Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet!

How to make your own all-purpose fertilizer for your plants

It is not difficult to make your own fertlizer with the cheapest available materials from the surpermarket. And in fact, this fertilizer is a very good one. All my trees are healthy and strong simply because of this fertilizer. Do not waste your money on those expensive fertilizers. They are not environmental friendly.

All you need are:

One 12oz can of beer;

One cup of epsom salt;

3 cloves of garlic;

two cups of tap water;

A small bottle of ammonia ( 125ml, 25%)

1/10 of toilet soap (optional)

Here are the steps you need for making the fertlizer:

1/ Crush a clove of garlic into small pieces and mix them with a can of beer, a cup of epsom salt, two cups of the tap water and the ammonia.

2/ Place the mixture from step 1 into a closed bottle, and wait for 1 day.

3/ Use two tablespoons of the mixture from step 2 per gallon of water for a twice per month feeding.

Beer is considered a source of carbohydrates for the microbes which convert food matter in the soil to food elements that plants can utilize.

Ammonia and beer provides nitrogen, which could be absorbed quickly by plants, depending on a few other factors, such as temperature. However, ammonia is very expensive in my area. I normally don't add too much ammonia. Instead, I prefer to plant some mung beans around the plant which I want to fertlize.

Garlic can act as an insect repellent and/or fungicide, which repell pests and eliminates fungi that can kill the plants.

Epsom salt is a source of magnesium that is essestial to plant development. It is required by plants to produce chlorophyll. Leaf yellowing is the deficiency symptom. Magnesium is absorbed through both roots and leaves of plant. It not only helps plants absorb phosphorus , but also increases a plant's natural resistance to disease.

Soap is optional. When mixed with the solution, soap becomes a very powerful insect repellent. However, due to its alkalinity, soap is not suitable for feeding acid-loving plants.

I am a first time gardener with no previous experience of planting and harvesting. I planted my corns on 7 October, 2009. So far, I have applied this fertilzier onto my corn plants three times. The following photographs were taken on 19 December, 2009. Honestly, I am not sure if this "miracle" came from the soil or from this fertilizer:

Figure 1: A zoom-in photograph showing a corn ear.

Figure 2: Another photograph showing some corn ears