Often we throw food waste into the trash and don't think about the fact that it can bring great benefits if used in our garden. The task of every gardener and gardener is to get a good harvest, trying not to resort to chemicals and preferably at lower costs.
Productivity directly depends on soil fertility. But the disadvantage of organic fertilizers (manure and peat) is the high price and contamination with weeds after their use. The disadvantage of mineral fertilizers (phosphates and nitrates) is that they accumulate in vegetables and fruits and end up in human body, they will not bring any benefit, but only harm. Some fertilizers can be completely replaced with improvised means, for example, using potato peelings as fertilizer.
Potato peelings- This is a source of starch, which some plants love very much. In addition, they help protect the crop from certain pests. In winter, potato peelings can be frozen or dried. Place in one layer of cleaning on the radiator or on the windowsill. It is very good to dry them in the oven, where fungi and bacteria that may have entered the tubers from the soil will die. Once dry, store them in cloth or paper bags until the summer season begins.
How to properly prepare fertilizer from potato peelings?
It should be remembered that potato peelings as a fertilizer are not suitable for all plants. They should not be used on plants belonging to the nightshade family (eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, etc.), as they have many common diseases.
Today you can find many in specialized stores. But the high price does not always allow you to purchase necessary funds. In this case, you can use something that can always be found in any home - potato peelings. In our article we will tell you how to use this and for which plants this feeding method is suitable.
Bacteria living in the soil digest potato peelings quite easily. As they decompose, all nutrients end up in the soil and are subsequently absorbed by the root system.
During this process, heat is released, which contributes to warming, and this has a positive effect on the growth of crops. Potato peelings can increase the fertility of the land and increase the quality and quantity of the harvest.
Important! When drying potato skins, be careful not to expose them to Sun rays. You should also protect cleaning from rain. Otherwise, they will either burn or rot.
The benefits of potatoes are obvious, as they are rich in nutrients and vitamins. It includes: This set useful substances will definitely have a positive effect on crop growth. In addition, potato peelings have the following advantages over:
Using potato peelings, you can be sure that the harvest is environmentally friendly, since they do not contain chemical elements.
Potato peelings can be used as fertilizer for or, because their use improves the soil and has a positive effect on the harvest anywhere in your area. Let's consider how to use this tool for different types crops
The infusion of purifications will also have a beneficial effect on crops. It will help increase green mass and gain strength, which will ensure a rich harvest. 
You can also fertilize with infusion of potatoes and. Feeding should begin at the end of May and should be carried out every 2 weeks. It is not at all necessary to pour the infusion directly at the root - just water it with a watering can.
At the same time, make sure that pieces of potato peelings do not fall on the ground, as they will attract rodents and others.
Potato peelings are ideal for the role of fertilizer for, and we will tell you how to use them below. They will be especially useful for black berries. Fertilizing helps to increase the size of the fruit, in some cases catching up in size.
Every year, it is recommended to place potato pulp or soaked skins under each one in a hole 20 cm deep, after which the mixture is sprinkled with earth. In spring and summer time You can feed with infusion, once every 2 weeks.
You can also fertilize with potato infusion or flour. After fertilizing, the soil should be loosened. If you decide to fertilize, it is better to use potato flour for this, sprinkling it under the bushes twice a month.Feeding currants and other crops in the spring with potato peelings will definitely ensure a healthy and rich harvest!
Potato peelings can also be used for fertilizer. Their pre-prepared infusion is recommended. This event should be carried out once every 3-6 weeks.
However, if you are at the dacha only on weekends, you should use other methods of storing skins - drying or freezing. If there is sub-zero temperature, you can store the skins on the stove until it gets warmer outside.
An increase in temperature can lead to their rotting, so in the spring the material for fertilizer must be taken to compost pit.
You can also use a method such as drying for storage. This method is more troublesome, but reliable. You can dry the cleaning using radiators, or an oven is also suitable. Then it is recommended to grind them in a meat grinder, and then put them in the oven again to dry.
This way, you will already have ready-made raw materials that can be used as fertilizers.
