Simple tips on how to use fertilizer from potato peelings in the garden and more Potato peelings, whose benefits for the garden have been tested by time, are an absolutely safe fertilizer for humans and completely free. Unlike chemicals, organic matter decomposes much faster, being processed by bacteria contained in the soil. This means that the necessary microelements will quickly reach their intended destination through root system. « Side effect» rapid decomposition - heat generation. If you fertilize in the spring, the soil will warm up noticeably faster. The structure of the soil also improves. It becomes lighter and looser. This is especially important for peat, clay, and silt soils. Everyone knows that potatoes are very healthy. It contains many microelements useful for humans - potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, sodium. But the same substances are necessary for proper growth and development of plants. The most common chemical fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. Potato peelings contain many useful substances that are so necessary for the plant. In addition, 10–25% (depending on the variety) of the potato mass is starch, and 3–5% is glucose. It is these substances that plants store in seeds, bulbs or tubers. Starch and glucose are the main nutrition for the developing embryo. Consequently, potato fertilizer will be useful for agricultural crops at all stages of development. Another important point is the availability of potato peelings. Potatoes in one form or another are present on the table of every family, regardless of financial situation, almost every day. Even if you remove the peel very thin layer, approximately a tenth of the tuber mass will still be thrown away. A more likely option is 15–20%. Now calculate how many cleanings you can accumulate by next summer if you set a similar goal from the beginning of autumn. Pest Control One more thing useful property Potatoes are a wonderful bait for pests. It is especially loved by slugs, click beetles (its larvae are popularly known as wireworms) and the Colorado potato beetle. You need to start setting traps as soon as the first shoots appear or the seedlings are planted in the ground. This way you are guaranteed to protect the future harvest. A pest trap made from potato peelings is very easy to make. Making traps is not difficult. Dig into the ground glass jars, old unnecessary buckets and pans, tin cans or cut-off plastic bottles so that the edge of the container approximately coincides with the top edge of the pit. The container must be deep enough and without holes. Place potato peelings on the bottom every evening. To enhance the effect, you can pour them with sweet water (a tablespoon of sugar per glass), syrup, or add a little old jam that no one will eat anymore. In the morning, all you have to do is go around the containers, collect the pests caught in them overnight and destroy them. Just don’t throw what you’ve collected over the fence. After a few hours, the slugs and insects will return to your area. Another trap option is to bury a long piece of wire in the ground with peelings strung on it. Leave one end sticking out of the ground or mark the place where the trap is buried. Once every 2-3 days, dig it out, collect any pests you find and replace the bait with fresh bait. How to prepare and use fertilizer? The raw materials for preparing the fertilizer must be collected all winter. Peelings from boiled potatoes are not suitable as a fertilizer. Long-term heat treatment destroys all useful microelements. Of course, if you simply spread fresh potato peelings over the beds, good harvest can't wait. They will begin to rot very quickly, especially in the summer, in the heat, spreading the corresponding “aroma.” In addition, mice, rats and other rodents living in the surrounding area will come running to your site - this is a wonderful treat for them. And in general, plantings “treated” in this way look very unaesthetic. At the same time, fresh potato (like any vegetable) peelings can and should even be added to the compost heap. Potato peelings are a good addition to compost. There are different options fertilizers But in any case of cleaning, before fertilizing, it is necessary to thoroughly rinse and disinfect using boiling water, dry heat or cold to destroy the bacteria and/or fungi present on them. Otherwise, you will only contaminate the soil and healthy plants. To get it right, useful fertilizer, you need to proceed as follows: Rinse the cleaning in cool running water until visible traces of dirt disappear. Wait until they dry and lay them out in a single layer on newspapers or thin cloth. If weather permits, dry outside in a well-ventilated place, protected from direct sun rays and possible rain. When it’s already cold, do it in the apartment on the radiator or on the balcony. Complete drying takes 7–10 days outdoors and 2–3 weeks indoors. The exact period depends on the thickness of the cleaning. Those who want to speed up the process can dry them in the oven. Place the peelings on a baking tray covered with baking paper, place inside and leave for 3-4 hours at a temperature not exceeding 100ºC, closing the door loosely. The procedure will take even less time if it is carried out in a special electric dryer or microwave oven. The main thing is to choose the appropriate mode. The finished fertilizer becomes noticeably lighter, the peels are translucent and break easily. You can simply freeze the peelings. The downside is that there probably won't be enough space in the freezer to store them. Other most