8. Compost Tea

Once you’ve got your compost bin up and running, you can make compost tea. Compost tea provides the same nutrients as compost, only in liquid form. Having a liquid fertilizer makes feeding individual plants even easier, and you don’t waste any of the nutrients if you’re only applying it right where it’s needed.

You can also use compost tea as a foliar spray, with the advantage that the nutrients are absorbed more readily in liquid form.

Solid compost and compost tea are the perfect combo fertilizer to meet your plant’s needs throughout the entire growing season.

And because compost tea is a liquid, it’s a great natural fertilizer for houseplants.

9. Mycorrhizae

While these microscopic fungi aren’t technically a fertilizer, they do play a huge role in plant health. These beneficial organisms attach themselves to the roots of your plant, increasing its surface area, which improves your plant’s drought resistance and ability to take up nutrients.

Mycorrhizae even help break down the nutrients already in the soil, making it easier for your plants to synthesize them.

While you can add commercially available mycorrhizae inoculants to your soil, and plenty of us does, one of the best ways to reap the benefits of these helpful fungi is to grow a no-dig garden. Mycorrhizae are already there in the soil as a part of the microbiome beneath our feet.

However, every time we till or dig up our garden, we destroy this massive and delicate network. And what took decades to form has to start over again.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second-best time to plant a tree is right now.”? The same can be said for healing your garden’s microbiome.

Even if you’ve tilled your soil every single year, it’s never too late to start a no-dig garden. Even in your first year, the results may surprise you, and over time, the naturally occurring mycorrhizae will repopulate your soil and benefit your plants.

10. Worm Castings

Worm castings, which is a nice way of saying worm poop, are a natural fertilizer powerhouse. Now before we get into what makes worm poop so great, you’re probably scratching your head and wondering how you harvest worm castings. Or maybe you don’t want to know.

Trust me; it’s much easier and less gross than you think.

Vermicomposting is a form of composting that not only gives you finished compost in the end but worm castings too. It all starts with a worm bin. (Here’s one you can build in about 30 minutes for $15.) In short, you feed your worms kitchen scraps, and they give you finished compost and worm castings, which are filtered into the bottom of your worm tower.

What makes worm castings so great?

Well, just about everything. Think of them as an all-natural slow-release fertilizer that won’t burn even the tenderest of plants, help to aerate the soil, improve the overall soil structure, hold in moisture, and can stop aphids and spider mites before they become a problem.

And just like regular compost, worm castings make excellent liquid worm tea. (Not made from actual worms.)

If you don’t want to mess with a worm tower, I’ve got an amazing tip for you.

11. Bone Meal

A bone meal is exactly what it sounds like, powdered animal bones. Usually, bone meal is the byproduct of beef cattle. The bones are cooked or pasteurized to kill bacteria, and the bounds are ground. The resulting bone meal can be used as a slow-release fertilizer in your garden and on your houseplants.

Bone meal provides plenty of phosphorus to plants, making it a great fertilizer for any of your blooming plants and bulbs. There is some naturally occurring nitrogen in bone meal, but it’s a trace amount. However, many commercially produced bone meal mixes will have added nitrogen, so be sure to read the bag’s NPK ratio before you purchase it.

Bone meal is a slow-release fertilizer and is best added to the soil when you plant your garden. The easiest way to add it to the soil is to put a bit in the bottom of each hole you make before planting one of your seedlings in the spring.

If you’re going to use it for houseplants, add it when you repot your plant by mixing it in with your potting mix.

Naturally, because of the source of this fertilizer, some may choose not to use it based on personal beliefs

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