With the arrival of spring, dried or frozen peelings must be transferred to a large container and filled with boiling water. The mixture is stirred for several days so that it is evenly soaked.
Potato peels as fertilizer can be prepared in any form. We invite you to familiarize yourself with each of them.
Making an infusion is quite simple. You will need some raw or frozen skins. It is necessary to fill them hot water and leave to infuse for a day. The prepared liquid can be used by watering plants. The infusion is successfully used both at home and for fertilizer.
It's hard to find a garden or personal plot, on which there would be no currants. In addition to being quite unpretentious and excellent taste, this berry has unique healing properties. For example, the content of vitamin C in currants is qualitatively higher than that of most citrus fruits, including lemon.
Despite the low maintenance requirements, currants are very sensitive to autumn fertilizers, to which it responds big harvest richness and excellent quality of berries.
Despite its unpretentiousness, already 2 years after its appearance on the site, this crop should be somewhat encouraged, and we will look at how to fertilize currants and when is the best time to do it.
The optimal solution may be to fertilize currants in the fall after harvesting and in the spring, as soon as the snow melts.
The autumn set of fertilizers for this crop is considered a combination of organics and minerals. To feed currants for the winter, it is recommended to add about 3-6 kg of compost, manure or bird droppings, as well as potassium sulfate (15-20 and 45-50 g, respectively) to each bush.
In spring, currants, like everyone else cultivated plants, needs more nitrogen fertilizers. We recommend using an effective and inexpensive one, which for young bushes should be applied at a rate of 35-455 g for each bush, and every year reducing the amount of mineral fertilizers.
Currants also respond well to liquid fertilizers, which can be applied 4 times during the year:
Can be used as a liquid fertilizer for currants mineral mixtures for watering and spraying, and organic. An excellent way to periodically feed the bushes is to use green infusions. Residual green mass can act as mulch, especially if mixed with sawdust.
A currant leaf will help determine the need for fertilizing and what kind of fertilizer should be applied:
So, we have figured out what fertilizers and when are best to apply to feed currants, but there are many traditional methods care for this crop - effective and waste-free.
Mown grass, especially grass, can be used as a green fertilizer and for simultaneous mulching of the soil. Many gardeners also use potato peelings as fertilizer for currants - perhaps this is one of the most economical and effective ways feeding, which we will consider in more detail.
Potato peelings are rightfully considered one of the most effective means of fertilizing currants in the fall due to their high concentration of starch and potassium. Professionals note that their use has a beneficial effect on fruiting - the next currant harvest will not only exceed the volume of the previous one, but will also delight you with the excellent quality of the berries.
Firstly, they will significantly increase in size, and secondly, the content of vitamins and microelements in their composition will also increase significantly, which makes it possible to count potato peelings the best fertilizer for currants.
Potato peelings are an ideal fertilizer for currants
Potato peels can be used for feeding in several ways:
The most popular type of liquid potato fertilizer is a concentrated infusion. Fresh, dry and even frozen cleanings should be filled with very hot water in a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3 and allowed to steep for several days.
The mixture must be stirred periodically - this promotes a more efficient release of starch and key microelements. The currants should be watered with the resulting solution at the rate of 5-7 liters per bush; to stimulate the plants’ immune system, it is enough to carry out this procedure 1-2 times in early autumn.
The gruel that remains after using the infusion can also be used to fertilize the soil before sowing cucumbers and melons, planting cabbage and young fruit trees.
Potato dishes most often appear on our tables. This means that there are a lot of potato peelings left over, even if you peel the tubers carefully, with a minimum level of waste. But it is precisely in the peel and right under it that the greatest number vitamins and nutrients. This is an excellent reason to benefit from potato peelings and use them, for example, as fertilizer for your garden.
If you live in a private house or own a summer cottage, then you probably send potato peelings to the compost pit. What should residents of city apartments who go to their dachas only during the season do? Throwing cleaning products in the trash can is not the best the best option. You can easily store them until spring by drying or freezing them.