suitable place- balcony. But as soon as the temperature outside is positive, the fertilizer will have to be used for its intended purpose. Thawing the peels and freezing them again is strongly not recommended. If the house was dried naturally, the cleaning is stored on the balcony, in unheated garage, barn and so on, so that the cold destroys pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Place the oven-dried future fertilizer in linen bags and keep in a dry, cool, well-ventilated place. The ideal option is a pantry. Grind dry peelings in a meat grinder, blender or food processor until powdery. This ready-made fertilizer- the so-called flour. In addition, this type of cleaning takes much more less space, they are easier to store and transport. In spring and summer, use dry peelings to prepare an infusion. Place them in a bucket or barrel, filling the container about a third, fill it to the top with boiling water and close tightly. Wait 3-4 days until a characteristic odor appears. Without stirring the contents of the barrel, scoop a liter of infusion from above, pour into a 10-liter bucket and add water (9 l). Now mix thoroughly and water the plants. The gruel remaining at the bottom of the container will also come in handy. It is dug into the ground under bushes and trees and added to holes when planting seedlings. Another option for preparing the infusion is to pour boiling water over the peelings, wait until it cools to a temperature of 35–40ºC, and strain.
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 directly under it that the largest amount of vitamins and nutrients is concentrated. This is an excellent reason to benefit from potato peelings and use them, for example, as fertilizer for your garden.
Potato peelings are a good fertilizer for the garden
If you live in a private house or are the owner summer cottage, then you probably send potato peelings to 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 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.
Benefits for various plants
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:
- tomatoes;
- potato;
- capsicum;
- eggplant;
- nightshade;
- physalis;
- tobacco.
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.
Pay attention! 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:
Rules for the preparation of raw materials and the nuances of preparing the infusion
If you have open balcony, you can freeze the peelings 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.
Table: principle of applying fertilizer from potato peelings
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 | Water your indoor plants with a solution of dried peelings ground into flour at least once a month. Also, when replanting, you can put a small amount of the grounds from the solution into the pot. |
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 growth and flowering period, 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. |
Video about using potato peelings as fertilizer
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!
Potatoes are the main product on our table. And where there are potatoes, there are peelings. Moreover, even with high-quality cleaning of the tuber, a fifth of it is sent to waste. And, as everyone knows, the highest concentration of vitamins contained in this root vegetable is precisely in the peel and the layer that is located under it.
Owners of private houses send such valuable product, as cleaning, into compost. If you have a dacha and the opportunity to visit it in winter, preserving the cleaning is also not a problem. What about those who spend the winter in a city apartment and only go to the dacha during the season? Don't rush to throw leftover potatoes into the trash. There are many ways to preserve them: dry, freeze. Why save potato peelings? Because they are the best, environmentally friendly and absolutely free fertilizer for garden plants, garden flowers and fruit trees and bushes.
Potato peelings are an excellent fertilizer for plants in the garden.
How to prepare fertilizer from peelings
If you have a balcony and the possibility of using it for such purposes, it is easier to freeze the peelings in small portions as they arrive.
1. This method is good because it keeps absolutely all the vitamins intact. The disadvantage is that as soon as the temperature becomes above zero, you will have to go to the dacha immediately. For many seasonal summer residents, early spring is not yet a reason to visit the site. Now there is a reason. Melted and rotted cleaning on the balcony will emit not just a smell, but a stench. And the valuable nutritious product, collected with such difficulty, will disappear.
Advice!
Even if the dacha is for you - summer house, you need to visit her at least twice a month in winter. Especially if the winter is cold and there is little snow. Check the cleanliness of the snow cover, the shelter of young trees and other plants, and flower beds. Throw more snow on the ridges and under the perennial plants.
2. The second method is drying the peelings; it is simpler and more convenient for storing the finished product, but more troublesome in the process. To create a completely ideal fertilizer, the peelings should first be dried (in the oven, on a radiator), then ground in a meat grinder and dried again.
In the spring, frozen or dried eco-friendly components for useful fertilizer are poured into a barrel, filled with water and soaked, with constant stirring. As a result, a solution and a highly nutritious gruel is formed, which contains necessary for plants minerals, salts, vitamins and starch.
