2009 RECIPE

Linda, where do you get Peter's? I have heard of Peter's Excellence which the greenhouses use, but have never seen it for sale to the general public.
Also, can anyone tell me where you get the kind of vitamin B12 for plants?

I believe// homedepot.. or Lowes has Peters... as well as MG...
It's all the same B-12.. good for any living thing.. the same formulation.. buy the cheepest one I'd guess.. as to how much to use ofthe real thing.. you'll have to read back in the thread

I purchased mine at Wal-mart One bottle for my brugs one bottle for my husband lol It was buy one get one free.

I contacted the company that makes Peter's Excellence and they said they only sell it in 25 lb. bags to the trade. There are other Peter's formulations around, but I have found none. In fact, Schultz was recommended to me over MG.

Or, you could try mixing your own with organic ingredients, instead of either MG or Shultz. Much cheaper.

woodspirit1, I can't find it anymore. Apparently, Peters company was sold & changed the name to Jacks Classic Plant Food. It is $17.25 for a 4 lb tub! I won't be buying that overpriced stuff anytime soon. I looked at the Peters pail & I paid 2.99 on sale (regular 4.99) for the same amount. Good thing I bought 10 pails of it last year when I had the chance.

Linda

Will the next person to mix a batch please add it up & post the total. I've had several people ask how much it cost to make & I didn't pay attention to it when I mixed it this spring.

Linda

my last batch cost about 2.00 ( mostly the beer) I initially bought a big bag of epsom sals, ammonia, and the rest of the stuff at discount store and have been only spending about a dollar on the can of beer.. hope this helps.. my supply ticket for everything still wasn't more than 10.00 including the tea tree oil.

I don't think it cost me much more than that. I bought the epsom salt peroxide(strictly for me garden stash) tea tree oil, vit B12 (double bottle of bogo) at Wal-Mart. I already had the MG for tomatoes and the Bloom Booster. I don't know if that helps any.

could someone explain what the purpose of the ingredients is and their importance?

like why beer, ammonia, tea tree oil, molasses, epsom salts etc, what purpose do they serve or what is the plant getting out of it?.. and can you make a mixture minus one or more of these ingredients ( say you dont have tea tree or beer, or molasses on hand, but everything else) and it still benefit the plant?

Actually I didn 't see that much difference in using this than I did using Miracle Go Liquid last year.......................I sprayed once a week for every day seemed like over kill...............sorry

This site identifies the macro and micro nutrients plants need:
http://www.indoor-gardening-guide.com/articles/plant-care/Plant-Nutrient-Primary-secondary-and-micro-nutrients.html
The Recipe is supposed to provide all those nutrients. While the ingredients in all the recipes vary, they all contain beer, ammonia, epsom salt, Tea tree oil, and molasses.

Molasses provides a large amount of potassium and some nitrogen, some calcium, magnesium and all the micro-nutrients. Molasses can potentially put too much potassium in the soil so it has to be balanced by the addition of some sort of ammonia compound. So they have to be used together.

Ammonia provides some nitrogen. As a base, it probably helps balance the pH of the solution which would tend to be acidic.

According to one site I saw, beer encourages healthy microbial activity. Another one stated "beer is better consumed than applied to your garden." This site says beer is ineffective:
http://www.bladeslawncare.com/fertilizer/beerlawnfertilizer.html

Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It provides magnesium and sulfur.
http://www.lvrj.com/home_and_garden/7025397.html
http://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=1900

Tea tree oil is a natural anti-fungal agent. If it's not used, the molasses would be an excellent growth media for sugar loving microbes.

One missing ingredient from this basic recipe is phosphorus, one of the major three nutrients plants need. Seaweed doesn't have much of it. Bloom booster fertilizers are mainly phosphorus, but that's an expensive way to go. One thing to know about phosphorus is that it binds easily with the soil in the top few inches making it unavailable to the plant. The best way to add phosphorus to the soil is to incorporate it before the Brugs are planted or mix a dry form of it farther down , but you risk damaging the roots. Most soils usually have enough phosphorus. Potting mixes include it.
Those recipes that add humic acid or humate teas utilize the existing phosphorus by unbinding it and making it available.

Other ingredients are existing fertilizers that could be used individually.

Not using at least the basic ingredients means you are leaving out vital nutrients. The idea behind these recipes is to provide a small amount of a 'complete' fertilizer every day so it's available when the plant needs it.

I have the beer, epsom salts, molasses, peroxide,ammonia, but i do not have the tea tree oil.. would the peroxide be alright instead? I just refuse to par $11 for a teeny bottle of tea tree oil. things are tight, thats not an expense Im willing to endure.

You could try it and see if it works. The problem I see is that peroxide quickly breaks down and loses its ability to oxidize. Maybe you could find a cheaper source of the tea tree oil. I bought some Puritan brand tea tree oil on a 2 or 3 fer sale.
http://www.puritan.com/tea-tree-oil-products-014?afid=27&safid=Google&scid=13314&cm_guid=1-_-100000000000000003177-_-3249244201&cm_mmc=Google-_-Tea+Tree_Oil-_-tea%20tree%20oil-_-Phrase+Ad_3249244201%7C-%7C100000000000000003177&gclid=CK-Kov2IlZwCFRM_xwodK2yodw
It doesn't have to be pharmaceutical grade oil since you'd only use it on plants.

thanks betty.. will try and get some.. for now, I made a batch using the peroxide, beer, ammonia, epsom salt, molasses and bloom booster.. will use that up and then the next batch will hopefully have the tea tree oil in it :)

I thought the alfalfa like you find in horse feed was important. But now i think that may be what the molasses does. Am I right? I am not serious enough to mix all that stuff but i always add something with phosphorus, like bone meal because my soil is low in phosphorus. I also use lime because my soil is acidic.

