Natural liquid nettle feed is superb for keeping your plants healthy – it just smells terrible
03.06.2024 - 04:55
/ irishtimes.com
/ Fionnuala Fallon
Long before modern pharmaceutical companies did their best to persuade us to rely on a battery of synthetic chemicals to treat pests and diseases, gardeners used a wide variety of planet-friendly methods to keep our plants hale and hearty, utilising natural materials found close to hand. Great for plant and soil health and kind to the environment. They’re also cheap and easy to make.
A liquid foliar feed, for example, made from chopped-up young nettle leaves (Urtica dioica) and fermented in a lidded bucket of water for 2-4 weeks is a brilliant and wonderfully cost-effective way to boost healthy growth in early summer. It has a near-miraculous effect on any young transplants (hello dahlias) or herbaceous perennials being badly damaged by slugs and snails, helping them fight off attack and quickly outgrow the damage.
Not only is this nutritious, health-boosting liquid rich in nitrogen, the nutrient required for leafy growth, liquid nettle feed, or tea as it’s known, contains lots of trace elements beneficial to plant health including copper, zinc, calcium, iron, boron, sulphur and magnesium as well as chlorophyll, silicic acid, antioxidants and phenolic compounds. Just make sure to strain it and dilute it down to the colour of weak tea before use, applying it generously to the leaves of the plants using a watering can fitted with a fine “rose”.
The only downside is its formidable pong, which can cling stubbornly to skin and clothing even after being diluted. To avoid being treated as a social pariah, make sure to wear protective clothing when you’re preparing and applying it. The same advice goes as regards collecting its young leaves, which can deliver painful stings when in contact with bare skin.
Our native nettle is
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