Producing fertilizer from scratch is increasingly becoming a necessity, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global supply chains and sparked attempts to reclaim former Soviet influence. The resulting sanctions on Russia have made obtaining affordable fertilizer far more difficult. Consequently, there’s a growing need to return to traditional methods of soil enrichment practiced by earlier generations. Farmers in the 1800s often relied on various techniques to create fertilizers, many of which involved utilizing organic materials.
Types of Fertilizer from Scratch
Some of the most common methods to Create Fertilizer from Scratch include:
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Manure: Farmers collect animal manure, such as cow or horse manure, and spread it over their fields. The manure breaks down and releases nutrients into the soil, making it more fertile. -
Composting: Farmers create compost piles using a mixture of organic materials, such as leaves, grass clippings, cardboard, and food scraps. The compost decomposes and creates a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be added to the soil.
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Crop rotation: Farmers alternate the types of crops they grow in a particular field from year to year. This helps to prevent soil depletion and maintain soil fertility.
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Green manure: Farmers plant crops like clover, alfalfa, or rye, and then plow them back into the soil, before they reached maturity. This helps to add nutrients to the soil and improve soil structure.
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Bone meal: Farmers grind up animal bones and use the resulting powder as a fertilizer. Bone meal is high in phosphorus, which is important for plant growth.
Ultimately, the aim is to enhance the soil using natural nutrient sources and organic material to encourage robust plant development and improve crop productivity. Also known as creating fertilizer from scratch. Today, we can draw on this traditional knowledge and apply it effectively to produce fertilizer from the ground up.
Manure
Believe it or not, manure remains one of the most effective methods for producing fertilizer from scratch and the ground up. However, we now have a better understanding of which types of manure are most beneficial. In particular, droppings from seabirds and guano produced by bats rank among the top choices for fertilizer, once they’ve been properly cooked or dried. The terms cooking and drying refer to the necessary duration and temperature treatments to ensure the nutrients become stable and the material no longer generates heat.
For instance, horse manure has the unique property of generating warmth in its surroundings, a trait that has even been used to protect crops from the cold during winter. Because of this heat generation, it’s not advisable to simply bury horse manure in soil, as the excess warmth can damage plants by making their growing environment too hot.
Human Poop for Fertilizing
Personally, I’m not comfortable using human waste as fertilizer, even if we are desperate for fertilizer from scratch. People consume pharmaceuticals and various unhealthy foods, these substances end up in our feces, which can lead to serious health issues and contribute to the spread of foodborne illnesses. If you have no alternative source of manure, then using human waste might be necessary, but whenever possible, it’s better to choose other options, including chicken manure.
Like chicken manure, human waste must be thoroughly cooked and completely dried before it’s safe to apply as fertilizer from scratch. For human waste, this involves spreading it out in a thin layer, heating it properly, and then allowing it to dry before adding it to the compost. This process ensures that harmful bacteria, viruses, and unknown chemicals are eliminated or dissipated. Additionally, if you plan to use human waste as fertilizer, it’s important to notify your neighbors in advance—ideally with clear signage—to ensure transparency and address any concerns.
Poop Composting
| Manure Type | Composting Time | Temperature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cow | 3-6 months | >131°F (55°C) for several days | Avoid fresh on food crops |
| Horse | 6 months | >131°F (55°C) | Contains parasite eggs |
| Chicken | 6 months | >131°F (55°C) for 3+ days | Very high pathogen risk |
| Pig/Swine | 6 months | >131°F (55°C) for several days | High pathogen risk |
| Sheep & Goat | 3-6 months | >131°F (55°C) | Lower pathogen load |
| Rabbit | 2-3 months (recommended) | Ambient composting temp | Can be used fresh on non-food |
| Humanure | ~1 year | >131°F (55-65°C) for multiple days | High risk, specialized compost |
From the table above, it is clear that most types of manure, whether from animals or humans, should be properly treated by cooking before being added to compost. The notable exception is rabbit droppings. If you raise rabbits for meat, their manure serves as an exceptional fertilizer from scratch, and can be directly added to your compost pile to enrich it naturally.