How to use peelings as fertilizer
Seedling
Fertilizer from peelings is useful when planting cucumber and cabbage seedlings in the ground. Each finished hole at the bottom is fertilized with potato pulp. One scoop is enough. Sprinkle with soil. Plant seedlings. This will promote soil fertility, since the potatoes will be liked by the soil bacteria responsible for the formation of the fertile layer.
Video - how to use fertilizer from potato peelings
Top dressing
An infusion of peelings perfectly fertilizes crops such as zucchini, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, all kinds of onions, and all types of cabbages. A thick infusion (decant the liquid and add a little thickener) is watered onto the plants at the root using a watering can. This fertilizer replaces full-fledged organic fertilizer. It can be done every two weeks.
Advice!
If you dried the waste in the oven, it has not undergone hot disinfection, and late blight is no longer a source. Dried in the oven, the peelings can simply be buried next to any garden or garden plant.
Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, vegetable peppers, nightshade and other members of the nightshade family should not be fertilized with potato residues. Not because the beneficial substances contained in potatoes do not affect them. They just have common illnesses. Potato fertilizer can infect them with black scab or late blight. As a last resort, if you really want to use potato fertilizer for tomatoes, prepare it differently - pour boiling water over the dry peelings.
Getting rid of pests
It is not advisable to simply scatter dry or frozen cleaning materials over the surface of the soil. They have an unsightly appearance, and useful substances will quickly enter the soil when they decompose. But there are cases when “external” use is justified.
- They are laid out as bait for slugs. These pests crawl to the smell of potatoes. They are collected and destroyed.
- In the same way, they get rid of the Colorado potato beetle larvae. Cleanings are poured into piles in different places potato row spacing. When the larvae have collected on them, the piles are raked and burned, doused with kerosene. You can pre-etch the cleanings, then all that remains is to collect them and throw them away.
- Whole potatoes are used to catch wireworm larvae. The wireworm loves him very much. And so that he does not destroy the crops, he is offered a potato “bonus”. The root crop is cut into pieces and buried shallowly in different places. After a few days, the bait with the wireworm caught in it, enjoying the fresh aromatic potatoes, is removed.
Which plants should be fertilized with peelings?
| Cultures | Fertilizer method |
|---|---|
| Seedling | For all plants except the nightshade family, spread a thick “puree” into the planting holes. |
| Pumpkin crops | Lagenaria, cucumber, chayote, melotria - by watering at the root with a solution of peelings, with the addition of grounds. |
| Melons | Pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon - the same as pumpkin ones. |
| Cruciferous | Cabbage, turnips, rutabaga - by watering with a solution without grounds at the root. |
| Fruit and berry crops | Trees and shrubs - bury dry cleaning in the spring in the trunk circle. It is especially good to fertilize all types of currants with peelings, since the plant needs a high starch content. |
| Indoor flowers | An infusion of peelings, decanted, is good to use as a supplement for indoor plants during transplantation. |
Fertilizing the soil is a necessary measure. Every year it is depleted by plants more and more, and fertilizers become more and more expensive. Why buy "chemicals" in the store. It is better to use an environmentally friendly product, potato peelings, rich in elements and completely free.
So-called organic farming is gaining increasing popularity. The essence of the method is to use it in the garden plot minimum quantity chemical fertilizers. Chemicals need to be replaced with something.
Preference is given to natural organic matter. We don’t hesitate to throw food waste into the trash bin. But if you spend a little time processing potato peelings, they can then be used as fertilizer. With a minimum of effort, you will get excellent natural remedy for feeding.
What are the benefits and benefits of potato peelings?
Any summer resident wants to consistently receive a good harvest from his garden plot, spending a minimum of money and effort on it. Therefore, instead of purchasing fertilizers in the store, all kinds of fertilizers are used folk remedies. Chemical and organic fertilizers, in addition to their high cost, have other disadvantages. In the soil into which you add them, not only agricultural crops, but also all kinds of weeds begin to grow well. If you do not strictly follow the dosage, excess chemicals get from the soil into vegetables, berries and fruits, and from there into your body. As you can easily guess, there is nothing good in such an “overdose”. This will not benefit your health or the soil.
