Roses love being fed. Better health and more flowers on your rose plant will come from giving it food and water. If you don’t want to frequently buy rose fertilizers from a nursery or online store, no worries. You can create your own homemade rose fertilizer at little or no cost. And the ingredients are more closer than you think : right inside your kitchen. Here are some great organic rose fertilizers you can make using ingredients found in your kitchen.
A beautiful rose garden is a pride and joy for any gardener. However, achieving those vivid blooms and healthy bushes requires consistent care and feeding. While store-bought fertilizers will certainly get the job done, they can be pricey and full of harsh chemicals. For an organic, natural way to nourish your roses consider making your own homemade fertilizer right from ingredients in your kitchen and garden.
The Benefits of Homemade Fertilizer
Homemade fertilizers provide all the nutrition roses need to thrive, using ingredients you likely already have on hand. Making your own fertilizer offers many advantages:
All-Natural Ingredients
You control exactly what goes into a homemade fertilizer Instead of synthetic chemicals, you can use natural ingredients like coffee grounds, compost, eggshells, and wood ash This organic approach is gentler on your plants and the environment.
Tailored to Your Soil
Mixed carefully, homemade fertilizers can be designed to meet the specific nutritional needs of your soil. For example, acidic fertilizers like coffee or tea can lower pH in alkaline soils.
Cost-Effective
While prepared fertilizers can get expensive, homemade mixes use common household items you’d otherwise throw away Making your own fertilizer saves money
Simple to Make
Homemade fertilizer recipes only require basic measuring, mixing, and applying. No special skills or equipment needed!
Safe Around Pets
Dogs and cats won’t be harmed by nibbling homemade fertilizers made from food scraps and natural ingredients. No toxic chemicals to endanger your furry friends.
Key Nutrients for Roses
Roses thrive when supplied with a balanced mixture of essential macro- and micronutrients. Homemade fertilizers that provide nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron and more will keep roses robust and blooming.
Nitrogen (N)
Nitrogen stimulates leaf and stem growth. Deficiency causes weak plants with reduced buds.
Phosphorus (P)
Phosphorus aids root, flower, and seed development. Shortage can lead to fewer blooms.
Potassium (K)
Potassium (or potash) helps roses resist disease and enhances flower color. Lack of potassium causes small buds and faded color.
Calcium (Ca)
Calcium strengthens cell walls and improves uptake of other nutrients. A calcium deficit causes deformed buds and spots on leaves.
Magnesium (Mg)
Magnesium is vital for photosynthesis. Lack of magnesium leads to yellowed leaves and sparse blooms.
Sulfur (S)
Sulfur helps roses synthesize nutrients. Deficiency causes small, deformed leaves and weaker scent.
Iron (Fe)
Iron aids the production of chlorophyll, leading to yellow leaves when deficient.
Manganese (Mn) and Zinc (Zn)
Trace minerals like manganese and zinc help various growth processes when present in small amounts.
Ingredients for Homemade Rose Fertilizer
Many household items make excellent natural fertilizer components. Explore which ingredients to use:
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds provide nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. The grounds also acidify soil. Used coffee filters contribute additional organic matter.
Compost/Manure
Composted garden waste and aged manure release nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and trace minerals over time.
Banana Peels
Banana peels contain good levels of potassium, as well as calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.
Eggshells
Crushed eggshells add calcium and trace amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium.
Epsom Salts
Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) supply magnesium and sulfur.
Wood Ash
Wood ash raises pH while providing potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. (Avoid ash from pressure-treated lumber or coal.)
Grass Clippings
Nitrogen-rich fresh grass clippings break down quickly. Dried clippings act more like a slow-release mulch.
Seaweed
Dried seaweed (kelp) offers over 60 nutrients and minerals, including nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium.
Bone Meal
Bone meal is rich in phosphorus and calcium, and provides smaller amounts of nitrogen.
Blood Meal
Dried, powdered blood meal contributes primarily nitrogen, along with iron, potassium and small quantities of other nutrients.
5 Homemade Fertilizer Recipes for Roses
Follow these simple recipes using household ingredients to concoct fertilizer for your rose garden:
1. Compost Tea
- 5 gallons water
- 1 cup compost
- 1 tbsp Epsom salts
Place compost and Epsom salts in a burlap sack or reusable teabag. Soak in water overnight. Apply the diluted “tea” to moist soil around roses.
2. Coffee Ground Fertilizer
- 2 cups used coffee grounds
- 1 cup egg shells
- 1⁄2 cup Epsom salts
- 1⁄2 cup bone meal
Combine ingredients. Lightly mix 2-3 tablespoons into soil around each rose bush monthly.
3. Rotted Manure Tea
- 1 gallon water
- 1⁄2 cup aged manure
- 1 tbsp molasses
Steep manure in water for 2-3 days. Strain liquid into watering can and mix in molasses. Pour around rose roots.
4. Seaweed Fertilizer
- 1 gallon water
- 1⁄2 cup dried seaweed pieces
- 1 crushed banana peel
Blend seaweed, banana peel and water. Allow to stand overnight before pouring onto roses.
5. Grass clipping “Tea bags”
- Pantyhose/cheesecloth
- Fresh grass clippings
Fill pantyhose or cheesecloth with fresh clippings. Tie ends closed. Place several bags around each rose. Leave for 2-3 weeks until decomposed, then replace.
Tips for Using Homemade Fertilizers
Follow these guidelines to safely and effectively use homemade rose fertilizers:
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Apply fertilizer around the root zone or drip line, not directly on leaves.
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Water fertilizer into the soil lightly after application.
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alternate between different fertilizers instead of applying the same one repeatedly.
