Organic gardeners will often go to any length to keep their plants happy and safe, but without the use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Here are some old tricks and a few new ones using common household substances that can make a gardener’s’ life easy and keep plants happy and healthy in a natural and non-toxic way.
Don’t be fooled by the strangeness of some of these organic garden remedies. As odd as they may seem, they are effective measures that have been put to the test over time!
TO IMPROVE SOIL:
1. USE YOUR PEE TO FERTILIZE PLANTS
Organic gardeners do not want to waste any of nature’s bounty, and that includes nitrogen-rich urine.
The composition of urine varies from person to person, but it generally has an NPK ratio of 11-1-2. The nitrogen found in human urine ensures lush foliage growth; hence, it is best for greens and grassy plants like corn.
The high salt content may scorch the plants if you pee directly on them, so it is better to do it a little away from the base of the plant.
Better still, collect the pee and dilute it with 10 times water before applying it to the root zone. For tender plants and seedlings, dilute it further.
2. BURY YOUR KITCHEN WASTE IN THE GARDEN
Whether you have a compost pile or not, you can utilize every bit of kitchen waste in the garden.
Make a long ditch 1 foot deep between rows of vegetables to receive the waste. Start dumping the kitchen waste of each day from one end of the ditch.
The soil from the ditch piled along its edge can be used to cover up the waste as soon as it is deposited so that there would be no bad smell or fly problem.
When the entire length of the ditch is covered up, you will have a slightly raised bed.
You can plant the vegetables on this raised bed the following year, making another ditch for the wastes.
3. WEED TEA AS FERTILIZER
Brew a weed tea fertilizer to take sweet revenge on the weeds that rob your garden plants of nutrients. Cut up the weeds and dunk them in a tub of water kept in the sun.
In a few days, a nitrogen-rich green tea will be ready. Use it as soil fertilizer or foliar spray.
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) can be used the same way to make excellent fertilizer whether you grow it for medicinal purposes or not.
You can use the whole plant to make the tea.
Its deep roots bring up nutrients from the deeper layers of soil and make it available to other plants.
4. VINEGAR AS WEED KILLER
Most organic gardeners do not like to use herbicides in their garden, but they may have second thoughts when their gardens are run over by weeds.
Vinegar is an environment-friendly alternative to chemical weed killers.
Pour some vinegar into a spray bottle and drench the weeds with it. Do this on a hot, sunny day for best results.
The acid will scorch the weeds and kill them in a few days.
Water the area afterward to remove excess acidity or sprinkle baking soda on soil to neutralize it.
5. ADD OYSTER SHELLS AND EGGSHELLS TO YOUR GARDEN BEDS
Crushed shells of oysters and eggs make slow-release fertilizers that will keep your garden soil sweet and healthy.
Crush them with a rolling pin to make the pieces as small as you can.
The calcium carbonate in the shells makes the soil alkaline, so use it around plants that love alkaline soil.
6. ADJUST PH WITH WOOD ASH AND COFFEE GROUNDS
When you grow different types of plants in your garden, their pH needs may vary.
Large-scale soil amendments should be aimed at bringing the pH to as closer to neutral, but spot treatments can be used to keep individual plants happy.
Wood ash from wood burning stoves and fireplaces can alkalinize the soil in your asparagus patch and vegetable beds growing broccoli, beans, and beet.
Coffee grounds can be used around ericaceous plants like roses, azaleas, and rhododendrons.
TO PROMOTE PLANT HEALTH:
7. PLAY MUSIC FOR YOUR PLANTS
If you have been talking to your plants, as every conscientious gardener should, you can step it up with a bit of music.
Several plant biologists who have studied the effect of music on plant growth have come up with predictable results.
Plants show their affinity to music by putting out better growth.
And, if the experiments by Dorothy Retallack are anything to go by, they even lean towards the speakers that play the kind of music they like.
As far as likes and dislikes, it has been observed that plants prefer classical music to country music; they love jazz, but hate rock.
Well, whether you believe it or not, DeMorgenzon vineyard in South Africa plays baroque music and Paradiso di Frassina in Tuscany Italy plays selected classical pieces to their grapevines to aid their growth and maturity.
8. DRIVE A NAIL INTO A TREE TO MAKE IT YIELD
The old practice of driving a nail into a tree is reportedly quite effective in jolting a tree into flowering and fruit set.
Old apple trees that have stopped producing could be coaxed to flower by driving a nail into its trunk. In India, they do this to coconut trees to make them bear fruit.
If you have a fruit tree that refuses to bloom, you can try this trick. Nails in trees usually do not cause any damage to the trees.
Their self-healing mechanism produces scar tissue to enclose and isolate these foreign bodies.
9. IMPROVE FRUIT SET WITH EPSOM SALT
If you find your pepper plants dropping fruit, turn to Epsom salt. You will see a definite improvement in fruit set almost immediately.
The magnesium in the Magnesium sulfate salt could be doing the trick.
Magnesium is an important component of chlorophyll – as important as iron is to the hemoglobin in our blood.
To make a foliar spray of Epsom salt, mix 2 tablespoons in a quart bottle of warm water and shake well to dissolve.
Spray the pepper plants once every two weeks from the time they start flowering until the fruiting is over.
Alternatively, you can sprinkle Epsom salt crystals around the plants once a week.
10. RUSTY NAILS IN WATERING CAN WILL HELP FIGHT IRON DEFICIENCY
Iron is necessary for healthy plant growth. Deficiency of this mineral causes a condition called iron chlorosis.
A typical symptom is yellowing of leaves with their veins remaining green.
More often than not, it is the inability of the plants to absorb the iron from the soil, rather than the absence of iron in the soil that results in iron chlorosis.
Excess phosphorous in the soil or high pH could be preventing the absorption of iron from the soil.
While long-term measures to amend the soil are preferred for lasting results, spraying the plants with iron-rich water can be a quick-fix.
A few rusty nails in the watering can will ensure a regular supply of iron.
11. COCONUT WATER FOR ROOT DEVELOPMENT
The clear liquid inside the coconuts (some call it coconut milk, but others refer to it as coconut water) is rich in minerals, but what makes it interesting to the die-hard organic gardener is its capacity to enhance root development.
You can do away with synthetic rooting hormones and use coconut water rich in gibberellic acid and cytokinins to increase germination of seeds and root development in cuttings.
12. EXTEND GROWING SEASON WITH TUBS OF WATER
You can regulate the microenvironment in your garden with tubs of water.
Solar radiation warms up the water and the garden soil during the day.
While the soil quickly cools down in chilly evening weather, it takes much longer for the water to release the stored up heat.
Water acting as heat sink keeps the garden a few degrees warmer, giving your plants a bit more time to grow before winter takes over.
Water tubs are most effective in controlled environments within plant tents. Cover the tubs with black plastic sheeting to prevent water loss through evaporation.
This will help in better absorption of heat energy too.