stuff there. Since we have to use the LABS within like a week, I'm going to try it with a half gallon of milk. Thanks for the tip on the Walmart charcoal, too!
Yeah, I'm going half a gallon next time too, lol.
I've read that there are ways to keep LAB longer. 1) refrigerate or 2) mix an equal amount of brown sugar to the LAB and it will keep on the shelf
@@juanitanoble3190 Yeah, I got some in the fridge right now and was going to try a batch with brown sugar.
Great idea, looking forward to your videos on this!
Thank you!
You have to try aquaponics !!! This is the organic hydroponics, and you even get proteins from the fish. I'd love to try it out but I live in an appartment ...
Do it small scale in your apartment .. 2 great sources to study, the guy in Florida who sells breeder colonies, and has researched it since the 60s, and the guy in Australia who IMHO is the leading authority, both are really in tilapia and aquaponics,,, more hours of videos to watch than I can say. Basic rule of thumbs, 1 inch of fish per gallon of water per 1 Sq ft of growing space... unfortunately it can get expensive in startup....
Nate is great. His raw chicken manure liquid spray is an idea.
Easy and multi nutritional.
Another good channel to check out is David the good
Good man!
I am going to build my first 5 galloon bucket tower that you designed. I have a worm farm. Can I use worm castings tea for this hydroponic idea?
You can try, I can't guarantee anything. Organics seem to go bad fast. I am still messing around with a lot of things.
I just made my fist LAB from the GLAV channel as well. I was wondering if we could replace the hydroponic solution with stuff we can make. There is also David the good fitted swamp water or the guys who use Mexican sun flower to make a liquid solution. Have you tried either of those? Do you see being able to move away from any store bought solutions any time soon?
It's going to take some trial and error. Organics work but with circulation and aeration. Kratky makes it tough. The lactic acid is just one piece of the puzzle, plants need a lot more.
Would compost liquid work? Or are the nutrients not equal for hydroponic growing?
This was just one part of many things. Compost tea works great.
Looking forward to watching this ❤️
Hope you and your family are doing well. This is a little different from what I have been doing but has been weighing on my brain for a while. Thank you for all you do and all the people you help along the way. You rock.
@KeepOnGrowin we are wonderful Mike ❤️ I do both in ground and hydro...so this is perfect for me ! I'm also a 99.9% organic gardner... ( once in a blue moon I gotta do something desperate...lol)
Hi. I am very very new to making food for growing, so take my statement with pinch salt.😊 So if aqauponics works for plants using the ammonia, should that not be starting point.
There are many starting points and many paths to take.
Study first before deciding then do a practice budget... then do a small test to try it out
As always man! Amazing. I guess you are even cheaper than me! Haha
Hahahahahaha! Yep
Uda man Mike. 👊🏽👽👍🏽
I like your experiments........
Nice!