Fertilizers..

Fertilizing your crops are as important as watering your plants. As I have mentioned above please don’t use any chemical fertilizers.

Chemical fertilizers are easily available in markets and are easy to use, no tensions on whether they will work or not...they are 100% effective. They are also easily absorbed by plant roots and they give a good harvest too. But the problem is the chemicals which we are afraid are again on our menu, causing a lot of health problems. So, if you could show a little patience and a little hard work it will pay off in a bigger way both in type of health and money too. I mean by making your own fertilizers using household leftovers making your premises clean and hygienic and that too in a cheap way.

Fertilizing too often can ruin your vegetable garden. On the other hand if you don't fertilize enough, your vegetables will wither and die. It's a dilemma faced by many gardeners. If you see vegetable plant leaves starting to yellow, chances are, they need fertilizer.

So let’s start with a simple one - A Compost Pit

Gather all the bio degradable waste materials in your household like leftover food, vegetable wastes, banana skins, unused vegetable leaves, overripe fruits etc. You could use the remains of chicken wastes too if you have, that’ makes a nice manure. Never use non-biodegradable wastes like plastic or other vacant tins etc. Try putting your left over’s in a large dustbin for some days and collect it for this pit.

·        Now select a place in your backyard near to where you suppose to grow your plants so that you don’t have to carry it from one place to other. Dig the pit. Please try to make the pit in a shaded area and save it from the rains.

·        Consider the amount of waste you have and then dig a pit according to it.(For a typical home waste pit you have to dig around 3 to 5 feet deep with a mouth width of around 3 feet in diameter).

·        Put your gathered organic wastes in the pit about 15-20 cm in height, then put a layer of fallen leaves of the same height. After that put a layer of cow dung (if you can’t get this in your neighborhood you could sprinkle lime or calcium or use the EM concentrate). After that put a layer of soil and repeat the process (At least 3 times) until you reach the ground level.

·        Cover the top of you pit with soil for hygienic reasons. This will avoid foul smell and prevent flies hovering over your pit.

·        Allow your pit to decompose your waste materials for about 45 days. After that your compost is ready to use. You could now dig open the pit and take it out little by little and use it for your crops. (Try keeping it dry after you break open I mean save it from rains)

In the mean time when your fertilizer is getting ready make you land and also plant your seeds.

We can make this in an another way with open method above the ground. This method is called Thumboormuzhy method created by Mr. DR FRANCIS XAVIER B.V.Sc & A.H ;M.V.Sc, PhD, ( Professor for Farms of the new Kerala Veterinary & Animal Sciences University. Teacher, Researcher and Extension scientist under various colleges and Research Institutions under Kerala Agricultural University & Veterinary University) which is called Aerobic Composting Method. That I will describe in the future posts.