Don't throw away potato peelings, they make free natural fertilizer
Potato peelings will serve you well. They will be a good fertilizer for many plants, environmentally friendly, and most importantly - free. Most often, it is enough to simply bury them in the ground so that when they decompose, they release useful substances into the soil. But cleanings can also help you with “external” use in pest control.
First of all, it is worth noting that fertilizer and fertilizing from peelings are categorically not suitable for plants of the nightshade family, such as:
These plants are related, therefore, firstly, the substances and microelements contained in the peelings will simply be useless for them, and secondly, they have common diseases. Such feeding can lead to infection with late blight and black scab.
Note! Heat treatment disinfects potato peelings, killing pathogens of late blight and scab. Therefore, if you dried the peelings in the oven at high temperatures or poured boiling water for infusion, the fertilizer will not harm the plants.
But other plants will be very happy with this feeding in any form:
if you have open balcony, you can freeze cleanups on it as they appear in small portions. With this method, all vitamins and valuable substances are preserved. True, there is one drawback. As soon as the temperature rises, the cleaning will begin to thaw and rot, which means it will smell unpleasant. It is unlikely to be possible to store them in the freezer, since there are other products in it. Therefore, you will have to immediately go to the dacha and use the cleaning products as intended as soon as possible.
You can use the second method - dry the cleaning. Although this is more difficult in the process, it is much more convenient in terms of storing the finished product. Dry the cleaning materials by spreading them in an even layer on a radiator or windowsill. You can use the oven to speed up the drying process. 2-3 hours at 140 degrees for each batch of cleaning is enough. After drying, you can store them in linen bags, which is very convenient.
If you want to achieve a greater effect, twist the dried ones in the oven or on a cleaning battery in a meat grinder, and then dry them again. This way you will get potato flour that will decompose in the soil much faster than whole peelings.
Place the prepared peelings in a barrel and pour boiling water over them to obtain a nutritious infusion
In the spring, place the collected potato peelings, previously dried or frozen, in a large container, for example, in a barrel, and pour boiling water over them. Leave to soak for a day, stirring occasionally. As a result, you will receive a solution and gruel, which contains vitamins, minerals, salts and starch necessary for many plants.
Target | Way |
Application for seedlings | Seedlings of any crops, except nightshades, take potato pulp well when planted in the ground. Pour 1 scoop of gruel into the bottom of the prepared hole, sprinkle with soil and plant the seedlings. |
Plant nutrition | Strain the infusion of potato peelings, water the remaining liquid with a small amount of grounds at the roots of the plants. This feeding is equivalent to organic fertilizers. Do it every 2 weeks. |
For indoor flowers | Pour a solution of dried, ground into flour peelings houseplants at least once a month. Also, when transplanting, you can put it in a pot. Not a large number of grounds from the solution. |
For garden flowers | When planting annuals or replanting perennial flowers, add the pulp from the infusion (1 scoop) into the holes under each flower. During the period of growth and flowering, water the flowers with a solution from a watering can once a month. |
For fruit trees and shrubs | You can simply bury whole dried peelings in the soil in a circle around the trunk. |
Fertilizers made from potato peelings were known to our grandmothers, but now they are gaining popularity again. The material is affordable, environmentally friendly and easy to process and use, perfect for both pumpkin family plants and black and red currants. Have a good harvest!
Currant is one of the most common plants on summer cottages. Housewives value its berries for their excellent taste and abundance of nutrients, and gardeners value them for their ease of care. It is believed that currants are long-lived and can delight with their fruits for up to 15 years. Experienced gardeners know that without proper care this shrub will not stop bearing fruit, but the quality and quantity of the harvest will noticeably decrease, and in order to avoid degeneration of the plant, currants must not only be watered and pruned, but also given additional nutrition.
This necessity is connected primarily with the fact that currants draw their strength from the soil, gradually taking away the necessary substances and microelements, and thereby depleting it. It is much easier to provide additional nutrition for the shrub than to periodically replant it to a new location. Proper application of fertilizers stimulates the growth of the bush, increases the number and size of berries, and improves their taste.
