DIY Moringa Fertilizer: Transform Your Garden with This All-Natural Recipe
I'm excited to share one of my secret weapons for achieving a lush, vibrant garden: a DIY fertilizer made from Moringa. This simple homemade fertilizer has transformed my garden.
Get a free printable PDF "recipe" card with directions on how to make my moringa fertilizers HERE.
Check out my video tutorial that shows you how to make moringa fertilizer here:
The Magic of Moringa
Before we dive into making Moringa fertilizer, let's talk a bit about Moringa and why it's such an incredible resource for gardeners. Moringa, also known as the drumstick tree or miracle tree, is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree native to parts of Africa and Asia. For centuries, it has been used as a source of nutrition and traditional medicine. Now, it's gaining popularity in the gardening world too.
Moringa contains essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins that are not only great for our health but also fantastic for our plants. It is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—the three primary nutrients that plants need to grow. Plus, it has calcium, magnesium, and iron, which are crucial for plant development.
Benefits of Moringa Fertilizer
When used as a fertilizer, Moringa can help your plants grow stronger, produce more flowers and fruits, and even improve their resistance to pests and diseases. I also consume Moringa powder to absorb the extra nutrients and even feed it to my chickens as a nutrient-dense snack. I use the leaves and stems as a chop-and-drop plant, growing it as a biomass source that can be turned into mulch. Moringa is an incredibly versatile and useful plant.
Two Types of Fertilizer: Liquid and Foliar Spray
Below is my recipe to make two types of fertilizer using moringa leaves and water. One is a liquid fertilizer applied to the soil at the base of the plant and the other is a foliar spray. You'll need a lot of fresh Moringa leaves for these recipes. I sell seeds and occasionally Moringa plants on my website. It's an easy-to-grow plant for subtropical and tropical climates and grows very quickly, allowing me to prune back the trees several times a year to harvest the leaves.
Tools and Ingredients
- Fresh Moringa leaves
- Ninja blender with an extract setting
- Hand pump sprayer (for the foliar spray)
- Cheesecloth
- 5-gallon bucket
Directions
Start by harvesting some fresh Moringa leaves.
How To Make Moringa Liquid Fertilizer
1. Take smaller pieces off the branches of the moringa and put them in a blender cup. I really like the Ninja blender smoothie cup with the extract setting. Fill the blender cup halfway with compacted Moringa leaves.
2. Add enough water to fill the cup to the top.
3. Blend the mixture until it becomes a thick liquid. Although there may be chunky bits left, it's fine for making the liquid fertilizer.
4. Dilute the mixture with water at a ratio of one cup of liquid Moringa mixture to one gallon of water. Since I use a 5 gallon bucket to make a big batch of moringa fertilizer, I poured 5 cups of liquid moringa into the bucket and topped it off with water.
5. Pour the diluted fertilizer at the base of your plants.
How To Make Moringa Fertilizer Foliar Spray
1. Take smaller pieces off the branches of the moringa and put them in a blender cup. I really like the Ninja blender smoothie cup with the extract setting. Fill the blender cup halfway with compacted Moringa leaves.
2. Add enough water to fill the cup to the top.
3. Blend the mixture until it becomes a thick liquid. Although there may be chunky bits left, it's fine for making the liquid fertilizer.
4. Strain the liquid moringa mixture using cheesecloth to remove larger particles. Place the cheesecloth over a bowl and pour the liquid through it. Tighten and press the cheesecloth to strain out the remaining liquid.
5. Dilute the mixture with water at a ratio of one cup of liquid Moringa mixture to one gallon of water. Since I was using a 2 gallon pump sprayer, I added 2 cups of strained liquid moringa onto the pump sprayer and topped it off with water.
6. Pump the sprayer to pressurize it. I like to foliar spray my plants early in the morning so it dries quickly with the morning sun. This spray is gentle enough for seedlings, and you can add a splash of fish emulsion or other organic fertilizers like seaweed extract for even more nutrients.