Homemade Organic Fertilizer And Orchid Care
Today I'm going to show you two things I've done lately, two different things to help my apartment flowers. Both are in testing phase as I've never done such thing, but I believe it's never too late and if it has results, then I can continue to apply them, to make my flowers happier.
Orchid Care
Some orchid owners say orchids are very sensitive flowers and that these exotic miracles are hard to care for. I've seen people saying they can't save any orchids as all the orchids they get, die.
My personal experience is very different from that described above. I only have one, the one on the left, got it in 2016 and it's still with me. It wasn't always easy as there were two years in which the buds dried and fell off before opening, but the flower is still healthy and very much alive.
The other orchid you see in the wooden crate is also orchid I've been told, but have never seen it flowering. I got it sometimes during last winter and was told it opens during autumn, so we shell see.
This is my orchid I got in 2016. At first glance it looks healthy and it is indeed healthy, but look at this.
The impurity you see on the leaf is called dust 😛 and no matter where you keep your flowers, there will always be dust on them.
The other one doesn't look any different.
This leaf was in this state, when I got the flower, so it hasn't happened under my care. I'm expecting to dry off one day (will not be very soon) so I can take it off.
The good news is, the flower looks healthy as a new leaf is growing.
Up until now, I used to clean the leaves with plain water and was ok as the orchids are healthy. However, a couple of weeks ago, a video came my way, about how to care for orchids, that showed me another way.
This video says there's a more efficient way to clean the leaves.
All you need is 70ml water, mixed with 30ml milk. Apparently, proteins prevent the attack of fungi. At this stage I'm trusting the video as have no proof to say otherwise.
So this is the water - milk mix ready to be used and next to the bowl there are two make-up removal pads that you will need.
Looks at the make-up pad after cleaning the first orchid. Shocking, isn't it? Imagine that poor leaf struggling breading while all the pores have been covered by dust.
This is the second one, looks even more terrible. So after seeing the pads, I decided to take another pad and clean them both once again.
Look at the leaf after. It looks amazing. It's shiny and healthy. I'm going to monitor the leaves and see how it goes. Then I suppose I'm going to repeat the cleaning after a few months.
Homemade Organic Fertilizer
The other thing I'd like to talk about today is the organic fertilizer I've made.
The whole thing started when I came home from the farmers market and saw how much green I have to throw away. When I'm at my dad's, this goes into the compost bin but here I don't have a compost bin, so everything goes into the garbage. It is a waste but there's no better option at the moment as we don't have an organic waste bin.
This got me thinking and I remembered I saw once a video, that showed how to make liquid fertilizer using organic greens. It looked like an easy process and totally doable as all you had to do is put the greens in a big container, leave it till it transforms into liquid, filter the liquid, add some water and was ready to use. The problem is I can't do that on my balcony as it would smell.
So I thought why mot use the raw green directly on the flowers. So I put the green in the blender, added water and pushed the button.
And I got this green liquid, which looks awful, but it's full of nutrients. The next step was to spread this liquid on the flowers I have in the stairway, the cover with soil. Mother nature is going to take care of the rest as this is going to be decomposed in time.
I was thinking if it doesn't hurt, it may as well can help and I know it will. This is what happens year by year with the leaves that fall during autumn, so why would not work at home? Especially when I did the first step, by grinding the leaves, to make the process easier.
It will need some time to decompose, but it's going to happen. I think I'm going to repeat the process after a month or two.
So this is it for today, see you at my next gardening adventure :)
Surely soon orchid will thank you for the caring by giving you gift of her beautiful flower. 🥰
I truly hope so as I need some nice flowers, but that will only be in January, February 😃
My kitchen looks like a greenhouse these days... and they seem to like it as
Good work! I have to try that fertilizer :)
You're a lucky guy, you know that, don't you? That orchid is a real beauty. Mine only has one stem of flowers. The only time it had two was when I got it, never again. The rest of the flowers also look very nice. Thanks for sharing the photos 😊
A very helpful tip. Thanks for this. I hope someday you own a big farm to have several crops of plants in your garden dear.
No thanks. My dad has a big garden, that is more than enough 😂
The change in the leaves of orchids promises to be miraculous and beneficial. For organic fertiliser, I bury most of the greenery I have in the garden in the soil and then use that soil for a while, but your method seems to be quite good and a solution will be achieved in a shorter time.
That method would also do, but I only have a small balcony here and no space for such thing. My dad has a garden and two composting bin. He's using the compost when planting seedlings.
This method I'm using will give results, but maybe needs some time. Mother nature will do its thing for sure.
Now I know how to care for an orchid, thank you for sharing.
Wait as this is just in the experiment phase, let's see the results in a couple of months, but I hope it will be good :)