When fertilizing, the following factors must be taken into account:
Fertilized currants bear fruit much more actively
Fertilizing the bush should be regular, because not only currants consume nutrients from the soil, they are also washed out with water and eroded.
Currants respond well to both organic and mineral fertilizers, which can be applied at the root or foliar by spraying the bush. The plant needs to be given additional nutrition several times during the spring. autumn period. Each stage of feeding has its own characteristics.
Fertilizing young seedlings will help them take root more easily and activate their growth. What type of fertilizing to use at this stage depends on the planting season.
Proper application of fertilizers during planting will provide the currants with all the necessary substances for the next two years until the fruiting stage.
If the plant is planted in the ground in the spring, then organic and complex mineral substances are added to the planting holes (depth 40 cm, width 50–60 cm): a bucket of humus is mixed with soil and several handfuls of mineral fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus are added.
When planting a bush, fertilizers will be added to planting pits, thoroughly mixing with surface soil
When planting a bush in autumn upper layer soil is mixed with peat or compost, superphosphate (150 g), potassium sulfate (40–50 g), wood ash, urea (40 g) are also added.
Feeding currants in the spring is of the most importance, because it is during this period that the plant actively develops and extracts the necessary substances from the soil.
The first time fertilizer is applied at the very beginning of flowering and bud break, the second time when setting berries. In July, it is recommended to do a third feeding - during the period when the berries are filling.
During the flowering period, currants most need additional nutrition.
In the spring, it is recommended to use complex mineral fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and iron. Organic substances can also be used in the spring, but as a supplement to mineral ones.
The main thing is that the fertilizers for the first two feedings should include nitrogen, which promotes the growth of green mass. Then its concentration is gradually reduced.
Despite the fact that after fruiting the plant is in a passive stage, the bush must accumulate all the necessary substances in order to survive winter frosts.
Autumn feeding will allow currants to endure winter more easily.
In the autumn, it is recommended to feed the currants at least once, using complementary foods made from organic fertilizers: manure, humus or compost. At this stage, the plant no longer requires nitrogen, so the most useful fertilizer is considered to be wood ash, which contains a large amount of phosphorus and potassium.
There are many favorite fertilizers for currants. It is important to know when and in what proportions to use them. Below we will consider the features of using the most popular types of bush nutrition.
Potato peelings are the favorite with currants organic fertilizer, because they contain a large number of substances and microelements useful for the bush: starch, glucose, phosphorus, iron, potassium, magnesium, fluorine, etc. Phosphorus promotes the active development of the root system and stimulates flowering. Starch, glucose and potassium make the berries juicier and sweeter.
Gardeners choose this type of fertilizer for several reasons:
You can collect potato waste throughout the year, but it is recommended to feed currants in early spring, before the flowering phase. You can do this in the summer, but in this case there is a risk of overheating the soil, since a large amount of heat is released as a result of the decomposition of the waste.
Potato peelings must be pre-heat-treated and dried
Raw potato peelings may contain elements of pathogenic flora on the surface: fungi or bacteria. To avoid infection of plants when feeding, it is recommended to heat-treat the potato peels. They also do this so as not to dig up potatoes under the bushes later, since there is a risk that untreated peelings will sprout.
To properly prepare fertilizer from peelings, you need to:
Just prepared cleanings scattered under the bush can attract pests.
The rotted grounds are buried under the bush, and the plant is watered with liquid. You should know that currants have a superficial root system, therefore, it is necessary to apply fertilizer not under the bush itself, but into a pre-dug groove (10–15 cm deep) along the projection of the bush crown. You can water the currants with the resulting slurry once a month, including the summer period.
Minerals are widely used by gardeners to fertilize currants both in spring and autumn, for the development of the plant’s ground and root systems.
Depending on the substances included in the fertilizer, there are:
Currently, a large number of mineral preparations are produced, which are produced in various forms: in the form of tablets, powder or liquid. You can purchase them in specialized stores and use them according to the instructions given on the packaging.
