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fertilizer I think I found a new project! DIY fertilizer and insect repellants.

filmost

filmost

I was searching for kelp extract on Amazon Japan today, and while translating product names to understand what I was actually getting, I stumbled across this little gem of an article about making your own fertilizer and repelllants using lactobasillus.
 
Also found another thread on THP with in the same vein about Fermented Plant Extracts.
 
Basically you acquire some lactobasillus and use it to breakdown plant matter into a soluable form. Different plants yielding different properties. Then dilute the resulting concentrate and use as a foliar spray or soil drench, or I suppose add it to your hydro system.
 
What do you think?
 
Get yourself some comfrey & nettles. There is a sterile variety of comfrey called "bocking 14" so you don't have to worry about it seeding.Horizon herbs carries root stock of it if your interested.
 
Thanks for the tip! Shame I can't use Horizon Herbs though since I am in Japan. Will definitely try to find it here though!
 
right, but can you ferment with compost tea? i was under the impression that compost tea quickly goes bad if not aerated, so it is a make it and use it kind of thing. where as growing your own lactobasillus gives you a long term culture of a specific bacteria that can be used for various things. besides, the plus side to having your own supply of LB is that you can also use it to ferment your own sauces! :-)

TheRedRocotoMan said:
Get yourself some comfrey & nettles. There is a sterile variety of comfrey called "bocking 14" so you don't have to worry about it seeding.Horizon herbs carries root stock of it if your interested.
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Have you ever ordered live root cuttings from Horizon Herbs? Wondering if you are familiar with how they pack. They say on their site that normal shipping turnaround time is 1-2 weeks.  I figure if a cutting will last that long in the mail, then it would probably last another week or so and I could probably get my family to stuff it in to a package that is waiting to be shipped to me.
 
No, I have not ordered from them. You can always buy seeds to grow comfrey you just have to cut the seeds off when they begin to form on the plant or else you'll have comfrey everywhere. You can also check ebay, someone may be selling root stock closer to japan.
 
Good luck
 
filmost said:
I was searching for kelp extract on Amazon Japan today, and while translating product names to understand what I was actually getting, I stumbled across this little gem of an article about making your own fertilizer and repelllants using lactobasillus.
 
Also found another thread on THP with in the same vein about Fermented Plant Extracts.
 
Basically you acquire some lactobasillus and use it to breakdown plant matter into a soluable form. Different plants yielding different properties. Then dilute the resulting concentrate and use as a foliar spray or soil drench, or I suppose add it to your hydro system.
 
What do you think?
Click to expand...
This may be a little off topic, but have you heard of bokashi.  That's the first thing I thought of when I read Japan, fertilizer, fermenting...   
 
Yep I have heard of bonkashi. Actually I have the rice bran for it here. Just don't have a suitable container. It is an anaerobic composting method. Very interested to try it, but worried about smell.
 
For the container, I have 2 regular 6 gallon buckets, one on top of the other...  The top one has holes in the bottom and a screen as a filter, and the lid as a seal.  I haven't noticed any smell, yet.  I have been using it for maybe a month so far.  
 
Ah, see there's m problem, can't find any of the buckets typically used in the US here. No idea why. Also buckets are effing expensive here.
 
filmost said:
Ah, see there's m problem, can't find any of the buckets typically used in the US here. No idea why. Also buckets are effing expensive here.
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I get most or all of my buckets from donut shops around town...  sometimes they are free, at most they cost $1 each...  
 
I'm not sure about Japan tho...  Are there many donut shops there?
 
BTW, they don't have to be cylinder, they could be square, as long as they can go into each other.
 
jojo said:
I get most or all of my buckets from donut shops around town...  sometimes they are free, at most they cost $1 each...  
 
I'm not sure about Japan tho...  Are there many donut shops there?
 
BTW, they don't have to be cylinder, they could be square, as long as they can go into each other.
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Haha yes there are plenty of donut shops here. Even Krispy Kreme has a stake in the market. That said, I don't think they have buckets you can buy off them.
 
I will see what  I can dig up. There is a place that sells an actual bokashi bucket for like $20, which incidently is the cost of a normal bucket around the same size if I remember correctly.  Perhaps I will look more into it down the road. At the moment I have a cheap ($10, took me forever to find) 45L plastic trash can that I use for composting, and it appears to be working well.
 
A lot of farmers here use molasses to ferment. You can ferment fruits, plants and fish as per a korean farming article I found way back. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find that book excerpt anymore but youtube has a lot of related videos on the subject.

I've used FAA a few months back and my peppers got burned though. Not sure how much oil there was in my FAA (fish amino aid) but even the basil and coriander that got hit when I sprayed discolored and eventually died. So yeah, use it in very low dosages.

Another thing, you can use a regular bucket with no lid. Just use a plastic trash bag to cover the top and fill the plastic with water to make the top airtight. The good thing about this is it compresses the bokashi and gives you more juice when it starts cooking.
 
jlacosta said:
I've used FAA a few months back and my peppers got burned though. Not sure how much oil there was in my FAA (fish amino aid) but even the basil and coriander that got hit when I sprayed discolored and eventually died. So yeah, use it in very low dosages.

Another thing, you can use a regular bucket with no lid. Just use a plastic trash bag to cover the top and fill the plastic with water to make the top airtight. The good thing about this is it compresses the bokashi and gives you more juice when it starts cooking.
Click to expand...
 
I think you have to dilute by at least 1000x or more to not burn your plants.
 
And that is a fantastic idea, only problem I can conceive of is it probably would not lock out smell like a proper lid would. Hmm. Would you keep this outside?
 
filmost said:
 
I think you have to dilute by at least 1000x or more to not burn your plants.
 
And that is a fantastic idea, only problem I can conceive of is it probably would not lock out smell like a proper lid would. Hmm. Would you keep this outside?
Click to expand...
 
I think the mistake on my part was the fish wasn't in correct proportion with the molasses or at least I think it wasn't
 
It's warm here in the Philippines all year round so I keep it outdoors. Big round totes won't have an airlock lid like I have so the garbage bag with water on top did the trick for me to keep the bokashi sealed. No smell whatsoever. My bin is only 3/4 full and will have a garbage bag on top and filled with water almost the way to the top. The lid is just to keep the water from growing algae. You can always try it in a smaller scale just to get started.
 
Another thing about bokashi is you can have the option not to have any juice at all. the method is called newspaper bokashi. The paper absorbs all the liquid like what some people do when they put newspaper on the bottom of their trash bins
 
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