Nettle fertilizer: how to apply

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Many summer residents consider nettle a weed and mercilessly remove it from the site. Meanwhile, a very effective fertilizer can be prepared from this plant. It is perfect for all types of garden crops, except legumes, onions and garlic. It is very easy to prepare such fertilizer from nettle. For this, the simplest method is used - soaking the crushed plant in a barrel.

In order to prepare the necessary composition, you need to pick the nettle itself. It is best to wear gloves on your hands. The most useful and nutritious nettle fertilizer is obtained if it is harvested before flowering.

This must be taken into account. In addition, you should not collect this plant along the road. These nettles may contain harmful substances.

To prepare fertilizer, you will need a barrel. In this case, metal will not work. The ideal option is a wooden or plastic container. If you don’t have a barrel, you can take an ordinary ten-liter bucket. Nettle must first be cut into small pieces. If the amount of green masstoo big, you can just chop it with an ax.

Then, chopped nettles are placed in a barrel so as to fill it by a third, and poured with warm water. In order for fermentation to occur faster and the smell does not spread around the site, the container is covered with a lid. Nettle fertilizer will be ready in hot summer weather in about a week. In autumn or spring, fermentation will take at least two weeks.

During this period, the mixture in the barrel will need to be stirred periodically. This must be done once a day.

You can find out whether the fertilizer is ready or not by the characteristic smell and color of the solution, which brightens at the end of fermentation. In addition, foam appears on the surface of the composition. As soon as the nettle solution takes on a similar appearance, you can actually start feeding the plants. Liquid nettle fertilizer will need to be diluted with water at the rate of one part of the mixture to ten parts of water.

The beds are well watered beforehand. Then the diluted mixture, using a watering can, is poured under the roots of the plants. The result will be noticeable almost immediately - the leaves of the crops fed in this way will become dark green, and the stems will become thicker. Nettle fertilizer can be used regularly.

Unlike chemicals, it is completely harmless both for the plants themselves and for human he alth. The stems and leaves of the nettle contain all the substances necessary for the growth of garden crops, and she gives them very easily.

You can use this plant to control some types of pests. For this, the spraying method is used. In the event that you decide to use the composition prepared in the barrel in this way, it should be diluted in a ratio of 1:20. Apply a solution from this plant against aphids, mites and even late blight.

Green fertilizer from nettle has only one drawback. During fermentation, it emits a very unpleasant odor. Therefore, a barrel of slurry should be placed as far as possible from home and places of rest. However, the positive effect that the use of this type of top dressing gives is certainly worth it to endure this slight inconvenience.