Organic, liquid plant food or plant fertiliser is an incredibly nutritious feast that your plants — and soil — will drink with absolute delight! It strengthens the natural growth of plants and increases their resistance to pests and disease.

Organic fertilisers certainly don’t smell of roses but no organic garden pharmacy is complete without them. And you’ll be delighted to know that organic fertilisers are very simple to make at home.

This liquid treasure can be brewed up from almost every green ‘thing’ imaginable — other than toxic or diseased ones of course — and from a surprising number of other ingredients too.

The resultant brew can either be sprayed directly on to plants or watered on to the soil. If sprayed on the soil, they not only directly benefit the plants but also encourage beneficial soil organisms to thrive, multiplying and increasing soil fertility.

To make organic plant food, you need the following: A large container — a drum with a lid is ideal — or a porous sack; something long and strong — a stout wooden pole is perfect — to stir the brew; and water (preferably collected rainwater).

In addition, you will need some of the following ingredients: used tea bags or coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, grass clippings, chopped up weeds (before they have reached the seeding stage), neem leaves, leaves of moringa, alfalfa, bean or pea pods, borage, comfrey, seaweed (washed to reduce its saltiness), green manure crops such as mustard, and fenugreek, any ‘soft’ green plant material (hard or rubbery leaves can take an inordinate length of time before they begin to release nutrients into the water), chemical and antibiotic-free manure, fish waste, a cup or two of molasses for fermentation purposes, pureed or finely chopped fruit and/or vegetable waste.

Stir it thoroughly every morning and evening. In summer, the mixture is ready in three days; in winter, leave the mixture to brew for up to 14 days.

To prepare the spray, add one part brew to 10 parts water. If the brew appears to be extra strong, add more water until the colour of the brew resembles weak tea. Never use undiluted brew, this may be too strong for plants to tolerate. Do not apply it more than once in a two-week period. Enthusiastically applying it more often can promote unnaturally rapid growth and result in weak plants.

Loose method

Add all the ingredients in a bucket and then pour the bucket into a drum. Squeeze and push the mixture hard to exclude air pockets. Add water till the drum is almost full. Make sure to not fill it to the top and leave six inches of space from the edge of the drum to allow the brew to bubble.

The brew will smell but don’t be alarmed, most of the time it’s perfectly innocuous. When you stir the liquid in the mornings and evenings, it allows the gases created during fermentation of the liquid to escape.

Using a lid helps with the smell ‘issue’ but if you do so, make sure it has some holes and/or isn’t completely airtight to allow for the gases to escape. If the liquid plant food is brewing in an airtight container, the gases that build up can cause the lid to blow off or result in a veritable fountain of ‘gunk’ flying through the air!

Once the liquid plant food is used, the smell disappears from the residual mulch it has been applied to in a few hours.

The dregs can be strengthened a little by adding more ingredients and brewed a second time but not more than that. The strengthened brew can either be added to the compost heap or bin, or be used as mulch around the base of trees. Take care that it does not make direct contact with the trees.

The only drawback to the ‘loose method’ is the rather disgusting chore of scrubbing off the leftover liquid plant food. However, the bag method does not have this disadvantage.

The bag method

This is probably a better brewing method and easier to handle if you get it right. Put the ingredients inside a porous sack. The sack must be very strong as the wet ingredients are surprisingly heavy. Tie the sack with an extra-strong twine or rope. Then fasten this onto a strong pole placed across the drum so that the sack and contents are suspended in the water.

Stir every morning and evening. When the appropriate time period has passed and the fertiliser is ready, squeeze the water from the sack. Apply the plant food as needed.

Warning: If either the sack or twine/rope/wire breaks, it is a vile, heavy job, to clean up the result.

Making liquid plant fertiliser at home may be tricky but don’t be put off by the challenges. Home-brewed, organic fertiliser is worth the effort and is a priceless treasure indeed.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. Answers to selected questions will appear in a future issue of the magazine. This takes time. The writer does not respond directly by e-mail. E-mails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 16th, 2016