Nettle 'tea' fertilizer ... how long will it last ?

I have just got an allotment and noticed that alongside my plot there are stacks of nettles.

This year, for my garden greenhouse tomatoes I made some nettle tea and used it. It seemed to work very well, although it does make quite a pong. It took about 4-6 weeks after making it, before it could be used.

I was thinking of getting a water butt, then making the nettle tea now. In a couple of months I could drain off the liquid and bottle it, ready to use next year.

Will my idea work ?

Would the fertilizer be as good next summer as it will be, when first ready, in about 6 weeks.

thanks !

 

Dunno how long the "Best Before" date is, but Nettle Tea is high in Nitrogen, thus perhaps not ideal for your Toms as they would perform better with a high Potash fertiliser - such as a tea made from Comfrey.

Most allotments have patches of Comfrey on that you could scrounge a root from - it grows easily for a decent sized bit of root - but make sure you get the Bocking 14 variety as that is sterile and otherwise it will self seed all over your plot and be a 'mare to get rid of :(

 

Thanks for the reply.

Actually by the time I started with the nettle fertilizer, I had enough tomatoes on the plants ... so it was really only a case of getting the ones already there, larger.

Before, I had used Phostrogen as the main fertilizer. I actually also sprinkled into each pot some of those slow release fertilizer.

BTW I was growing my toms in ring culture pots, so only feeding via the pot and watering in the soil below

 

That still needs Potash, rather than Nitrogen. Nitrogen will make the plants put on leafy growth, rather than concentrate on fruiting.

But having said that, Nettle Tea has all sorts in it, and it isn't "Extreme Nitrogen" like Sulphate of Ammonia, so would have done some good. But I think Comfrey Tea (or some other Tomato fertiliser) would have done better.

Phostrogen sell a specific Tomato fertiliser, but I don't know why as the N:P:K on it is almost identical to Phostrogen (albeit at a much lower concentration). Marketing I expect !!

 

Thanks !

I don't know why ... but this years crop has been the best for years .. and this is the first time I've used the nettle tea.

I don;t know what comfrey looks like, but if I find some, I'll try comfrey tea too

 

They tend to be fairly high in Nitrogen too. All this will help the plants, and they will perform well, but it isn't what the conventional advice is

Conventional advice is not to feed the plants at all until they have set fruit on the first truss. They can rely on the feed that is in the compost, and no more than that, until then. Thereafter feed them high-Potash feed so they concentrate on producing fruit, rather than too much growth.

There is a school of thought that growing them "on the mean side" will produce a more manky looking plant, but a more tasty and less watery fruit.

 

... but would it last ?

 

this year I have fed my plants on liquid chicken manure pellets,i.e. put measure of pellets in watering can and fill with water,stir until all goes to liquid,then use next day after they have warmed up to greenhouse temperature. So far of 18 plants I have pulled approx.12 pound. I have 9 plants of money maker and 9 of gardeners delight.Also growing 10 plants outside of money maker,these are just starting to ripen,and looking good.

 

I make both nettle and comfrey tea, and store both in used plastic milk bottles overwinter.

I use the nettle tea in the first part of the year when nettles are not even growing yet, let alone harvested and made into tea, and the comfrey tea is used later on...again when my first batch of tea is not even ready.

Now whether or not it still contains the same amount of nutrients, I have no idea but it does seem to do the plants good and it has to be better than no feed at all.

Nettle and comfrey tea ferments, so when you bottle it do not tighten the lids too much else you could have minor eruptions of stinking tea covering your plot.

Steve...

 

Reminds me ..

I made wine many many years ago and a neighbour decided to make some too, it was actually my friends father.

I think he wanted to get his wine finished first, so put it in the airing cupboard. Don't know how, but the fermentation got out of hand. This resulted in masses of red liquid pouring out of the air lock and on to the clothing.

Why it was in the airing cupboard .. I don't know

.. and why it wasn't just sitting on the ground, below everything else, I again don't know.

I do know though, the wine making stopped

 

I made wine a few years back and this only happened to me once,I had made a beetroot and as luck would have it the demi-john was sat on the kitchen window sill,I had filled the demi.too full and the air lock got blocked,we awoke to find we had a beetroot red ceiling and red tiles took me all day to get it cleaned of and repaint the ceiling.The first wine out off veg.that I made was pea pod,How I did it I don;t know but when the time came to sample a bottle it came out like champer's. Tried many more times to get the same result but never manage it.

 

i though chicken manure was high in Nitrogen too? or am i miss remembering?