To have beautiful, lush and healthy plants, good maintenance is essential. In addition to providing your plants with the amount of water and light they need for growth, plants also need nutrients. To do this, you can use natural ingredients that we all have in our kitchen.
Certain natural, readily available ingredients are effective in fertilizing plants and providing them with the nutrients they need for healthy, vigorous growth. This is the case of an ingredient that we can add to our flower pot to nourish them.
What ingredient should you add to flower pots to encourage their growth?
Used in cooking to enhance our dishes, this ingredient also has other unsuspected uses. It can thus be used to care for plants and promote their healthy growth. And our flagship ingredient is none other than rice.
Here are the different benefits of rice on plants.
- Rice as a natural fertilizer for flowering plants
Rice is a beneficial ingredient for plants. It is, in fact, rich in vitamins, calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, fiber, and amino acids. These nutrients are ideal for nourishing your flowering plants and promoting their good growth. To do this, sprinkle the rice grains in the soil in your flower pots, and water the soil. On contact with water, rice grains swell and release starch. The latter is also useful for plants. It provides them with energy and stimulates their growth.
Note that in addition to rice, there are other natural fertilizers to fertilize plants, such as green tea bags, coffee grounds, wood ash or even the skin of bananas or citrus fruits which is also very effective in enriching compost.
- Rice water, an organic fertilizer for flowering plants
Rice water is effective in nourishing plants. This is rich in phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium which are essential nutrient elements for plants. Indeed, phosphorus stimulates the flowering and fruiting of plants, potassium helps keep plants vigorous and healthy, and then nitrogen promotes the growth of leaves and green stems of plants.
Rice water is considered a natural fertilizer because the starch it contains promotes the development of good bacteria in the soil, which helps the roots to nourish themselves and makes them more vigorous and healthy.
To feed your plants and fertilize them, soak the rice in water for 40 minutes. Next, disinfect a jar with white vinegar to store the rice water. To benefit from the benefits of this water, it is advisable to keep the jar away from light, as this prevents bacteria from developing. Close the jar with a cotton cloth tied with a rubber band, making sure air can pass through. You can store your liquid fertilizer for two days.
Rice water can be used as watering water, applied once a week for 15 days. This method allows for the rapid release of nutrients into the soil, unlike the first method.
Rice water can be used to fertilize flowering plants or shrubs such as rose bushes, but also indoor plants such as sansevieria or bamboo, and vegetable plants such as tomatoes. Note that the rice water should not be hot or salty, otherwise it could harm your plants.
Tip: Also remember to save the cooking water for pasta or vegetables. This will serve as a liquid fertilizer to fertilize your plants.
Used in the form of grains or watering water, rice can provide your potted flowering plants with the nutrients they need for their growth, in order to obtain vigorous and luxuriant plants, without using chemical fertilizers.
