Use Stinging Nettles To Make A Liquid Fertilizer

There doesn't always have to be a 'recipe' when it comes to natural farming and gardening. Pick it, throw it some water (chlorine-free), forget about it for a few weeks. Fill your container up with water, let sit for a day or two, toss in plant material.

Dynamic Accumulators (your stinging nettles, et. al.)
oregonbd.org/Class/accum.htm

These are all great additions to the compost pile as well. Do let them dry first though. Cut them up if you want (this will help the unseen lifeforms, microbes, digest better).

 

Forgot to mention: Silica is great for building cell wall structure, stalks. This will help to make plants stronger.

 

I just re-read all the posts here as I have just made a barrel Nettle Tea Fertilizer! I used up a huge amount of Stinging Nettle that grows in various places at the 300 acre resort I work at. I filled a large rain barrel about 1/4 full with nettle and then filled the barrel to 1/2 full with rain water. It has now been sitting in the barrel for 7 days and is starting to get rather stinky. I will let it 'brew' for another 10 days. My intentions are to use this fertilizer in the organic vegetable gardens. I do have a few questions about it's use. I understand this is not good to use on beans or peas because of excess nitrogen so I was just wondering if there were other crops not to use this on? I thought the rhubarb, kale, chard, cabbage, onions and other leafy greens would benefit from it and how often should I apply it?

 

Hahaha....Netty--"stinkey"? chortle. I dare say that "stinkey" isn't exact;y THE word for that "aroma".

The older it gets the "stinkier" it will get, so be sure that you have a good cover for it. Also, you don't want the water to evaporate, thus making the solution more concentrated than necessary.
I do not know specifically other plants that you ought not to use this "tea" on, but a good rule of thumb is not to use it on any plants that fixate nitrogen. All the bean sorts as well as pea sorts. Broadly speaking, legumes.

The leafy veg that you mentioned would be good to use it on because the nitrogen stimulated leafy growth, as you know.
I had thought about using it on sweetcorn, but never got around to it. You might want to experiment with that on a couple of plants to see if it makes a difference.

I made the nettle tea on a small scale and used it almost exclusively on the toms. I also used it on courgettes.

I have also written about "Comfrey Tea". I often mix the two leaf sorts in one tea for a good balance.

http://www.gardenstew.com/about9181.html

I had written something recently about this comfrey but cannot for the life of me recall what or exactly when.

I would apply the "tea" every two weeks as a rule of thumb, but you can observe how your plants are doing and the precipitation levels to tailor your applications. I do not begin applying until the plants are grown and "on their way".

Let me know how this goes for you, miss. If I can answer any other questions or if you just want to chat about it...just PM me or make a thread entry. I am always available.

Good luck, meid!

 

Thankfully I used a barrel with a lid. The older this mixture gets, the more it starts to smell like sewage! Originally I wanted to use Comfrey to make this fertilizer, but the Comfrey was slow to come up in the garden and the Nettle was prolific in many parts of the property. I am curious to see how this will benefit the plants. I have also been saving coffee grounds from the kitchen, but I am not sure now how to use this in combination with the Nettle tea. Apparently the coffee will also add nitrogen so I think I need to be careful. We have trouble with deer in the garden and I'm wondering if either will deter them...

 

I'm not familiar with this weed. It doesn't seem to be common around here. I did read about the Comfrey and planted some last year. It is growing strong now and I just picked a few leaves off and threw them in the compost pile just a few days ago. I'll have to try the tea though. It sounds very effective.
Thank you for the information and pictures!
Great post!

 

Glad that you liked the posting, BEEKER-- It IS effective (for me and my toms, at least). If you ever try making comfrey tea, be sure that you use a container with a lid. and stand UPWIND from it when you remove the lid. hahaha It is powerfully foul-smelling.

NETTY-- I do not know if those will deter deer. I have used coffee grounds a little but not enough to tell if it makes a difference. II do not drink coffee and so do not have access to grounds. Let me know how your experimentation goes with the grounds.

 

Thank you, Sjoerd, for the tip! I will definitely do that!
As for the coffee grinds, I'm not a coffee drinker either, but people have said that if I stop by coffee shops and let them know I'm interested in used coffee grounds, they would give them to me. Would that work where you are?

 

That might work, but the nearest coffee shop is in Amsterdam...a ways away from me.
I may sniff around the café's though. Who knows.

 

I am about to do this nettle tea, thanks for the recipe, saves on purchasing expensive fertilisers when you can use your weeds lolp

 

Great post on the nettles Sjoerd, and I share your hate/love relationship with them...sort of. Got stung when we first moveed here and didn't know anything about them. Have read alot of good things about them, but have not ventured back to check them out. Now I'll have to!

Thanks for the link to the Comfrey tea...that's what I'm trying this year!

 

Why is this? Do they upset the nutrient balance or is it just to make sure you have more to pick next year? Or something else? If seeds really are a nogo you can still use the leaves from that plant? :-?

 

Good luck, LYDIA--I hope that it works well for you. Keep us posted on this.

Thanks for the comments, BUNKIE-- I hope that your comfrey tea works out alright for you. Let me know.

TBIRD-- I do not use plants with seeds on them because I do not want to take a chance that they survive and germinate when I pour the tea onto the soil at the base of the plants which I am feeding.
As for the roots: it is the same thing. Should the roots survive the "soaking process"; they could, in principle, begin growing again at the base of the veggie plants. I do not want that and thus take no chances.

Addendum: One can, of course use plants with flowers and seed heads.....just remove them before making the tea.

 

This is the actual post that first brought me to gardenstew.com. To make my ideal fertilzer, I use horestail bracken nettle and comfrey. Each I make seperatly and then mix together. 250 ml of each mixed together in 10 litres of water. I use 1kg of fresh plant matter to 10 litres of water.

 

Well Odif--how cool is that ! --Glad that you found this site and hopefully you will be here for a long while.

It was good to read how you make your fert. mixtures. I have also tried combinations and just sort of switch back and forth with which or how I combine them. I rarely give most things strictly nettle "tea" because of all the nitrogen.

It all seems to work fine though.