DIY Stinging Nettle Fertilizer
You probably know by now that our family loves stinging nettles. If you have yet to read our previous posts about foraging for nettles and incorporating nettles into our diet in many ways, like tea, soup, or even cake, go check them out.
Here in Sweden, the tender, spring nettle shoots have already turned into big, coarse nettles, too coarse for nettle soup, but that doesn’t mean nettle season is over. We also use stinging nettle in the garden as a fertilizer tea throughout the season.
How to make nettle fertilizer tea:
Gather a bucket of nettles and submerge them in water. Be sure to cover the bucket with a lid to contain the strong odor that develops as the nettles break down. Leave for about a week. Stir a few times in the meantime. Strain the nettles out of the bucket (put them in the compost) and use the liquid for fertilizer tea. Stinging nettles contain lots of nitrogen and important minerals, making them the best fertilizer available.
When you’re ready to use the fertilizer, dilute by adding 10 parts water to 1 part nettle tea. As an alternative to fresh nettles, you can hang them to dry and soak them afterward as needed.
Here are a few extra tips:
- Harvesting full-grown nettles yields new tender shoots, which can be advantageously used for nettle soup and other dishes.
- Fertilize with nutrient water only when it’s cloudy and the ground is slightly damp. This allows the nutrients to penetrate the soil effectively. Remember to water the soil, not the plants. A watering can is the easiest tool to use; water precisely where you want the nutrients by hand, then follow up with a hose.
- You can frequently fertilize all green plants, like cabbage, lettuce, hedges, and broccoli, with nettle tea. However, avoid overfertilizing ornamental plants with nitrogen, which favors growth and not flowering. Nutrient-demanding plants, such as tomatoes and pumpkins, like nettle tea—however, be cautious about over-fertilizing potatoes.
- Nettle fertilizer tea smells terrible and can continue to stink for a few days after watering. Plan the fertilizer watering for a few overcast days when you don’t intend to have a barbecue hanging in the garden anyway. I wouldn’t recommend watering nettle houseplants indoors just because of the smell.
- Make new nettle fertilizer tea after a couple of weeks, as toxic bacteria can form in old nettle water that has been left to stand for a long time.
Here are some more information about the wonderful nettles:
