Hi all! I'm poor. I'm attempting to get my balcony garden started without spending more than 30 dollars. (I'm probably nuts, I know.) It looks like a good chunk of that will be going to a water hose and sink attachment so I don't have to haul a milk jug of water back and forth a hundred times, so I'm hurting a bit on funds for fertilizer. To make matters worse, the landlord says I'm not allowed to compost anywhere in the apartment or on the property. (I would just hide it under my kitchen sink, what she doesn't know won't hurt her etc, but there's other reasons why I can't unfortunately.)
Is there any option for fertilizing my plants with like... five dollars left? If I mix coffee grounds and eggshells into the soil will it do anything other than bother the local slugs? I've seen that stuff about letting plant scraps sit in a bucket to make "tea" but what I read said it can't replace fertilizer - is there a way to make it so that it can?
I have a bag of epsom salts, a strong appetite for veggies, and the willingness to steal the neighbor's lawn clippings if I must.
I'm also willing to accept that I may have to forgo the water hose C:
EDIT: Thank you all for suggestions! Here's what I'm going to try in no particular order:
- Grass clippings and banana peels in water to make tea
- Getting a med-free friend to pee in a jar and letting that sit for two months
- Reach out to local Buy Nothing group and gardening groups to see if someone has leftover fertilizer or compost
- Steal dirt from local megacorp office to save money on dirt and spend that on fertilizer instead
- Ask around to see if anyone keeps fish so I can use the aquarium water
- Reach out to local mushroom farm to see if they'd give me their growing medium
- Skip the faucet hose and spend the money on some decent cheap fertilizer from Costco
I mean... for the truly free solution you could potentially use your own urine. It's a little much for most people but historically it was used.
Doesn't that contain too much sodium? How do you prevent disease spread?
Apparently it does not contain too much sodium, although you probably have to apply sparingly (like any fertilizer). Most plants can (and must) tolerate some sodium in the soil. Some plants are much better at this than others. It would probably help if these balcony plants are getting rainwater or non-salty tap water (like, you don't have a water softener).
Urine doesn't have the same parasite issues as feces but probably best to skip using it if you had a UTI or were regularly taking medications. I'd also just apply it to the roots and not the whole plant (like any fertilizer). I don't know, I've never used it, I just know it has been used historically and it has a ton of nitrogen. Anecdotally the spots in my (extremely rural) yard where I've pissed green up noticeably.
The "proper" way to use urine is to basically dilute and cycle it with aeration through some kind of filter media to convert the urea/ammonia to nitrates. It's pretty much exactly the way that aquaponics works with beneficial bacteria.
The lazier way is to "age" it so the urea converts to ammonia, raising the pH which essentially kills most harmful bacteria. Pathogens usually can't survive for long outside of a host, anyway.
Anthroponics is the term to look up.
I'm not too proud to pee on my plants!
Jk, I'll dilute it first. I'm doing a bit of reading (since I do take a few medications for chronic illnesses) but it looks like if you age the urine for two months, most pharmaceuticals will degrade below readable levels, (here's what I'm looking at) so I guess I just have to decide if I'm willing to risk creating plants full of antihistamines and painkillers or if I need to ask a friend. I'm not sure if I have any friends who don't at least take a Claritin in the mornings? ...But I'm not too proud to ask the group chat to pee on my plants! :D
Thank you for sending me down this rabbit hole. Genuinely love the idea of using my own urine to fertilize my garden... that's about as low-cost as you can get I think.
Though an antihistamine painkiller tomato does sound great tbh
Just be sure to accurately ID it, so you don't risk it being a Pain/Killer Tomato plant 🤞🏼