Wood ash has proven itself to be excellent as a top dressing because it is easily digestible and contains, in addition to phosphorus and potassium, zinc, magnesium, iron and calcium. It is recommended to use it during the ripening of berries and in the fall after harvesting.
Another advantage of ash is that it does not contain chlorine, which currants cannot tolerate. However, it must be taken into account that ash cannot be added to soil that has an alkaline reaction.
Wood ash is a treasure trove nutrients for currants
Dry fine ash is best suited for fertilizing currants. deciduous trees. And here are the ashes coniferous trees- No.
There are several ways to feed currants with wood ash:
It is recommended to use wood ash as a fertilizer with extreme caution, since it is a caustic alkali, which in small doses eliminates excess soil acidity, but in high concentrations can destroy beneficial soil microflora. In addition, it is strictly forbidden to add ash along with nitrogen fertilizers- it will neutralize their effect on the plant.
Chicken manure is an excellent source of nitrogen for currants, so it is usually used in the spring. However, in pure form It is strictly forbidden to use droppings, as it can simply “burn” the plant. For this reason, various solutions are prepared from it.
For feeding currants chicken droppings dilute with water and leave in a container for several days
| Type of fertilizer | Preparation and application |
| Infusion of fresh chicken manure | 1 bucket of fresh droppings is added to a barrel and diluted with 20 buckets of water, mixed thoroughly, and allowed to brew for 1–2 days. Fertilizer should be applied at the rate of 0.5 buckets per 1 m2. |
| Stock solution of fresh chicken manure | The container is filled 1/3 with fresh chicken droppings and top up with water. Stir and leave for 3-5 days. This concentrated solution, undiluted, can be applied into furrows 2–3 m long on two to four sides along the edge of the bush crown, 0.5 liters per bush. |
| Secondary solution of fresh chicken manure | 1 part of the fermented mother liquor is diluted in 10 parts of water and applied at the rate of 0.3–0.5 buckets per 1 m 2 under a fruit-bearing bush. Fertilizing can be done with moderate watering or mulch the soil with peat or dry grass. |
| Chicken litter | The litter is scattered under trees and shrubs, allowed to dry for 2–3 days, then watered. The nitrogen concentration in chicken litter is minimal, so it can be used as fertilizer 3-4 times during the growing season. |
Urea (urea) - great option fertilize currants in early spring, because, like chicken manure, it is a source of nitrogen. Urea is added dropwise around the plant along the projection of the bush crown and must be watered. The dosage of the substance varies depending on the age of the plant:
Urea is also often used in the form of a liquid fertilizer: 1 tablespoon of urea is diluted with 10 liters of water. Water the plant with the solution.
Many experienced gardeners consider yeast feeding one of the most effective fertilizers of natural origin. The mechanism of its action is that the fungi that are part of the yeast activate the activity of bacteria in the soil. Microorganisms begin to process organic matter faster, resulting in the release of nitrogen and potassium, which stimulates plant growth and activity. In addition, the composition of yeast bait includes a large number of mineral components, as well as protein.
For this reason, yeast can be used as a fertilizer for currants both in spring and autumn, as well as when planting young bushes.
As you know, there are several varieties of yeast: wine, beer and baker's. The first two types are not suitable for currants.
For cooking nutrient solution yeast can be used in any form
Conventional yeast for baking, both in dry form and in the form of live cultures, is suitable for fertilizing plants. There are many ways to prepare yeast nutrition, but the most popular are the following:
There is another way to introduce yeast under the bush - this is by feeding the currants with “bread” fertilizer. It is prepared from the remains of stale bread, which winter period Any owner accumulates quite a lot. Along with being economical, “bread” fertilizer has another advantage - when applied, it will feed the currants not only with yeast, but also with starch, which will make the berries sweeter.
You don’t have to throw away the leftover bread and use it to make an excellent fertilizer for currants.
For cooking of this fertilizer it will take at least two weeks. Dry bread crusts doused with water should have time to ferment. Preparing fertilizer is easy:
