How To Make Fertilizer With Beer
March 30th, 2008
Why You Should Do This
During rainstorms chemical fertilizers wash off your lawn and drain into streams and rivers. Once in our waterways these fertilizers over-promote algae growth that rob our streams and rivers of vital oxygen resulting in the death of fish and other aquatic life. Even worse those chemicals can end up in our beaches or drinking water. Unlike their toxic counterparts your homemade fertilizer made with beer will not only save you cash but will also help the environment, plus it works really good. So grab the following ingredients and get started!
Gather Up The Ingredients
- A watering can (like the ones old ladies use to water their flowers)
- A cup of Epsom salt. You should be able to pick some up at your local pharmacy.
- A six pack of beer. You only need one can to make the fertilizer but I figured why not pick up some extras for that solar powered heater made of beer cans your already building.
- One cup of ammonia
- Some water. Duh.
The Mix
Alright now that you’ve got your ingredients and a good buzz going from the beer its time to start mixing it all together. Trust me its easier then making that pair of sandals.
- Mix 1 can of beer, 1 cup of Epsom salt, 1 cup of ammonia, and 2 cups of water together in your watering can. If you’ve got a bigger lawn make sure you get one of those watering cans with a spray head so you can just spray the stuff on your lawn instead of walking up and down your lawn.
- Stir your concoction with a stick, baseball bat, or any odd stirring device you have at your disposal.
- Finally spray or pour your homemade fertilizer on to your lawn and or plants. Personally I wore a pair of cut off jeans and had AC/DC blaring in the background while I was fertilizing my plants but feel free to wear what you wish.
How It works
The beer actually helps feed the plants roots, while the Epsom salt will break up the ground near the plant helping it breathe. On top of that the ammonia will kill off any fungus or bacteria in the soil.
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March 31st, 2008 at 9:51 am
wont ammonia and epson salts kill the plant?
March 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am
No way, ammonia occurs naturally in the soil and is found in practically all fertilizers look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia#Fertilizer
March 31st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Epsom Salts are not ‘real’ salts and plants LOVE them! This is a great outside recipe, I love it. My inside plants? They just get watered with black tea or coffee.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:49 am
“plus it works really good”
Just for this I’m not going to use this beer fertilizer. If you can’t master grammar, you can’t master fertilizer.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Can I mix this with diesel and blow things up ?
March 31st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Make your own home-made beer, then use the residues from that process for fertilizer. I add the residues from my home brew to my compost and get great results, both good chemical free beer and great plants in well conditioned soil.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Why dont you just drink the beer. A few minutes later you can piss on the plants with all the added salts and ammonia coming from your body?
Whats more it far more enjoyable!
March 31st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Ridiculous! One can of beer, a cup of this, a cup of that… for a lawn. It is absurd on its face.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Bob, commonsense should tell you if you need to make more you only need to double or triple or whatever the recipe.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Question: can I use left over tea or coffee on outside plants? I live in Florida and all my plants live outdoors?
thanks
April 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
A reader actually emailed me stating they use leftover tea and it works quite well so as far as I know the answer is yes!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Actually, coffee grounds, or left over brewed coffee, is very good for most plants out doors. I use them for my rose bushes, and they just love it!
Great idea on the fertilizer! I think it sounds perfect and I am going to give it a try. I am also bookmarking this site, as I find it quite enjoyable! Thanks!
Oh, and the grammar nazi needs to get laid or something.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:58 pm
wow, great idea I own a landscape firm my employees will get a kick out of this one they might get mad at me for wasting good beer though. but great idea.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 am
Ammonia is NOT anti-bacterial. Ammonia is a source of nitrogen for your plants that plants can access.
However, liquid ammonia can wash off your lawn as easily as “chemical” fertilizer. Most chemical fertilizer have a set absorption time (24 hours) after which point the risk of run-off is almost none.
Your ammonia also will take time to absorb. It may take 24 hours, but because your ammonia is already liquid, it’s MORE likely to run off if there is any rain within that 24 hour period.
Let me help you with a bit of basic chemistry and biology. Plants make their own food from CO2 and water. As long as you provide plants with carbon dioxide and water, they can make all the sugar they want.
However, there are things plants can not make:
1. Nitrogen (an element), which is part of plant proteins.
2. Magnesium (an element), which is used to make chlorophyll. It’s the Magnesium in chlorophyll that makes chlorophyll green.
3. Phosphorus (an element), which makes up both DNA and a sugar compound that all organisms use for cellular energy (ATP).
4. Potassium ions (found in potassium compounds or potassium salts) which help open and close stomata (plant lungs to let CO2 in).
So in your mixture you are adding:
Ammonia - NH3 - which is nitrogen
Epsom Salts - MgSO4*7H20 - which is magnesium
Beer - simple sugars, a little bit of phosphate, a little alcohol - the alcohol could be ANTI bacterial and kill off disease. However, I wouldn’t pour beer on a cut to keep bacteria away. In fact, if you are looking to add phosphates, pop has a higher level of phosphates.
Water - what the plant really needs to make SUGAR / its own food.
Plants don’t need you to help them make food. They can make their own food. They need supplies to make everything else from the soil.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 am
wow, I think the idea was nice I don’t think it needs to be taken so seriously, gamer wise and a rocket scientist e=mcsq using the periodic table like a mad person. life is short enjoy it don’t put so much pressure into it.