Cheap Fertilizers From Home For Your Plants

I am not an avid gardener but I love gardening as my daily activity, as an exercise and also as an endeavor to live and eat healthier. I grow herbs like chives, lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, galangal, vegetables like spinach, sweet leaves, and others. I don't have much space as I am living in a terrace house, and all those plants live in their own pot. Hence I need to regularly water them or they will face some dehydration problem. 

Turmeric and Lemon Basil plant in containers. 

Other than water, plants need food. Fertilizers are some of the source of their food. Plants in the pot require more fertilizer than plants growing on the land. This is because pot has less space and volume thus it can contain less nutrients. Hence we have to always add the fertilizers and sometimes even add new soil into the pot. 

This requires us to invest some money to our gardening hobby. But there are a some ways which may be cheaper for us to fertilize our plants. 

Rice Water

To some of us who eat rice often or even daily, this is a kind of super saver fertilizer readily available for us at almost no cost. The residual water we used for rinsing the rice can be used to water and fertilize the plant, especially leafy plants. Spinach, chives and butterfly pea are some of the plants which loves rice water. 

Coffee Ground

Coffee lovers can collect the coffee ground after brewing their coffee and use them to fertilize the plants. Green vegetables are some of the coffee lovers too. Green leaf plants usually needs lots of nitrogen for their growth and coffee ground has it for them. Plus, it is believed that ants does not like coffee, so it also works to repel ants from the plants too. 

Egg shells

Do not throw the egg shells after adding eggs in your cakes and other food. Egg shells contain calcium and potassium, which are good for plants, especially flowers and fruit plants. You can grind the egg shells into powder or infuse the shell in water. Fine egg shell particles also can repel snails from your garden. 

Bread Fermented Water

I have not tried this yet but some people have. Put some bread in a jar or bottle of water and wait for 2 to 3 days. Then use the fermented water to water and fertilize your plants. 

Fruit and Vegetables Peelings

Usually onions, potatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins, I used their peelings to fertilize new soil in a new pot. This is to add compost to the pot and its future resident. By using this method I have to wait for the peelings to truly composted before growing the plants in it. These peelings can also be added into the compost or sowed in the soil around the plants. 

Kitchen Scraps 

Some of the kitchen scraps like vegetables residues can be turned into compost. Add them in a hole or container and mix with some soil. And wait for 2 weeks to few months, depends on temperature, weather and humidity in the area. But you have to flip and stir them occasionally to make sure it is well mixed so that the composting process are working and effective. For making compost we have to balance the amount of green wet scraps and brown scraps such as dried leaves, branches and papers. Good compost does not smell. In the old days people just add the kitchen scrap near the root of the plant. This also works and some people even burn their kitchen scrap nearby existing trees. But now we already have proper waste management and to prevent air pollution burning waste are no more encouraged. 

Seafood Water

Okay this is a famous fertilizer in my area. Some people like to water their plants with the residual water they used to wash the fresh seafood the bought from fresh market. The water may contain squid ink and fish blood. Its smell is fishy. But actually the plants loves it. Some of these plants grow well and big. Except sometimes they also smell fishy. Especially after they are being watered. The same situation is said to happen with the plants which had been grown using aqua phonic system where the water from fish tank are used to water and fertilize the plants via a piping system and pumps. Some people even keep the residual water used to clean fish, and the fish stomach in  barrel or container and ferment it for some time before watering the plants with them. 

Tea leaves

Same as coffee ground, used tea leaves can also be used to fertilize plants. But usually they are not many as we only use a small amount of tea leaves to make tea. But you can alternate the application to different plants so that all the plants can have their tea =). Tea leaves also contain nitrogen and are good for leafy plants. 

Fermented Rice Water

Sometimes I make my own fermented rice face mask. For that purpose I soak the rice in a jar for 3 months. But the water must be changed often to ensure the process runs well and to eliminate bad odor. So I also used the residual water from the rice fermentation process to water the plants. This also works well for my plants especially green leafy plants. 

Dried leaves and branches

If you have a garden then you may have a lot of dried leaves and branches. These are a very good source of nutrients for other plants. Just add them to the compost or crush them into smaller pieces and put them around your plants. They will work as fertilizers, soil conditioner and mulch. They also may help to contain moisture in the soil. 

Add dried leaves and branches as mulch and fertilizer for your plant. 

Sea Shells

Sea shells contain high amount of calcium and potassium and even some phosphorus. They are good for the plant growth and the flowering and fruiting process of a plant. You may crush them and add the to the soil. You can also use cleaned fish bone but that may attract cats to your garden.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

MSG or as the above name is a famous food additive. But recently some people have added them to the plant. As for human, MSG is said to cause negative effect to the health. But by adding MSG to plants some evident (from social media) shown the positive effect on the plant growth. However, the effect of the MSG fed plants to humans are still unknown. 

Burnt Organic Materials

Some of the burnt organic materials which are non toxic such as branches and untreated wood may be used as plants fertilizers. They supply carbon to the plants. 

Plants Cuttings

Trimming plants in the garden is a periodic activity for a gardener. Lots of plants need to be trimmed to grow and expand. These cuttings from trimmings (from non toxic plants) can also be used to fertilize and mulch your plants. Put them in the compost or put them around he plants. You can also sow them around the plants for a quicker process and effect. 

Papers

Papers which contain non dangerous ingredients can be used to mulch the plants or added in the compost bin. This will add the carbon ingredients in the compost. 

These are some off the fertilizers for the plants which we can easily obtain from home, grocery shops, restaurants and others. Some of them really works while some of them might not work for certain places and conditions. For example an uncle whom I have long known, waters his plant using fermented used seafood water but the result is not really good. But other people did it and it really works for them. Maybe there are some other factors which affect the result such as the condition of soil and ecological factor of the area. 

In some area where ants lives and breed, it might not be suitable to apply kitchen scraps directly to the plants because they may attract these ants. And once these ants decided to open their aphid farm near your plants, and breed them well then your plants may not be healthy. The same may goes for rice water. Rotting dried leaves and branches may attract mold. 

Hence before applying those materials we have to do some research regarding our soil and other conditions in our garden and also the proper methods of applying these ingredients to our plants and their effects to ensure the health of our garden and success of our effort. =) Happy Gardening.