DIY Homemade Nutrients

Grow from Home DIY Do It Yourself
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Hey everyone,

I’m working on completing my first grow after a buddy generously gave me three Blue Slushy plants! So far I’m really enjoying it. I am using General Hydroponics “Flora” series for my nutrients and have nothing but good things to say about this product line.

One of my main goals with growing my own flower is to save some money. I’m curious if anyone has any experience with making their own home made nutrients? I see that people will take banana peels for their potassium, egg shells for their calcium, coffee grounds for nitrogen and potassium, etc…

I’m wondering if this is truly effective. For instance, when I’m in the vegetation stage, it is very easy to know that I need 9 teaspoons of FloraMicro (for Nitrogen). This ensures that I’m giving my plants consistent levels of each nutrient. Is this possible with organic/homemade methods? It seems to me that the dosage of nutrients would be significantly harder if using this method as compared to purchasing nutrients from a reputable company.

Here is a picture of the product line that I am using - not pictured is the CALMAG.

Any other thoughts or opinions are welcome here, I’m just looking to grow my capabilities with nutrient usage. I was also considering just figuring out how to use nutrients more efficiently if it is not feasible to create my own DIY/homemade nutrients.

Nutrients
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Thanks in advance!

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I dont think homemade is very consistent like you stated. I like to use dakine420 nutrients. In hydro, auto pots and soil/promix hp.

Heres the nutrients i like to use.

The prices on the general hydroponic is pretty comparable. But i think the powders are better because you can make them when you want and make it immediately instead of waiting for it to ship im.

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Very interesting topic! can it be done ? maybe… I would say this goes more towards people who grow outside and/or use living soil as the results can be inconsistent and they usually spend years prefer the recipe and process. Ive use GH, Cyco, Athena and Jacks. all preformed with in grams of each other TBH, Jacks (JR Peters is very inexpensive and easy to use IMHO. it also depends if your growing in living soil, hydroponic or deep water culture hydro.

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Yeah this is similar to KNF korean natural farming they make a lot of teas and home made nutrients. But all the work involved and the disgusting rotting and fermentation of things turned me off from trying any of that.

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That is true @PreyBird1 and so is the consistency as mentioned above. But making your own brews at home is a life saver for me. I am rural, nutrients are expensive and for me its more about improving the soil condition using KNF ( topic below ) and permaculture methods. It just helps with the harsh environment and bottomline is strong healthy soil helps all plants fight off pests and disease.

Some of the homemade nutrients i work with are as follows:

Obviously manure from the animals, these can be used as an ammendment to old soil aswell as nutritious teas.
Worm bin, vermi compost and worm wee is gold for nitrogen, readily available. Even better bubble it up with some water and make teas with a mix 10:1 water.

I use potash from the fires I make.
Mollasses another huge ingredient for teas, and very cost effective when buying bulk. I think, I stand corrected, but majority of commercial nutrients use molasses ( black strap ) as a primary additive.

As mentioned coffee grounds ( i collect from my local coffee shop) , egg shells mixed with vinegar ( even better, recipes onlines ) . Epsom salts is also a nice cheap additive and helps the plants in many ways, same ways it helps humans too.

Now to take a deeper dive, bacteria, you want the white bacteria found under the trees when they defoliate, this is the best thing ever, I often wait a season or two and add this to good compost and mix it up.

But bottom line, teas are where its at. The fermentation and oxygenating these is a huge win and you can use almost anything.

Dried blended banana skins, dandelions, nettle, manure, worm castings… the list is endless. Good luck and shout if you have more questions. #organicgardening

Oh mulching with a think layer of wood chips, retted manure, old leaves is a big win, especially in hot arid environments outdoors, even indoors. Helps with water retention and a layer of good bacteria, aswell as keeping bugs, slugs and problems away, just ask @wow_arizona

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The results can be amazing but its a lot of work and can go wrong real quick…

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This is super awesome, and very much yes can be amazing! some of the best flower and fruit have been growing from living soil and natural made nutrients ! I don’t have the time and patients for it however lol.