Alfalfa seems to be slightly more balanced than molasses, but in the uncomposted stage, it would take nitrogen from the soil as it decomposes. The nutrients are more readily available in molasses. Neither molasses nor alfalfa have much phosphorus. http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:ULpA8_OkNXEJ:www.plantstogrow.com/Botany/Workshop_notes/Notes/Organic%2520sources%2520of%2520NPK.pdf+how+much+nitrogen,+phosphorus+and+potassium+are+in+in+alfalfa&hl=en&gl=us
I guess whether acidic soil is a problem depends on what kind of plants we like. Many of my favorite plants are acid loving plants. The eco-region we live in is called The Post Oak Savanna whose soil is acidic, but it's really a patchwork of acidic and alkaline soils. I have some hydrangeas with pink flowers, others with lilac or blue. The post oaks need acidic soil and the live oaks don't seem to mind either soil types.

Thank you, Bettydee, for all the in formation on what each thing does in the recipe. People ask but I just say it works but now I can tell them what each thing does. They will think I am very smart for and East Texason.

Joan

Maggi, thanks for posting this recipe thread.

I've been using Ken's old recipe with great results. I add 1/2 cup composted horse tea to this recipe.

Mmmm, I like the horse poop idea!

I've been browsing these two threads for a while now trying to figure out what each ingredient is for....

what is the beer for??

TIA,

Terese

If you count nine posts back or so, BettyDee has listed what every ingredient is for. The really seems to be sort of iffy, but some places on the internet say it is to encourage microbial activity. I don't use it because we have lots of snails and they flock to it.

thanks peony... i was reading the first thread and didn't seem mention of the WHY behind the beer... didn't get to read this one fully yet, but since it was 'the end' i figured i'd post here.

thanks for pointing out Betty's post.

I dont have Brugs... but i do have a lot of seedlings and have been slowing creating my own "recipe".

Terese, the recipe is really good for other plants too. I actually mix big buckets and use it as a soil drench on all my perennials. But it's especially good for roses. I'm not a rose person but that's what I keep hearing. :)

tcs1366 I have sort of evolved my own recipe as well. I use it on everything, but my brugs get it every three days and the rest of the garden just every other time i fertilize my brugs.

at first, all i had was compost tea [i have one of those tumblers with a base that fills with the liquid] last year I purchased some SuperThrive... been adding that. after finding this thread, i've since added peroxide and Liquid seaweed.
I also have Tea Tree oil in the house and the epsom salts. i just have to remember to add those. oh heck... beer, yup, DH has a twin tapper in the DR, we always have beer. I think i have some Black Strap buried in the back of a cabinet too... i'll have to look for that.

I'll give the roses a good soaking ... I do give them banana peels and they seem to like that. did really well the year i remembered to do it.

super info here.... thanks again.

Does anyone have a problem with ingredients that seem to attract wildlife? Any time I use anything with a fish odor (seaweed, fish emulsion,etc.) I notice that I am visited by all the neighborhood cats------and raccoons. And, when I put out banana peels, I frequently find that they have been dug up the next day------by some one?

Shirleyd

I have not had an issue with the peels. but then i have a big dog who barks A LOT... so i normally dont get critters.. only once did i noticed raccoon droppings, once, but we had been gone weeks.

The origanal recipe was meant to be a home made super thrive. I do stull kist use th origanal mix. I also have to be careful with the fish emulsion, neigbors cat gets into the plant pots.

this sounds terrible, but I have three neighborhood tom cats that our neighbors leave out aoll the time, they use allmy flower beds as potty rooms, but now since last year when I started using wooden shishkabob sticks stuck in pointed side up,, they do not enter my yard anymore..

you can also soak a few cloths in vinegar and leave tucked in amongst the plants to repel cats... they hate vinegar! eventually, the smell will fade (to human noses) but the cats will still be able to detect it

You'll want to be a little careful with vinegar because I use it as a weed killer. It works.

Back in 1969-1973 I used to sell Tupperware.

If you remember--they used to have this set of 6 "Popsicle Makers". Each one had a small lid with a little slot for you to stick the Popsicle stick through it.

Well--one of the "side uses" for these was to fill it with Ammonia, put the lid on it and bury them in the ground near shrubs, etc....with just the top exposed....Easy to re-fill as needed.....
NO dog or cat would go near that area! Most animals hate to smell Ammonia! So do we, right?

Perhaps Dollar stores sell Popsicle makers???? Any others?
IF vinegar is harmful--I don't think Ammonia is----I will stand corrected here......

Gita

ammonia will kill slugs and worms if they come in contact with them.

some say, if the solution of water and ammonia is too strong [we use a 10 : 1 ratio for our hostas] the plants can get burned.

I like that idea of the buried ammonia pop cycle things.. they are in the dollar stores right now.. Thanks!

Lots of great ideas here!

Does anyone have orange sunshine brug for sale???

Someone else was asking for one. I'd like to know as well. The one I bought last summer never thrived and died before fall.

I hunted the sea kelp here would have to go to tampa a ride and had to buy quite a bit I found it on ebay 1 pound dry 16 dollars with shipping 4 oz makes a gallon of consentrate or you could 1 teaspoon per gallon of water So if anyone needs it there it is!

I usually get the liquid on ebay for 21.00 a gallon. Free shipping. It's about the same in stores. I have, though, found it at Lowe's. The brand is Maxi Crop.

when i looked it was way more than that has it been awhile since you bought it ?