Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Plant lovin

My plants need a little lovin. I am by no means a green thumb but I have begun to suspect that my plants can't live by water alone—they need nutrients too! So I have had a mission to find plant food that doesn’t come in plastic packaging. Plant food does exist in this form in paperboard boxes, in plentiful amounts actually, like in this picture:

But it does not exist in plentiful (or even pitiful) amounts for indoor plants...at least not what I could find. I was so excited to find plant food in paperboard boxes and so sad to find out it is not “formulated” for indoor plants. The outdoor formulas, I was told, could kill my indoor plants :( I ended up buying this all-purpose indoor plant food variety (pictured here with my nutrient-needy Donkey Tail plant).

This one is concentrated so it will last a looong time (and it is #2 recyclable plastic), but mostly I was sold on the little eyedropper feature. I can see myself reusing this someday looong in the future for something else...after a very thorough washing out of course as plant food ≠ people food!
Does anyone know of a plastic-packaging-free alternative for plant food? It is a little too late for me this time but maybe not for others.

5 comments:

GreenStrong said...

Compost. You can make compost tea- well diluted for indoor plants. I use water from my fish tank for my potted plants- recycling both nutrients and water.

Urine is a fine fertilizer, if you keep your sodium intake reasonably low.

"plant food" is just a convenient package of the elements that make up all life- they are available all around us.

plasticfreenyc said...

speaking of plants, the edges of the leaves of my orchid are turning a little brown. any thoughts? am i drowning it?

Fern Toe said...

Wow, Mathew thanx for the great info !

Anonymous said...

Compost tea is a great idea. If you don't have compost and don't want to make your own, another option is TerraCycle plant food. The all-purpose plant food can be used on house plants. Here's a link:

http://www.terracycle.net/main_plant_food.htm

It's not plastic-free, but it is packaged in reused soda bottles. And it's all-natural, not synthetic.

islandveggie said...

I second the fish tank water.
I also use the liquid that drips out of my vermicomposter (worm pee?!) as well as the finished vermicompost.