Potato peelings, whose benefits for the garden have been tested by time, are an absolutely safe fertilizer for humans and completely free. Unlike chemicals, organic matter decomposes much faster, being processed by bacteria contained in the soil. This means that the necessary microelements will quickly reach their destination through the root system. A “side effect” of rapid decomposition is the release of heat. If you fertilize in the spring, the soil will warm up noticeably faster.
The structure of the soil also improves. It becomes lighter, looser
This is especially important for peat, clay, and silty soils
Everyone knows that potatoes are very healthy. It contains many microelements useful for humans - potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, sodium. But the same substances are necessary for proper growth and development of plants. The most common chemical fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium.
Potato peelings contain many useful substances that are so necessary for the plant.In addition, 10-25% (depending on the variety) of the potato mass is starch, and 3-5% is glucose. It is these substances that plants store in seeds, bulbs or tubers. Starch and glucose are the main nutrition for the developing embryo. Consequently, potato fertilizer will be useful for agricultural crops at all stages of development.
Another important point is the availability of potato peelings. Potatoes in one form or another are present on the table of every family, regardless of financial situation, almost every day. Even if you remove the peel in a very thin layer, approximately a tenth of the mass of the tubers will still be thrown away. A more likely option is 15-20%. Now calculate how many cleanings you can accumulate by next summer if you set a similar goal from the beginning of autumn.
Video: potato peelings to help the gardener
Pest Control
Another useful property of potatoes is that they are a wonderful bait for pests. It is especially loved by slugs, click beetles (its larvae are popularly known as wireworms) and the Colorado potato beetle.
You need to start setting traps as soon as the first shoots appear or the seedlings are planted in the ground. This way you are guaranteed to protect the future harvest.
Pest trap made from potato peelings
it's very easy to do
Making traps is easy. Dig glass jars, old unnecessary buckets and pans, tin cans or cut plastic bottles into the ground so that the edge of the container approximately coincides with the top edge of the hole. The container must be deep enough and without holes. Place potato peelings on the bottom every evening. To enhance the effect, you can pour them with sweet water (a tablespoon of sugar per glass), syrup, or add a little old jam that no one will eat anymore. In the morning, all you have to do is go around the containers, collect the pests caught in them overnight and destroy them. Just don’t throw what you collected over the fence. After a few hours, the slugs and insects will return to your area.
Another trap option is to bury a long piece of wire in the ground with peelings strung on it. Leave one end sticking out of the ground or mark the place where the trap is buried. Once every 2-3 days, dig it out, collect any pests you find and replace the bait with fresh bait.
How to prepare and use fertilizer?
Raw materials for preparing fertilizer need to be collected all winter
Peelings from boiled potatoes are not suitable as a fertilizer. Prolonged heat treatment destroys all useful microelements.
Of course, if you just spread fresh potato peelings over the beds, you won’t get a good harvest. They will begin to rot very quickly, especially in the summer, in the heat, spreading the corresponding “aroma.” In addition, mice, rats and other rodents living in the surrounding area will come running to your site - this is a wonderful treat for them. And in general, plantings “treated” in this way look very unaesthetic.
At the same time, fresh potato (like any vegetable) peelings can and should even be added to the compost heap.
Potato peelings are a good addition to compost.
There are different fertilizer options. But in any case of cleaning, before fertilizing, it is necessary to thoroughly rinse and disinfect using boiling water, dry heat or cold to destroy the bacteria and/or fungi present on them. Otherwise, you will only contaminate the soil and healthy plants.
To get the right, healthy fertilizer, you need to act as follows:
Rinse the cleaners in cool running water until no visible traces of dirt disappear.
Wait until they dry and lay them out in a single layer on newspapers or thin cloth.If weather permits, dry outside in a well-ventilated place, away from direct sunlight and possible rain. When it’s already cold, do it in the apartment on the radiator or on the balcony. Complete drying takes 7-10 days outdoors and 2-3 weeks indoors. The exact period depends on the thickness of the cleaning.
Those who want to speed up the process can dry them in the oven. Place the peelings on a baking tray covered with baking paper, place inside and leave for 3-4 hours at a temperature not exceeding 100ºC, closing the door loosely. The procedure will take even less time if it is carried out in a special electric dryer or microwave oven. The main thing is to choose the appropriate mode. The finished fertilizer becomes noticeably lighter, the peels are translucent and break easily.
