If you want to make healthy food then you need to buy healthy vegetables too. But most vegetables available in the market are normally produced by using a lot of harmful chemical inputs. So it is always a good idea to grow your own vegetables as much as possible in your kitchen garden. Many people think it is very hard to grow organic vegetables in the pot. Some people would say that it is impossible. Many experts will say to apply every possible type of organic fertilizer as basal dose in pots. But whenever I tried to apply multiple types of fertilizer in potting mi, I had to be extra conscious because that may kill my plants. That is why if you want to grow it organically then keep it simple. So what will you use as basal dose fertilizer for organic vegetable plants to grow in pots?
Oh, many people are actually not aware of basal dose. Right? Basal dose of fertilizer means the fertilizer needs to be applied at the time of preparing the soil.
I only rely on compost fertilizer like cow dung compost, kitchen waste compost or vermicompost. If you add enough compost fertilizer to the soil as a basal dose, then you won’t need to apply any other fertilizer. Now, how much is enough for your plant? I normally add 25-30 % compost fertilizer in every potting mix. If you add enough compost as basal dose, then you do not need to think about plant health in future. Yes, I often add neem cake to the soil to keep the soil free from insects, nematodes etc. That’s it.
People who grow organic vegetables in farmland traditionally apply ghan jeevamrit as basal dose of fertilizer. It is a very organic fertilizer used for cow-based organic farming in India. It is prepared with 10 kg cow dung, 100 ml cow urine, 100 gm jaggery, 200 gm besan and a handful of soil collected from a big tree like badgad, peepal etc. Now mix all those ingredients and keep those under shade for drying. It needs to keep for atleast 48 hours. Once it is almost dry then you can apply it to the soil.
But most container gardeners are living in an urban area where those ingredients are not easily available. In fact, cow dung & cow urine are actually not available in most of the cities. Last year, I got a few bags of cow dung compost from a local nursery but the quality was not good. Many impurities were there. I do not have any idea from where they collected those or that was actually cow dung or cow dung mixed with soil. That is why I prefer vermicompost.
Kitchen waste compost is also a good option in compost fertilizers. It is also economical if you can prepare it at home regularly.
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