Desert Gardens

» succulentwoman - No $, Need Fertilizer for my succulent babies

I am a poor college student but that doesn't mean that I am blind to the pain my poor little succulents are in. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what household items I can use to enrich the phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium content of my soil? We compost where I live, if that helps. thanks...hope to hear something soon because my plants seem really unhappy

-- posted by succulentwoman

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» Robert Dailey - No $, Need Fertilizer for my succulent babies

In response to No $, Need Fertilizer for my succulent babies posted by succulentwoman:

Compost is probably the BEST way to enrich your soil with nutrients. If you use compost, you shouldn't need to add anything else to your soil.
Just about any non-meat or non-dairy product (with the exception of egg shells) can be used for compost.
Let's start with nitrogen. Anything green (that is the GREEN leaves and foliage of any plant) is high in nitrogen, and should be added to your compost. This includes grass clippings, weeds that have not seeded (don't put weeds that have already formed seeds into your compost, because the compost won't kill the seeds, and they will germinate when exposed to light), green leaves, vegetable and fruit peelings and leftovers, as long as they are not cooked.
Potatoes, bananas, avocadoes, parsnips and turnips are high in potassium. However, store-bought, non-organic bananas have been treated with chemicals, and I wouldn't put the peelings in the compost.
Grain, bran (hulls from milled grains) soybeans, are high in phosphorous.
You can add some animal manure, but make sure that the manure is from herbivores, not carnivores or omnivores, because these animals carry diseases which may be dangerous to humans. Sheep and cow manure are very good, except that cow manure is also high in salts. Pig (omnivore), dog, cat and human manure should not be used in any circumstances.
However, soils generally have enough mineral contents (except perhaps nitrogen) to provide nutrients for plants.
Adding compost to soils introduces microorganisms which can break down the minerals already in the soil, and make them available for plant roots to absorb.
And, since the microorganisms have already been working on the materials in the compost itself, much of that compost has been broken down into accessible nutrients.
I'm not sure what your soil is like, but if you would like to email me back and let me know, I may be able to give you more information.

Here is an article that will give you more information on what to use in compost:
http://desertgardens.suite101.com/articl...
Hope this was helpful.

Bob

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