You can simply freeze the peelings. The downside is that there probably won't be enough space in the freezer to store them. Another most suitable place is the balcony. But as soon as the temperature outside is positive, the fertilizer will have to be used for its intended purpose. Thawing the peels and freezing them again is strongly not recommended.
If the house was dried naturally, the cleaning is stored on the balcony, in an unheated garage, shed, etc., so that the cold destroys pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Place the oven-dried future fertilizer in linen bags and keep in a dry, cool, well-ventilated place. The ideal option is a pantry.
Grind the dry peelings in a meat grinder, blender or food processor until powdery. This ready-made fertilizer is the so-called flour. In addition, this type of cleaning takes up much less space and is easier to store and transport.
In spring and summer, use dry peelings to prepare an infusion. Place them in a bucket or barrel, filling the container about a third, fill it to the top with boiling water and close tightly. Wait 3-4 days until a characteristic odor appears. Without stirring the contents of the barrel, scoop a liter of infusion from above, pour into a 10-liter bucket and add water (9 l). Now mix thoroughly and water the plants.
The gruel remaining at the bottom of the container will also come in handy. It is dug into the ground under bushes and trees and added to holes when planting seedlings.
Another option for preparing the infusion is to pour boiling water over the peelings, wait until it cools to a temperature of 35-40ºC, and strain.
Bury dried peelings in the ground or prepare an infusion
What plants need to be fed?
What plants benefit from fertilizer from potato peelings and how to feed them to maximize the benefits?
Table: how to feed agricultural crops
crops with potato peelings?
|
Agricultural crop |
Type of feeding |
|
Cucumbers, pumpkin, cabbage, squash, zucchini, watermelon, melons |
When planting seedlings in the ground, a “porridge” of dried peelings poured with boiling water is placed at the bottom of the hole. Sprinkle with a layer of earth of the same thickness, then another portion of “porridge” is needed. The last layer is soil again. Then the sprout is placed in the hole and it is covered with earth. |
|
Onion, garlic, turnip, radish, radish |
Watering with infusion of dried potato peelings every two weeks starting at the end of May. It is better not to water individual bulbs, but to pour fertilizer into the furrows between the rows of plantings. The infusion must first be strained so that the pieces do not end up on the garden bed. On the surface they are absolutely useless, and they also attract pests. Remove the nozzle from the watering can - it gets clogged very quickly. Despite straining, the infusion turns out to be quite thick. |
|
Raspberry |
Cleanings in the form of flour are applied to the root zone, then the soil is well loosened. An infusion of fresh peelings is used for watering (about 5 liters per 1 p/m). |
|
Strawberry |
In the spring, flour from the peelings is sprinkled under each bush. For small ones, one handful is enough, for larger ones, two. In addition, dried peelings can successfully replace mulch. |
|
Currant |
White, pink, and red currants love peeling, but the effect of feeding is especially noticeable on black ones. The berries will become noticeably sweeter and larger, reaching the size of raisin grapes or even cherries. The dried peelings are buried at the roots to a depth of 15-20 cm, after slightly moistening them with water so that they do not take away moisture from the plant. The procedure is carried out in the spring, as soon as the soil has melted sufficiently. If you are satisfied with the condition of the plants, you can feed the bushes once every two years. It is possible to feed bushes in winter if the soil around them is cleaned in the fall and covered with polyethylene. As fresh cleaning accumulates, rake the snow, spread it on the ground and bury it again. In spring, dig up the soil well. Watering with infusion of potato peelings every 12-14 days is also effective. |
Every gardener thinks about how to better and more efficiently fertilize his plot. This difficult problem can be solved not only by chemicals from the store, but also by simple “folk” remedies. They are much more accessible and safe - because they are environmentally friendly. For example, you can use potato peelings as fertilizer.
Potatoes are one of the most popular products, but at least 1/5 of the entire tuber is cut off along with the peel. IN best case scenario cleaning goes into the compost, but most often straight into the trash can. But in vain! They can be of great benefit in the garden.
