HelpfulGardener.com

I picked up a gardening book this week that advises using a nettle infusion as an organic fertiliser.
Would like to hear your views and thoughts on this. Thanks in advance-
Beck

ive been using fermented nettle tea's for months now. thanks to soil (member here) I now grow them and this plant will forever be in my garden.
they also work great as companion plants or soil builders and you can dry the nettle, crush and use as soil amendment, in compost or feed worms.
fresh nettle
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/nettlehand.jpg[/img]
dryed
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/DSC02424.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/nettledrypowder.jpg[/img]
nettle fermenting
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/DSC01692.jpg[/img]
fermented nettle bottled
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/nettletea.jpg[/img]
I used as a foliar spray and soil drench to grow a nice lush patch of lettuce
[img]https://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/top_dollar_bread/lettuce.jpg[/img]
the nettle alone with some ACT grew more then enough extremely tasty lettuce.many of my other plants ate benefiting off this as well.
plant grows easily, can be found almost every were and using it to benefit the garden doesnt take to much work at all.
great stuff all around

Stinging nettle is also quite edible. Once the young leaves are blanched they are as good or better than spinach.

Thanks for your responses.
Now I have to locate a nettle patch so I have posted on a local forum to see if anyone has one I can get started from.

Can you explain to me a little more about how you do the fermentation process please top-dollar-bread?

Homesteader- Yes, back in Uk I tried nettle soup a couple of times! I've also read that nettle infusion makes a good hair rinse so thats another project for me to try!

Just another side note on nettle. A type of vegetable rennet can be made from an infusion of nettle. This infusion will work to coagulate either dairy milk for cheese making as well as for soymilk in making tofu.
I and my girlfriend have been studying wild plant foods and medicals for a while now and have been gathering quite a bit of both the past couple of seasons. This next season however we are making a concerted effort to locate, identify and sample as many of these as possible.
When we first started researching wild edibles and medicinals we were both amazed at the amount and types of foods available for the foraging.
There are wild plants that can replace such things as potatoes, rice, and flour as well as chocolate and many others. There is a plant that can be used in place of allspice as well as wild ginger in place of the domestic type and so on.
Hopefully it won`t come to having to depend on these foods for survival but if it came to that it is comforting to know we can if need be.

syntheticbutterfly wrote:Thanks for your responses.
Now I have to locate a nettle patch so I have posted on a local forum to see if anyone has one I can get started from.

Can you explain to me a little more about how you do the fermentation process please top-dollar-bread?

no problem
what you want to do first is get some decent water: unchlorinated (let tap sit for a day), rain water or stream water.
either chop up some nettles or blend (will need to add water to help it blend), then mix with more water and let ferment.
you want maybe no more then 3/4's of the concoction to be chopped or blended nettle. then simply let that sit for 1-2 weeks, a quick stir every day or other day helps.
****it will smell funky!, this is a fermentation
after around a week or two screen out the dregs (good for compost, worm food) and pour and store in my milk jugs.
mine are maybe 2 months old now and still working well.
(don't store with air tight lid)
this isnt a exact science so don't worry to much on the fermenting process

to use I dilute 1:10-1:20 (nettle juice:water) for soil drench and a 1:30 or higher dilution for foliar feeding. to help with smell I find that by adding 1 tsp to 1 TBSP of molasses to a spray bottle or gallon will surpess the smell for indoor plants.

ill post more recent pics of lettuce that the nettle really help grow, taste is amazing imo
[url=https://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf2631.pdf]grower guid link[/url]