Stinging nettle as fertilizer

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

Vegetable and fruit plants need not only good care, but also feeding. And the gardeners are marching in formation to the store for chemicals. Do they know that the best means are under their feet? For example, the ubiquitous nettle as a fertilizer surpasses all synthetic counterparts. You just need to know how to use it correctly.

Valuable properties of nettle

As a source of vitamins (C, K, A), trace elements and valuable organic acids (iron, copper, potassium, nitrogen, manganese, etc.), this indestructible weed is widely used in home cosmetics, as well as in cooking, as additives to spring salads and green borscht and soups. For feeding vegetable and ornamental plants, nettle as a fertilizer is especially valuable because of the high content of potassium and nitrogen. Moreover, it is equally useful for nutrition and for protecting plantings from pests and diseases. Experienced gardeners always store nettle infusion for future use. How fertilizer is prepared and applied - more on that below. First, it will be useful to knowhow to use fresh nettles on the site.

Burning Protector

She has a burning character, of course, which scares many away from her. Is it possible to use this very property for good? For example, change your attitude towards a weed and leave it as a strip along the perimeter of the site like a hedge? It will be easier for uninvited guests to overcome a prickly fence than such an obstacle. Well, if such an extravagant method is not suitable, you can mow the nettle and spread it under vegetable plants - tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes. First, it is a mulch that prevents weeds from germinating. Secondly, it repels pests - leaf-eating insects, slugs. Decaying, nettle as a fertilizer nourishes the plants. Many gardeners successfully practice mulching with chopped nettles, enriching the soil and protecting it from erosion.

How to prepare nettle fertilizer

The process is very simple. Fresh or slightly dried grass to reduce biting should be chopped or cut, put in a bucket or barrel (it is advisable to use plastic containers, not metal ones) and pour settled or rain water. All this will wander for ten or fourteen days. The smell, I must say, is not pleasant, so you need to determine the right place to prepare the fertilizer. With the resulting infusion, you can fearlessly water all plants, with the exception of beans, onions and garlic - for some reason they do not like nettle as a fertilizer. But such top dressing is accepted with gratitude by everyone.other vegetable crops, and even flowers, both garden and indoor. Fertilizer works very well on berry bushes - currants, blackberries, raspberries. You can water strawberries with nettle infusion. After such feeding, the plants literally come to life, their leaves become shiny and rich green, the growth and ripening of fruits accelerate.

Another way to prepare nettle fertilizer will be useful to know. Grass and stems can be burned and valuable ash can be obtained, the content of nitrogen and potassium is several times higher than that of wood. This is such a valuable plant - a burning weed nettle.