Article outline
Potato peelings are easily digested by bacteria living in the soil. Moreover, during the process of their decomposition, all nutrients enter the soil and can be absorbed by the roots of garden plantings. This releases heat, which warms the soil, and this is also important for growing plants. Thus, the fertility of the land increases significantly. Therefore, the harvest.
Potatoes as a fertilizer are also useful because they contain a large amount of useful substances. Namely:
- vitamins (primarily we are talking about C);
- glucose;
- fats;
- starch;
- micro- and macroelements;
- mineral salts;
- a whole list of organic acids.
It’s hard to disagree that such a list of nutrients will have a positive effect on plant development. In addition, potato fertilizer also has a whole series advantages over fertilizing crops with chemicals:
- Cleanings are available raw materials, for which you don’t need to spend any special money. They are in every home, and you can accumulate a huge amount of them, thereby providing yourself with a supply organic fertilizer for the warm season.
- This type of fertilizer significantly increases the content of fertile humus in soils.
- Regular application of cleanings also has a positive effect on other characteristics of the soil: it becomes looser, thereby making it easier for the root systems to feed and providing oxygen flow to them.
- Organic fertilizers (in terms of their saturation with micro- and macroelements important for planting) are much superior to various mineral complexes. Potato peelings are organic.
- When using chemicals mineral fertilizers the content of chemicals in plants and crops increases. This is unlikely to threaten human health, but products with a high content of such compounds are unlikely to bring benefits. Potatoes are natural fertilizers.
- Often, adding organic matter to the soil is accompanied by increased growth of not only garden crops, but also weeds. When using potatoes, this effect is less pronounced.
- Cleaning can help control plant pests.
The use of potato peelings is completely safe for both humans and the environment, because groundwater No chemicals get in.
The plants themselves will not suffer: with such care they cannot be “burned” or “overfed”, which is quite acceptable when using fertilizers from the store.
But not everything is so perfect! The use of potato peelings as a fertilizer still has its disadvantages, which must be mentioned:
- large application volumes are required (this must be done regularly to achieve desired result, one-time fertilizing will only have a temporary effect);
- it is impossible to control the concentration of added beneficial elements;
- it is not suitable for all plants, as will be discussed later.
Thus, potato peelings are a completely effective and affordable fertilizer for the garden. He has more benefits, rather than shortcomings.
Before we talk about options for preparing fertilizer from potato peelings, we need to talk about how they can be preserved during the winter for later use.
The benefits of future feeding depend on whether this is done correctly, so you need to treat this stage with responsibility. There are two ways to prepare peelings - drying them and freezing them.
Drying
Drying the peelings remaining after cooking potatoes is not difficult at home, but you still have to work hard and devote some of your time to this.
Step-by-step guide on how to dry potato peelings:
- The first step is to collect the cleaning materials and rinse them thoroughly in cool water. This must be done until traces of contamination disappear.
- Then you need to thoroughly squeeze the raw material and wait until most of the moisture has evaporated from it.
- Then you can proceed directly to the drying process itself, which can be done both at home and outdoors, and using an oven or microwave.
When drying potato peelings in the open air, they should be spread in a thin layer on paper or cloth.. At home, this should be done in a ventilated area. For example, a balcony is ideal. You can also put cleaning paper on the battery in warm room, be sure to periodically open the window. An influx of fresh air can protect them from rotting.
If potato waste is dried outside, you need to make sure that it is not exposed to direct sunlight and is not soaked by rain.
On average, it takes up to 10 days until complete drying. The exact time cannot be given, because this time depends on the thickness of the cleaning and layer, conditions environment, temperature regime. Those who do not want to wait a long time can do it much faster thanks to the use of household appliances.
To dry future fertilizer in the oven, it must be heated to a temperature no higher than 100ºC. At this time, you should place a clean sheet of paper on a baking tray, and pour it onto it and spread it evenly with a thin layer of potato peeling. The door should not be closed tightly so as not to block the access of oxygen. After 3-4 hours you can turn off the oven.
The process will be even faster using a microwave. The drying time of cleaning products in it depends on the power of the device, the selected mode and the condition of the raw materials. If you experiment, you can find a suitable quick drying technology.
The readiness of the fertilizer can be easily determined by eye: completely dry potato peelings become brittle and translucent.
