Homemade Phosphorus Fertilizer
Bone meal is the most readily available way to get phosphorus in your garden. It can be found in fertilizers or used with other products to mix up your own, so that you can control the levels of each nutrient that goes into your yard. If you want to make your own phosphorus fertilizer, the easiest way is to make your own bone meal. You can use scraps saved from your kitchen table so that you have one less thing going to waste.
Dig a trench 2 feet deep and lay wood inside. Lay wood only a foot high so that you still have a foot of trench above it.
Create ledges in the sides of the trench by digging into the sides. You can use a trowel to do this. Cut them into the sides about 1/2 a foot down.
- Bone meal is the most readily available way to get phosphorus in your garden.
- You can use scraps saved from your kitchen table so that you have one less thing going to waste.
Slide a metal grate, like what would be used on a grill, into the trench. Let it rest on the ledges you dug in the sides. This is the set up to burn the bones.
Lift the grate up to start the fire, then replace the grate.
Place the bones on the grate and let them cook. The high temperatures of the fire will burn off unwanted debris.
Test a bone every once in a while for softness. If the bone can be crushed easily with a mallet, then the bones are done. Put out the fire.
- Slide a metal grate, like what would be used on a grill, into the trench.
- Lift the grate up to start the fire, then replace the grate.
Pound the bones with a mallet to crush them up as much as you can. Mix the bone meal into the soil to add phosphorus.
High Phosphorus Fertilizer?
A phosphorus fertilizer is typically used to create a copious cascade of blooms on vines and bushes to create a lush garden, indoors or out. Phosphate is a key element in plants that need to flower or produce fruit. It promotes good root development. Phosphate is combined with calcium to create calcium phosphate. This form of phosphate fertilizer requires natural microbial and chemical processes to be released into the soil. A soil test can give you a good idea of what you are working with before you begin adding any type of fertilizer. Dig up 2 teaspoons of soil from the garden and add ½ cup of vinegar. If the soil beings to fizz, then it’s on the alkaline side, with a pH of between 7 and 8. The calcium and phosphorus bond is stable, so it won’t burn the plants as other fertilizers will if too much is added to the soil. This is particularly important to do with a garden bed that has previously used soil.
- Pound the bones with a mallet to crush them up as much as you can.
- The calcium and phosphorus bond is stable, so it won’t burn the plants as other fertilizers will if too much is added to the soil.
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Writer Bio
Tara Dooley has written for various websites since 2008. She has worked as an accountant, after-school director and retail manager in various locations. Dooley holds a Bachelor of Science in business management and finance.
