Rice Water and Orange Peels

I read that you can add orange peels to rice water. It will reduce the smell of the rice water as it ferments and it adds nutrients to the mixture.

I tried it two weeks ago and it worked wonders while I was away. It worked well on the caladiums, bougainvillea plants I was propagating, and the pothos went crazy. 

Next time I'll add some crushed eggshells so it can add calcium to the mixture.

Don't Throw Eggshells

My boys support my gardening adventures and one of the things they do is set aside egg shells for me. We wash the shells and then boil it. Once it's dry I use a grinder to break it down further.

I think the egg shells I mixed in the soil for the bell pepper sprouts helped make it grow properly. I haven't encountered the previous issues I had when I tried growing bell peppers.

I also learned to save the water from boiling egg shells. I let it cool and then I use it to water plants. It's adds nutrients for the plants. I just make sure to add fertilizer once a week, so the plants don't burn from too much fertilizer.

I'll also try making the more potent fertilizer. It's the one with vinegar, but I need to research again how to make it. There's a lot of stuff in your kitchen you can use to enrich your plants, so save your eggshells :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Bone Meal for Gumamela

My gumamela plants were not flowering again. I did some research and found out they like bone meal. My plants needed a top up of soil so I made soil mix with loam soil, compost, rice hull and bone meal.

And... Tada!

One of my plants had a lot of buds before the typhoon. Some survived and I noticed one blossomed today. Too bad it was already evening when I noticed it.

Anyway, you just need a tablespoon of bone meal for every gallon of soil. I realized we eat a lot of chicken and thought maybe I could just make it. Unfortunately, you need to boil it for 12 hours! Maybe a pressure cooker can make it shorter, but I don't have one so I'll just buy when needed.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Understanding Fertilizers

I just realized after killing off the garlic and lettuce a second time around, that you have to be mindful about what fertilizers (pampataba) you give to your plants. It's all part of the learning process so I told myself not to feel frustrated. I can always plant again until I figure out the right way. 

I paused planting anything for the time-being since it's bagyo* season and we have work being done at home. Sawdust has been flying everywhere and it's been cumbersome wiping it off. I probably need to move them tomorrow before they start again. 

Calphos

Spent a day last week reading up on what fertilizer goes on which plant. When I was in SG I just put rice water on everything once a week. I noticed though that the tomatoes and bell peppers that grew were smaller, so I knew something was missing. 

There's many different types of fertilizers. I'm trying to avoid synthetic ones, so I also watched a couple of videos on how to make homemade fertilizers. Much as I want to use organic fertilizers, there are some that would be hard for me to make myself. Here's what I understand so far about providing your plants proper nutrition -

Compost - the secret to a healthy plant is to germinate it in properly prepared soil. Adding compost and organic matter to soil to improve its properties. I tried making compost before in SG and it ended up as a stinky mush. Apparently you have to add green + dry ingredients together with soil. Water it once a week until everything decomposes. 

Complete fertilizer - I just got it off the shelf from an online platform and watered the plants with it once a week. The plants looked healthy, but they weren't producing any fruits. It's synthetic and I realized it's probably not complete after all. Apparently this is good for flowering plants.  

Epsom salt - epsom salt is good for some plants. It provides magnesium and helps seeds germinate, makes plants bushier and encourages plants to flower. How much to put depends on the plant. 

Nitrogen - best used for green leafy plants. I read you can make swamp juice and then use it to water your plants. The easier alternative is to just use urea. 

Potassium - plants like tomatoes and tomatoes need a lot of potassium. I've been making banana peel tea for my tomatoes and they've been producing more flowers. I just need to be more vigilant in helping them pollinate (no bees in our backyard so far). Another thing I'm about to try is camp juice (banana peel + epsom salt + burnt eggshells). 

It is overwhelming, so I'm working on making a matrix to make sure I provide the right pampataba for the plant. This would hopefully help me keep my plants alive and productive! 

Happy gardening everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

*Bagyo - typhoon