Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fertilizer

What happens when human urine ferments?

gray17 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:08:56 -0800

What happens when urine ferments? I am interested in the chemical formulas, health effects, and agricultural fertilizer applications. More specifically: one gallon of human urine stored for 7 days in a plastic milk jug at room temperature.

Proper way to store stinky fertilizer

dottiechang — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:35:27 -0800

I am a new homeowner and need to know how to store bags of fertilizer so they don't stink up my yard. I know that this may seem like a silly question, but please bear with me. I am a first time home owner and for the first time in my life I have to figure these things out. My home has a big garden and lawn. I am in southern California so it is used weekly by my gardener at this time. I have hired to previous owner's gardener since he is so familiar with the care of the many different plants in the yard. The previous owner kindly left me with big bags of fertilizer which the gardener has started to use. They are propped up against the back of the garage and after a couple of rainstorms, it has gotten REALLY STINKY. Like, I was wondering if previous owner was hiding a body in the yard before I realized it was the fertilizer! Ha! 1) Is the fertilizer still good or should I replace with new bags of dry fertilizer? It isn't the kind that has time released capsules in it but it does seem to have hardened into a big clump. Is it something that I should get rid of and replace regularly?

2) What is the best way to store fertilizer? I can't afford to buy a shed for the yard just yet and I don't really want to put something so stinky inside the garage. Is a deck box or plastic storage container appropriate? Does it need to be able to "breathe" because of gas buildup?

I know the solution is probably very obvious but searching google for "fertilizer storage recommendations" and the like turned up nothing.

Thanks mefites! Help educate a newbie to the world of gardening!

peace lily leaves keep turning brown at tips

cmp4Meta — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:44:40 -0800

why do the tips of the leaves on my peace lily keep turning brown? i've tried giving it tons of water, tried letting it dry out, tried putting it in the sun, tried putting it in the shade, cut it back, fertilized, repotted, sprayed (there are no bugs anyway)--

no matter what i do, the leaves of this plant grow a little bit and then turn brown at the tips and then die. this was a healthy plant about 10 years ago, then my friend didn't water it and it nearly died. i've been trying to revive it ever since--but it can never seem to do more than push out a few leaves before they die. it did blossom last year for the first time in about 7 years, and now it seems to have no trouble blossoming even when the leaves are dying.

it's such an ugly plant at this point, but clearly alive, so i can't bear to throw it out. i'd like to make it look nice--can anyone think of anything to do for my peace lily?

Smells Like Teen Spirit

leigh1 — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:43:22 -0800

Why do you have to ferment liquid fertilizers made from comfrey/nettle? I was thinking of blending fresh comfrey leaves in my blender and using this (diluted) green juice as a fertilizer for my plants. Would that be a bad idea and why? I live in an apartment and it would be difficult to ferment comfrey tea on my balcony since fermented tea smells really bad. What are the benefits of fermentation?

http://ask.metafilter.com/159336/Is-it-possible-to-make-knox-gelatin-stay-a-gel-in-warmer-tempratures

freecellwizard — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:28:32 -0800

What is a gel-like material that I can use to suspend plant fertilizer so that it will release slowly over time? Someone at work is doing a "helping plants" school project with their kid and the kid had the idea of mixing fertilizer into a gelatin solution and then putting the solid gelatin in a plant's soil as a slow-release plant food. I assume this has been done commercially, but they want to do it from scratch.

They tried gelatin but it melts too easily. I was going to suggest agar (after reading a related AskMe) but I don't know if that will work.

The ideal substrate will break down over a period of days or weeks (maybe when the plant is watered) and is something that a 10-year-old and her mom can make from basic ingredients.

will my vegetables be safe to eat?

mairuzu — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:42:12 -0800

Will it be safe to eat vegetables that have been grown in soil containing decorative plant fertilizer capsule / pellets? we have recently moved into a brand new flat with a roiof terrace. the developers built some lovely big wooden planeters which they filled with not so lovely ornamental plants which had gone brown by the time we moved in due to lack of watering.

i have pulled them all up and have started to plant vegetable seeds, however i have noticed that the soil is full of small round yellow and blue plant food pellets that i assume slowly disolve and release their stuff (they kind of burst and have liquid in them when squeezed).

I know that my vegetables won't be organic, but should they be safe to eat? would decorative plants be fed with anything that i shouldn't eat nowadays.

this is in the UK.

I want grass without the fuss

reenum — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:31:31 -0800

I'm thinking of replacing my lawn with artificial grass or some other thing that doesn't require constant upkeep. I'd like to hear your experiences with such horticultural matters. I hate mowing my lawn. Always have and always will.

So, I'm thinking of having Astroturf or some other artificial grass installed. I've also been researching ground covering, which appears to be the growing of ivy or some other plant that will cover the sod, but not require mowing.

Has anyone here replaced their grass lawn with either of these alternatives. Anything I need to watch out for? How often do I need to replace artificial grass or ground covering?

All opinions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

help me not kill my new lemon tree!

beandip — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:22:06 -0800

Help! I was just given a potted lemon tree! What do I do? I don't know anything about growing potted citrus plants (or any kind of potted tree). My mom gave me this plant, which a friend gave to her a couple of years ago. She said it was too hard to take care of, and that it was leaving sticky residue over everything nearby indoors. I think she's been watering every day. And when there were blossoms, she pollinated with a Q-tip. She moved it outside when the weather warmed up. I don't think she's done much else with it, other than trimming the top branches last year. And she repotted it recently but did not fertilize. Last year it produced some lemons.

Right now it's on my west-facing balcony, which gets a lot of sun in the afternoon and evening. That is the sunniest spot in this apartment so hopefully it will be enough. We live in Minnesota so I know that's going to make things harder.

My questions are:
1. How much water is enough? It seems like daily watering is probably overkill, especially if it's outside for the summer. Some of the leaves are yellow...
2. How do I know when to fertilize?
3. Should I be worried about bugs. When I picked the tree up, it was covered in ants (we're in a second floor apartment and have never had ants here, so I think that will be less of an issue than it was in my mom's backyard.) Some of the leaves look chewed. And there are a lot of brown bumps on the leaves (both top and bottom surfaces). Here are some pictures. Are these things anything to worry about? If so, what should I do? I'd really like to be able to eat any lemons that survive, so I suppose that most insecticides are ruled out.

Also, what are your favorite gardening sites where I could learn more about how to care for this thing?

Please help me! I am terrified of killing this tree through ignorance.

Does cat poop make good fertilizer?

Faze — Sat, 14 May 2005 19:04:17 -0800

Cat poop. Does it make good fertilizer? I've got heaps.