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Adjust homemade recipes based on your soil’s needs and nutrient levels.
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Foliar feed roses by spraying diluted fertilizer directly onto leaves. Do this early morning or at dusk.
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Mix eggshells, bone meal, coffee grounds, and manure into soil 2-3 weeks before planting roses.
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Switch to low-nitrogen fertilizers in late summer so growth slows before winter dormancy.
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Always use mature, rotted compost and manure, never fresh.
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Wear gloves when handling irritants like blood meal. Avoid inhaling dust.
Bring Your Rose Garden to Life
With the right homemade fertilizers and a little TLC, your rose garden will produce wave after wave of vibrant blooms. Whip up all-natural plant food from kitchen staples and garden waste for a budget-friendly way to nourish your roses. Experiment with different recipes and track which homemade fertilizer formula your roses respond to best. You’ll soon have the most dazzling roses on the block.
ORGANIC ROSE FERTILIZERS YOU CAN FIND RIGHT INSIDE YOUR KITCHEN
Tea leaves are full of naturally occurring tannins. Tannins are acidic in nature and when added to the soil makes it acidic in nature as well. This is exactly what the roses need as they thrive exceedingly well in acidic soil. Tea leaves also contain small amounts of nitrogen, which help in plant growth.
So if you’re a tea drinker, don’t discard those tea bags yet. Just collect and dump them in your compost and apply the compost as a top dressing. Or soak the used teabags in water for a few hours and water the plants with it. The used tea leaves can also be taken out of the bags and spread on top of the soil. Just remember though, that tea leaves by themselves are not a full rose food substitute.
Egg shells are a great source of calcium. Calcium helps to strengthen plant cells and block pathogens from entering the plant body. Calcium also helps strengthen the roots of plants allowing them to absorb more nutrients from the soil. Besides nitrogen and potassium, roses require large amounts of calcium to grow well.
Eggshells don’t break down quickly when they’re whole, so it’s best to break them up into small pieces and mix them into soil or compost. Before you do that though, make sure to wash and dry them thoroughly. Otherwise pathogens from the eggs might get added to the soil causing more diseases.
Ripe banana peels are rich in potassium and therefore a great fertilizer for roses. The cool thing about banana peels is that they break down really quickly, giving plants a lot of potassium. Potassium boosts the immune system of plants and protects against disease and insect damage. It also helps the plant survive difficult climatic conditions such as drought and frost. Your rose plants are telling you they need potassium if they have weak stems, buds that don’t open fully, or yellow leaves with browning edges.
Add two or three banana peels to the soil when you only plant roses to help them grow faster. You can drop a chopped banana peel in the planting hole before placing the plant in. The peel can also be added with the compost to improve the richness of the soil. If the plant is already established, all you have to do is drop a banana peel or chopped peel into the soil next to it.
Here is a quick homemade food for roses.
ROSE BLACK SPOT REMOVAL RECIPE 1
Ingredients:
- Apple Cider Vinegar – 3 tablespoons
- Water : 4.5 litres
Mix the Apple Cider Vinegar and water well. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray your roses heavily. You need to spray the base, the soil the tops and bottoms of the leaves, stems and canes. The whole of the infected area should be dripping with the solution. Spray in the early morning and spray once a week until the Black Spot is gone. Keep spraying the mixture every 2 weeks to prevent any future breakout of Black Spot.
Fish is rich in vitamins and minerals and that goes for fish bones too. When you cook fish again, take out the bones, wash and dry them well, and then grind them into a powder. You can the sprinkle them around the base of the rose bushes. These add nutrients to the soil slowly boosting stronger roots and resulting in better plant growth.
The unassuming milk powder in your kitchen is packed with calcium, which helps in root and foliage growth. Milk powder has often been used on roses to reduce black spots and keep off powdery mildew. It does this by altering the pH of the infected area and making it hostile for fungal growth. Simply mix two parts of water to one part milk and spray the mixture every two weeks.
If you have a cat or dog at home, chances are, you’re feeding it nourishing pet food. There’s no need to throw away pet food that has gone bad or is almost out of date. Simply mix it with the garden soil and water thoroughly. Over time, it will disintegrate and decompose naturally, adding micro-nutrients to the soil. Just make sure to cover the soil well or other animals will dig them up.
Natural fertilizer for rose plants | Best free fertilizer for plants
FAQ
What is the best homemade food for roses?
What natural food is good for roses?
Do roses like coffee grounds as fertilizer?
How do you fertilize rose bushes?
Sprinkle 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Epsom salts around the base of the plant. This will promote foliar and cane development. Continue to fertilize every 3 to 4 weeks as the roses are establishing but only with a mild fertilizer such as fish emulsion. Avoid using full-strength fertilizers on newly planted rose bushes.
Are homemade fertilizers good for Roses?
An economical and environmentally responsible way to provide your roses the nutrients they need for a healthy growth is by using homemade fertilizers. These fertilizers are manufactured using organic and natural chemicals that are secure for the plant and the environment.
How do you fertilize Roses with molasses?
Instructions: Mix the molasses with a gallon of water. Use the liquid to water your roses once a month during the growing season. Tips for applying and using the fertilizer: Use unsulphured blackstrap molasses for best results. Avoid using too much molasses, as this can make the soil too acidic.
How do you make coffee ground fertilizer for Roses?
You’ll need the following components to manufacture coffee ground fertilizer for roses: Instructions: Mix the coffee grounds with a gallon of water. Let the mixture sit for 24 hours. Use the liquid to water your roses once a week. Tips: To avoid making the soil excessively acidic, don’t use excessive amounts of coffee grounds.