Monday, February 14, 2011

Home Made Garden Fertiliser

I make my own fertiliser. I was put onto this by my step-son in Malaysia, Shaif. He read about it and was taken by the simplicity of it all. When I returned to Australia, I thought I'd give it a go and see what happened. I did a little experiment by watering some plants with the fertiliser and others without. The results are below.
This fertiliser is called "Garbage Enzyme" because all you use to make it is vegetable and fruit scraps, brown sugar and water. It takes 3 months to make, but it is well worth the wait. The only labour required is the initial mixing of the ingredients and then for the first couple of weeks releasing the gasses and giving it a bit of a stir. The enzyme can be used for many purposes - fertiliser of course, add more citrus content and it becomes an insecticide to get rid of those nasties, you can also clean your concrete patio or your car with it, degrease your barbie and they also claim you can use it on your hair as a shampoo!!!!! But I don't have enough hair to worry about that.
Commercial fertilisers can cost from $20 - $50 per litre. The enzyme only costs 50 cents per litre!!! You mix it the same as commercial fertilisers - 10ml to 1 litre of water.
If you are interested in having a go, follow this link:  http://www.o3enzyme.com/enzymeproduction.htm.


 

 These tomatoes were both grown from seed from the same packet, planted at the same time and transplanted when they were the same size. As you can see, the one on the left is much stronger than the one on the right and the centre pic will show you the comparative sizes. The one on the left was fertilised with the enzyme and is really showing the strength it gets from this application and the one on the right was just plain water.


 My passionfruit have also benefited from watering with the enzyme. All plants get a feeding every 10 days or so. On the left is the new extension because they were growing so well, the right is today, 2 weeks later. When I wrote about the passionfruit before, I commented on the first fruits forming. Well, have a look now!!!! 2 weeks later and this is one of many. I could be picking them in another week or two. 
If you had any doubts about the garbage enzyme, this should change your mind and egg you on to have a go.
By the way. I bought four 5.1 litre plastic buckets with lids from a discount store for $2.00 each. They do the job well and the ingredients fit it perfectly with enough room left at the top to let the gasses gather before you lift the lid.

4 comments:

  1. looks like it is working well for you Poppy.... How does it smell like, the same whisky - ish fermented smell ? :). Maybe you can mix'em with the rain water poppy, in the tank. So it would go into the washing as well.... suppose to soften hard water.... Read about it somewhere.

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  2. also for whomever that is curious. I suggest have it a go. It is a very simple method. From my reading it will also help to fix bad soil and a natural pesticide. Even good for rodents. So try it who knows it might work for you. :)

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  3. Thought about all that mate. Maybe try a bit later after I test this lot out properly. Looks like it has already fixed the poor soil here. Lots of small rocks and not much nourishment in lots of it but enzyme working well.

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  4. Besides .... the pesticide is already mentioned in the article!!!!!!

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