Making a Cheap Organic Dry Fertiliser in Australia

[Roo_]

Goal is to make a cheap organic fertiliser / soil enhancer to amend native soils before planting.

I noticed a lot of gardeners overseas are using gaia green or down to earth 444 as a dry fertiliser.

So trying to use cheap readily available organic fertilisers to recreate this 4% npk mix..

Ingredients
15kg seamangus $24 NPK 4-1-1.5
15kg blood and bone $35 NPK 8-1-1.5
2.5kg phosphorus (from bat guano) $10 NPK 0-12-0
2.5kg potassium potash $22 NPK 0-0-41
or
25kg Eco Prime PhoSpot $45 NPK 0-9.8-6.1

Recipe
Big Green Shed 1kg 444 fertiliser (NPK listed for amounts is per 1000g)
250g seamangus - 40c - NPK 1-0.25-0.4
380g blood and bone - 90c - NPK 3-0.4-0.6
280g phosphorus - $1.10 - NPK 0-3.35-0
70g potassium - 60c - NPK 0-0-3
Add 20g of compost to make it 1000g NPK 444 total cost $3

A cheaper alternative to the phosphorus and potassium found at bunnings could be eco-prime phospot NPK 0-9.8-6.1 25kg $45, still using some potash from bunnings this would bring total to about $2.10 per kg of 444.

Suggested amounts to use 444 when mixing into a new container of soil
down to earth 444 - 300g per 50l
gaia green 444 - 560ml per 50l

Next amendment would be more calcium.. Following some recommendations online I found suggestions for 50% dolamite 50% gypsum 300ml per 50 litres of soil.

Next would be a flowering amendment with an NPK around 2-8-4

What are you favourite organic fertilisers and soil amendments available in Australia?

Any of these ingredients here you would avoid?

 

[Creeperpark]

I would avoid blood meal outdoors if you have any kind of wild flesh-eating mammal in the growing areas. When I used blood meal outdoors the coyotes would dig my plants up searching for blood. I would find the plants laying on the ground next to a big hole in the ground.
For amendments, I would go with some aged composed manures and compost from the area and add to the soil in the Fall. Then return in the Spring get a soil test and add whatever the soil needs to complete the nutrient sequence. In most cases, the soil I tested said to supplement nitrogen @ 1lb per 1000 ft. . Very good thread thanks for sharing.

 

[Creeperpark]

A good fix for nitrogen amendment was Alfafa hay mulch top dressing around the plants. However, I put a lot of alfalfa hay mulch over my soil in Fall and let it set over the Winter and change the soil test results. When alfalfa hay got so expensive and I couldn't get it anymore, I would just use the alfalfa meal and spread it around the plants. It's slow but it kicks ass because it's so natural.

A lot of times the only problem from the soil test would show was a high pH in the upper 7 to low 8 pH. All the nutrients were present in the ground but because of the high pH, some were unavailable. The fix was to use Canadain Peat moss mixed into the soil to lower the pH. Peat moss has a pH of 4.4 and when added to alkaline soil it does amazing things. After adding the peat moss to the high pH soil, it would bring it down to the upper 6 to lower 7 pH for six months at a time. So just one bale of peat moss mixed with clay soil would be enough to grow super kick-ass weed.

 

[Roo_]

I would avoid blood meal outdoors if you have any kind of wild flesh-eating mammal in the growing areas. When I used blood meal outdoors the coyotes would dig my plants up searching for blood. I would find the plants laying on the ground next to a big hole in the ground.
For amendments, I would go with some aged composed manures and compost from the area and add to the soil in the Fall. Then return in the Spring get a soil test and add whatever the soil needs to complete the nutrient sequence. In most cases, the soil I tested said to supplement nitrogen @ 1lb per 1000 ft. . Very good thread thanks for sharing.

Hi Creeperpark

Yes I am concerned about blood and bone meal attracting animals. This is the Australian/nz section we don't have coyotes but we do have dingos, wild dogs, boars and rats.. I'm thinking of using blood and bone for first ammendment and letting it cook for a few weeks before planting.. By this time the smells shouldn't be attractive to the animals.

I would be adding organic matter/compost to the soil to feed microorganisms but I thought adding a good amount of npk into the the normally low nutrient native soil was a good plan to kickstart it.

For future top dressings with nitrogen I will stick to manure based or a green material like alfalfa meal.

Unfortunately we don't have as easy access to cheap soil testing like in the US.

I also don't live somewhere with a fall and spring, I live in the tropics and things breakdown incredibly fast or wash out of the soil in monsoon rains.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Have access to rabbits and not hares?
Dry nutrient.
Wet nutrient.
Foliar.
Soil conditioner.
Biogas generator stimulant (or main ingredient).
Ruminant feed.
Dog treats.
Macro, Micro and trace element rich compost.
Anti pest urine foliar 1:5 urine to water.
Lean, nutrient dense meat. (2 doe and 2 buck can easily produce 30lbs of meat a month)
Furs, dog treat ears/feet/tails

and on and on... Cute little beasties too.