Plant Food In Your Kitchen?

   I had been looking for more organic ways to garden, especially when it cam to fertilizers. I stumbled across this book written by master gardener Jerry Baker. He has a lot of good ideas for doing this, even using a lot of things you already have around the house. A lot of these i remember my own grandma using but really never paid as much of attention to my grandma as Jerry did with his. I sure wish I had because look at him today. I will list some of the ingredients and as the growing season goes on and I experiment with the tonics that he gives I will post the ones that I have good luck with. I can't wait to see if they work as well as others have said they do. I talked to my grandma and she said a lot of these she did use and they were proven. So I guess I will try them and see. If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments.

Major ingredients and what they contribute:

Ammonia: is a readily available source of nitrogen, which helps to encourage leafy growth. However, it's really potent stuff! To avoid burning your plants, always dilute it as specified in the tonic recipe's. It can burn, too, so always handle it with gloves. Never, never combine it with vinegar or bleach! The resulting chemical reaction will release toxic fumes!

Antiseptic Mouthwash: does the same thing in your garden that it does in your mouth; destroys germs.

Baby Shampoo and Liquid Dish Soap: help soften soil and remove dust, dirt and pollution from your plants so that osmosis and photosynthesis can occur more easily. They also make plants taste bad to insects.

Beer: helps release the nutrients that are locked in the soil and helps to make your plants strong and healthy.

Banana Peels: Great source of potassium.

Cola: helps feed the good bacteria that condition your soil. be sure you use the real thing; bacteria need sugar.

Coffee Grounds: Worms love it and worms are a gardeners best friend!

Eggs Shells: A very good source of calcium.

Epsom Salts: deepen the color, thicken the petals and improves the root structure of your plants.

Oil: Nontoxic smothering agent for insects.

Sugar, Molasses and Corn Syrup: stimulate chlorophyll formation in plants and help feet the good soil bacteria.

Tea: contains tannic acid, which helps plants to digest their food faster and more easily.

Tobacco: poisons bugs when they ingest it or when they simply come into contact with it. It does the same to germs that cause plant diseases.

Whiskey: or scotch or bourbon provides nutrients and is a mild disinfectant that will keep bugs away.

  There are other organic fertilizers at most of your hardware stores, so if you don't want to try these you could use some of those as well but I think I will experiment with these this year.

Compost Tea: Compost tea is quite easy to make - almost like making a real cup of tea only on a larger scale. Shovel in some compost in an old pillow case or burlap bag. Sink it into a large bucket or barrel of water. Cover the container and just let it steep for a few days. Remember, the longer you steep the stronger it is. You may use this as a light fertilizer to give your plants a little boost. It can also be used as a foliar feeding medium.