Cover Crops
One effective approach to maximize the productivity of your farmland or garden is to cultivate crops for three consecutive cycles and then allow the soil to rest by leaving the field fallow. By fallow, we mean refraining from planting anything in that particular area during a growing season. A common practice among farmers is to divide the land into four plots, using three for planting while letting the fourth lie dormant to naturally recover. Each of the four sections takes turns resting for one growing season.
During this fallow period, the field may either be overtaken by weeds or, more commonly, planted with a cover crop that is later tilled back into the soil. This process of mulching helps nature decompose the plant matter, enriching the soil. Alfalfa is favored as the cover crop to be plowed under for rejuvenating cropland, though other plants can serve the same purpose. Clover and rye are two additional popular cover crops that farmers often choose for this natural soil restoration and to be used as fertilizer from scratch.
Plant Needs
For healthy growth, plants need four fundamental elements. First, they require sunlight, although modern LED bulbs now provide excellent artificial lighting as an alternative. These bulbs emit natural white light along with other wavelengths that plants thrive on. Additionally, plants require water in some form. Some species can survive without soil or direct watering by absorbing moisture from humid air—orchids are a prime example of this. Lastly, plants require loose, well-aerated soil, meaning the soil must not be so compacted that it prevents air and water from reaching the roots or hinders seed germination.
Key Nutrients
Plants require three essential nutrients that are commonly supplied through fertilizers when the soil lacks them. These nutrients are potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Although not shown in the image above, plants also require calcium; however, calcium is less frequently included in fertilizers. Fertilizers serve as a way to address the nutrient deficiencies present in soil.
Urine
One unconventional method to supply potassium to your plants when it’s unavailable is to utilize… urine. Yes, it is not a normal fertilizer from scratch, but could be a necessary one.
This might be one of the most unusual techniques gardeners employ to nourish their soil. The reason behind it is that human urine frequently contains nutrients our bodies don’t fully absorb, such as potassium. However, this doesn’t imply you should directly urinate on your plants. Instead, the common practice is to dilute urine by mixing about 20% urine with 80% water. This creates a nutrient-dense fertilizer solution that can be safely applied to your garden.
Weed Tea
Another excellent source of the three key nutrients found in fertilizer from scratch comes from using weeds. The process involves harvesting weeds from the soil, roots included, before they go to seed. Next, place them in a container filled with water—preferably rainwater or well water. If those aren’t accessible, fill a bucket 3/4 with tap water and allow it to rest for one to two days. This resting period lets the chlorine evaporate, so that the water won’t eradicate helpful bacteria.
Then, add the collected weeds to the bucket chopping them up and twisting them to bruise, cover the bucket, and leave it under sunlight for several days. Optionally, you can throw in a bit of yogurt, so the bacteria works its way into breaking down the weeds quicker. The resulting green, cloudy liquid serves as a natural fertilizer. This green fertilizer, from scratch, typically contains potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus—though that is dependent upon which weeds are put into the mixture. This method of making fertilizer from scratch is sometimes called, Weed Tea.
Bone Meal
At last, we return to Bone Meal. This substance is abundant in phosphorus and calcium. When ground into a fine powder, it can be scattered along with crushed eggshell fragments at the base of your plants’ stems. As you water the vegetation, the bone particles gradually break down, delivering essential nutrients deep to the roots, where they are taken up by the plants.
An easy way to ensure the bones are cleaned of all meats, is to leave them for scavengers to pick clean. Scavengers might be other animals, or it could even be beetles (which chickens, ducks, and geese love to eat).
Final Words
If you are bound and determined to fix your soil to grow plants for food, then understand that a soil test may not be the best way to go to find out what is wrong. From one square yard to the next, the conditions of your soil can change drastically. For this reason, I highly recommend watching this video. It will teach you what is causing certain weeds to grow, teaching you how to fix the soil. Once you have that information, you can then use the above information to create fertilizer from scratch.
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