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Oh yeah thats what they call leaf mold. Thats like gold in the garden. Every year i run my riding mower around my property and suck up all the leaves. And i have a smalletlr wood chipper i use for leaves becausebit a had a shoot to where you can pull the shoots mount pins out and the shoot can go down and lay on the ground and i only have to rake a huge pile of leaves into the chipper machine and it shoots the leaves into the garden. Then i add cow dung and then i till it into the garden.

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Well I’m gonna say this, if you wanna do home made good luck. You will spend more time making them, then you will growing the plants, not to mention that unless you really know your biology you won’t know exactly what amount of nutes you have in all the categories you need to fulfill with out a lab test.

If you want to make it easy just use 100% organic nutes like Gaia Green, they are dry powders like Prey mentioned but all organic rather than chemical salts. You just mix them into your soil mix wet the soil bag the whole pot and let it cook for a few weeks, then plant and grow. Only thing needed other than a top dress or two is water. No fiddling with PH’ing or mixing this and that in water then ph’ing it and then watering. Just water when they need it. Trust me it grows just as good weed. Or if you wanna make it really easy just plant them in your yard in really good soil and water when needed.

Marty

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Wow!! This topic got a lot more engagement than I had expected - thank you everyone for posting what you know about making your own nutrients/organic nutrients! This has been very interesting to me even before I started growing, I have frequently wondered what “kitchen scraps” are worth throwing out the back door into my garden.

I’m checking out some of the stuff you guys have mentioned and I can see this is it’s own world entirely. I’ll be revisiting this thread, and updating, as I play around with these ideas more. I’m currently fighting with a few other issues with my current grow, and will be solely focused on making sure I don’t screw things up - so it might be a while before there are any interesting posts from me about my experience, but it will happen. I’ll be here - I’m so impressed with the knowledge you all have to share, and very appreciative for each one of you taking the time to share that knowledge with me and the others on here who are interested!

Kenny

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Hey when i grow only organic i would highly suggest these nutrients. When i grow i like to use this brand of organics and i also use dakine420 so using both together a a hybrid type of nutrient regimen. I have been using them for years like together.

https://www.aurorainnovations.com/ourproducts
This is the only organic nutrients i use and its the very best made anywhere. In fact its in there company motto.
And i only use dakine420 as a salt nutrient.

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They just got bought out by a big hydro company, there is a popup window that says if you are a customer click here to find out the details, the stuff on that site does no longer have a price or a shopping cart @PreyBird1 .

I didn’t click the link as I have never purchased anything from roots organic.

Marty

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Yep Prey that is what I do as well, but with a small 20" mower with a bag. Half grass and half leafs. Great carbon/nitrogen mix. It’s called compost lol. After it rots of course.

I also have 3 mulch barrels for making compost, I fill them with grass and leaves and garden stuff, green plants, fruit that fell off the vine or in the fall all the green tomatoes, then let it all rot down into compost. I also throw in all my food scraps from cooking…and contrary to popular opinion about meat ruining a mulch cook…well nonsense. Matter of fact it attracts the flies and bugs that work it into compost. The flies eat it so fast and turn it into frass it isn’t funny. Two of them are barrels on rollers you spin them every so often to mix it up and put the wet stuff on the bottom to the top. I get the flies in there as well that make the insect frass thay you pay a pretty penny for, when it’s warm out and I open the lid it is just crawling with maggots eating everything and turning into insect frass. Use it on my garden.

The main bulk of it I pile on the entire garden and let it cook down all winter, in the spring I just dig a little hole and plant my tomatoes and whatnot. I don’t till. When you pull the leaves and grass back there are dozens of earthworms eating the rotting grass and leaves and like you and Chris said, the white layer of leaf mold also helping to decay it.

Great stuff

Marty

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I never bought it directly from them. I always looked for the best deals. And i buy the 2.5 gallon jugs and then pour it into 1 gallon jugs and then into little bbq sauce bottles. I havent bought any for a while.

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Last time i got it frow growgreenwi.com because they shipped it free. And its a massive jug to ship!

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