Before any happy owner of a summer cottage, every season there is such a great task as getting not just good, but the best harvest from his land allotment. And everyone wants it to happen at the lowest cost. In order to achieve this, the gardener is ready to go to any tricks and tricks. And first of all it concerns soil fertilization. After all, everyone is well aware that not only the quantity, but also the quality of the crop depends on its fertility.
Many amateur gardeners have heard that you can use potato peels as fertilizer. For which plants is this method of feeding most suitable and why is the usual fertilizer worse? Every summer resident scrolls such a question in his head, preparing in the winter for the spring-summer season. After all, the question of saving is interesting to everyone. It is worth sorting it out in order.
What is the disadvantage of organic and mineral fertilizers?
In order to increase yields, mineral (phosphates and nitrates) and organic (manure and peat) were commonly usedfertilizers. But both of these types of fertilizers have a common minus - the monetary cost. In addition, organic matter usually heavily clogs the earth with weeds, and chemical fertilizers tend to accumulate in vegetables and fruits, and then enter the human body, thus creating huge problems for it.
Therefore, modern summer residents are looking for more economical and safer ways to fertilize the land. One of them, which has proven itself very well, is to use potato peels as fertilizer. This method is known to many, but there were no negative reviews about it. Only from year to year more and more positive reviews are heard about him. In addition, it helps to protect the crop from certain pests. Therefore, most summer residents turned to such an unconventional method as fertilizer with potato peels.
How to turn waste into plant food?
If you make an effort to save the waste that is potato peeling until spring, and not throw it in the trash, they will bring great benefits. In the spring and summer, on the garden plot, they will serve as an excellent top dressing, which does no harm at all, for many horticultural crops. Yes, and protection from pests such as slugs, wireworms and the Colorado potato beetle. So if you're wondering if potato peels can be used as fertilizer, prepare them in the off-season.
For this, it is not necessary to freeze potato skins. It is enough to dry them. This isit will not be difficult at all, because the oven will destroy fungi and bacteria that may have fallen on the tubers from the soil. And they will take up much less space.
What benefits do they bring to the garden and the garden?
During the summer season, potato peelings are used as fertilizer and as protection against certain pests. Yes, and as a bait for the Colorado potato beetle or slugs, potato skins proved to be excellent. One has only to spread them on the surface of the earth before the sprouts appear, and when the pests stick around them (usually this happens at night) - destroy them. This will protect your crop from such a scourge.
It's good to dig them into the ground near those plants that love the starch contained in potatoes in large quantities. Rotting, they will give it to the soil, thereby making up for the lack of this product in it. And soaked cleanings are an excellent way to get accustomed well and quickly get stronger seedlings of some plants.
How to prepare fertilizer from potato peels?
Potato peelings as a fertilizer for the garden have long proven themselves in the best way. No wonder summer residents are trying to find out the best recipe for its preparation. Of course, you can just bury it in the ground. But in this case, along with the cleaning, the phytophthora preserved on them will also get into the soil. And besides, it will take longer for them to completely decompose than when they get into the soil in the form of a properly prepared fertilizer.
Therefore, it is worth remembering a few rules for its preparation:
- Dried peelings should be crushed to make transportation to the country house and further work with them easier.
- Shredded dry potato peel is placed in a barrel and poured with boiling water. This will help to cope with both late blight and other pests that have survived since autumn.
- The thickening formed after soaking is placed in the holes when planting seedlings, and the plants are watered with liquid from above, which helps not only to fertilize the soil, but also to cope with some pests.
What are the benefits of feeding pumpkin potato peels?
Potato peels also proved to be excellent as a fertilizer for cucumbers and other representatives of the pumpkin family. Use them as top dressing when planting seedlings of these plants. It is prepared as follows:
- Dried and finely chopped during the off-season, potato peelings are poured into a barrel in the spring and poured with boiling water to kill all pathogenic bacteria that have survived on them from last year.
- After they are soaked under the influence of hot water, the contents of the container must be mixed well so that it turns into porridge.
When seedlings begin to be planted, then a handful of this substance is first placed in each hole, sprinkled with earth, then porridge from potatoes is put again and earth again. Only now seedlings are planted in this mixture. She will grow after this proceduregreat, because that mashed potato, which is mixed with the ground in the garden, will appeal to all our helpers in the soil. Earthworms will love it, as will billions of soil bacteria.
This top dressing is good not only for cucumbers and pumpkins. Excellent growth thanks to her will be in cabbage and even onion crops.
The right fertilizer for berry crops
But not only in garden beds summer residents use such a wonderful fertilizer as potato peelings. They also took root in garden plots among fruit trees and shrubs. Excellent reviews from many gardeners received potato peelings as a fertilizer for currants. After all, they are an excellent source of starch, as well as glucose, which this shrub likes so much.
Therefore, in order to have an excellent harvest of delicious berries, you should not be too lazy in the spring, at the time when fruit and berry plantations are dug in, to bring dry peelings of potatoes into the ground. Then in July, the bush will reward you with a magnificent harvest of large, selected berries.
In addition, potato peels are used as a fertilizer for raspberries. In this case, they are also introduced into the soil during its spring loosening. It is also good to use an infusion of potatoes in the summer for watering berry bushes. Any gardener who has ever tried this method of plant nutrition will never refuse it again.
A few rules foruse of potato peels in the area
In order for potato fertilizer to bring only benefits and not make the summer resident who wants to start using it disappointed, you should remember a few rules for using them on the site:
- It is undesirable to spread potato peels on the surface of the soil. This, firstly, will make the appearance of the site untidy, and secondly, it will attract numerous rodents to the territory who want to feast.
- Potato peelings as a fertilizer for currants and other fruit and berry crops are added dropwise next to the roots in a dry form. This is done so that, decomposing in the soil during the summer, by the time the fruits ripen, they give all the accumulated glucose and starch to the ground.
- The rest of the vegetable crops are recommended to be watered with an infusion of potato peels from a watering can, after removing the strainer so that it does not clog.
Following all these simple rules, an amateur gardener will certainly have a large and excellent harvest by autumn.
Are all plants suitable for potato peelings as a fertilizer?
What must be remembered? Potato peelings as a fertilizer are not suitable for all plants. Do not use them for plants belonging to the nightshade family. Such as eggplants, peppers, tomatoes and similar representatives of this family. The thing is that by nature they have a lot of common diseases. Therefore, there is always the danger of what is gooddried and steamed cleanings will remain pathogenic bacteria.
Are potato peels a houseplant fertilizer?
Potato peelings as a fertilizer are perfect not only for garden and garden crops. Houseplants will also respond well to this kind of organic top dressing. To do this, it is also worth diluting a solution of dry potato peelings at home and fertilizing every month by watering all domestic plants. From such care, their greens will be more magnificent, and you can get rid of many pests without problems without using purchased chemicals for this.
How convenient is this fertilizer?
It is not for nothing that this type of soil fertilization and plant nutrition is gaining more and more popularity. It is very economical, because potato dishes are the basis of the diet in any family, regardless of its income level. And considering that even with the ideal quality of tubers, about a fifth of them are subject to disposal, a fairly decent amount of cleaning is collected during the winter season.
