Thai_Lights
Well-Known Member
And when to use it? Yard is now full of them..
Anyone have a dandelion tea recipe?
- Thread starter Thai_Lights
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greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
best thing for that is to yank em out of the ground, grind or cut them up (taproot included) and then use it as a nitrogen input for a compost pile
OR you can shred them and use it as a soil input in lieu of kelp meal
OR you can do a dandelion ferment... which is stinky... but effective
get a 5 gal bucket, fill halfway, add like 10 whole dandelion plants and let it chill for like 2-3 weeks, then use at around a 10/1 ratio with water
I don't really recommend the dandelion ferment to be honest...
it smells pretty funky, and you use so little of it that it'll be around for like a yr or so..
I really think the advantage to dandelion is using them in the soil
for sure
comfrey is even better, if you get a garden with comfrey, nettles and dandelion?
shit, you are damn near done with all your nutrients
my primary issue with the dandelion ferment is that it doesn't really do anything profound, nothing in specific that ONLY the dandelion can do, so in other words it's MUCH easier/more effective to use other nutrients/inputs/techniques to provide them with nutrients.
at least in my opinion anyways.
Thai_Lights
Well-Known Member
I've already mixed my soil and have them I to 1gal. Can i chop dandelion and top dress? I will look into Comfrey and nettle seeds!
greasemonkeymann
Well-Known Member
yeaaa you could, i'm not entirely sure how quick or how well it'd break down though, it's much more fibrous than the comfrey so it may not be as easy to be used, either way if you shred it up it'd accelerate the process.. but the only plant I've ever used as a topdress is comfrey, but comfrey is sort of a special entity in that it needs NOTHING to break down rather rapidly
ah, I did forget about grass clippings, I have used those as a topdress too
i'd have no concerns over getting a full dandelion plant (again, make sure the taproot is included!) but a full dandelion plant, shredded and maybe mixed in with some fresh castings or compost would probably work well
BUT I wouldn't rely on it to correct anything in particular, I have no experience in that regard, and typically a topdress is a lil slow to correct any plant maladies, with the exception being maybe a nitrogen def, which that can rebound pretty fast with the right topdress, but past that it's slow to help much
would the topdress be more for "maintenance"?
or is there a concern you are having?
