Purin is liquid manure, and orties are nettles. It's supposed to be a really good fertiliser: you can buy it in garden centres, but it's easy enough to make. Since I have no shortage of nettles around here, I thought I'd give it a go.
I collected up a watering can-full of nettles, then topped it up with water. According to the instructions, you're supposed to shred the nettles but I didn't bother - I figured that when they all go to mush they'll disintegrate on their own. You then leave it for a couple of weeks to ferment. Sure enough, after a week or so there were bubbles on the top, and I mashed the nettles back down into the water.
All the sources say that it smells bad. It does if you catch a nose full of it, but it's not powerful, just unpleasant.
So once the fermentation had stopped, I took some, diluted it about 10 to 1 and put it on the tomatoes. They seemed to perk up by the next morning. I'll be doing some more of that.
Hmmmmm … better you than me doing that … kudos.
ReplyDeleteThey're a great source of nitrogen, and if you can also steep them with comfrey leaves, you've got the best liquid fertilzer you can ise - for free!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the pong is just awful, but also try it on the leeks, as they just lap it all up!
Thanks, SCrobs, I think I have some Comfrey somewhere, I'll check.
ReplyDeleteFirst, apols for the typos...
ReplyDeleteWe have a little bed of comfrey here, and that will get used, now the flowers, which are delightful, have died down!
I 'borrowed' a few roots of the wild comfrey from a local footpath in a wood, but it seems someone always gets there before me for the leaves!
I may even invest in some Bocking 14 one day, as they don't spread, but do a great job anyway!
As for nettles, I'm going to be on the case PDQ, as they're taking over parts of the same woodland!