In this form, they need to be placed in pre-prepared fabric bags (so that they are ventilated). If drying took place naturally in the house or in the open air, then it is recommended to store the workpiece in a cold place: on a balcony, unheated shed or garage, so that low temperature destroyed possible pathogenic microorganisms. If you used an oven or microwave, a pantry will do.
Freezing
Potato peelings for the garden can be preserved in another way - freezing. Is it true, this method has one significant drawback : volume freezers limited, and most often food takes up most of it. Before freezing peelings, they must be thoroughly rinsed and dried.
The solution is to store cleaning products on the balcony after the attack subzero temperature. True, after the thermometer rises above zero, they should be used immediately. Re-freezing cleaning is strictly prohibited.. How to use boiled potato peels for fertilizer - after heat treatment There are hardly any useful substances left in it.
How to use potato peelings? There are three main ways:
- flour;
- gruel;
- infusion.
Let's look at each of them in more detail:
Potato peel flour
To prepare the flour, you will need pre-dried peels (the technology was described above). Then it is ground in a meat grinder, blender and coffee grinder. Such fertilizer can be stored in bags, but it should not be left on for a long time, because the flour can rot or pests and pathogenic microorganisms may appear in it.
With the onset of spring, the time comes to use this product, valuable for plant growth. Ground potato peels are good as an all-purpose fertilizer.
To make the pulp, you will also need dried peels, as well as a barrel and boiling water. Dry potato waste is placed in the kidney and completely filled hot water. This is necessary to ensure that possible fungi, microbes and pests are killed. After a week, dry cleaning will absorb moisture and become soggy. All that remains is to mix them well. The resulting porridge is ready for use in the garden.
Infusion
It's quite easy to make an infusion. To do this you will need either raw or frozen potato peelings. They are filled with boiling water for 24 hours, and then the resulting liquid is used for irrigation. By the way, this product will certainly appeal not only to gardeners, but also to lovers of indoor plants - they also react positively to such an organic “treat”.
Simply spreading potato waste on the surface of the soil is prohibited: this can attract rodents and other pests that will harm the crop.
How to use potato peelings as fertilizer
How and why to use potato peel fertilizer
What plants are potato peelings suitable for as fertilizer? For almost everyone, because such feeding is both universal and effective at the same time. There are only a few exceptions: representatives of the nightshade family. We're talking about tomatoes. bell pepper and eggplants. The fact is that these plants, along with potatoes, have the same diseases that can be transmitted along with organic fertilizer from potato peelings. It's better not to take risks!
Plant seedlings especially need to be provided useful substances, so fertilizer from potatoes when planting in the ground will come in handy. You can use potato flour or gruel for this purpose. They are placed at the bottom of the hole when creating it (about 1 handful), then a small layer of soil is poured, and another portion of fertilizer is added on top of it.
Sprinkle with soil again and plant seedlings. This will ensure young plant necessary nutrients for a long time.
For melons (cucumbers, zucchini, watermelons, melons, pumpkins)
Potato peelings as fertilizer are excellent as fertilizer for cucumbers and others. melons. It is necessary to take care of feeding them even when planting seedlings in the ground, as described above.
For onions, garlic and root vegetables (radishes, radishes, etc.)
For these crops, an infusion will be effective. It should be applied starting from the last ten days of May. It is recommended to keep the interval between “potato fertilizing” at two weeks. There is no need to try to water each of the plants at the root - just water the bed with a watering can without a nozzle (the infusion can clog it).
It is important to ensure that particles of potato peel do not accidentally fall on the surface of the soil, because this can attract unwanted guests in the form of rodents.
Potato peelings are applied as a fertilizer for raspberries in the form of flour or infusion. After watering, the soil must be loosened. It is recommended to periodically (1-2 times a month) sprinkle strawberries with flour.
Fertilizing with potato peelings is very useful for currants, especially black currants. With regular feeding, its berries become noticeably larger, sometimes reaching the size of cherries. To do this, every spring you should bury the pulp or soaked peel under the bush to a depth of 20 cm. This procedure can be carried out every year. Also in spring and summer, you can use potato peelings for currants in the form of an infusion, watering the bushes once every two weeks. The effect will not take long to appear!
How to use potato peels as fertilizer
Potato peelings can be used as fertilizer for different cultures. This is a natural organic product that can impart a lot of useful substances to plantings.
