How To Make Fertilizer From Fallen Apples

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

I don't leave fallen apples to rot on the ground, but I make a useful fertilizer out of them

My husband and I have an old dacha with a large apple orchard, inherited from our grandmother. There are many trees, there are both old and very young, planted about eight years ago. We rarely go to the dacha, and when we come in summer and autumn, under the fruit trees we find a large number of fallen apples. Previously, we simply threw them into the old ravine: my grandmother believed that there was no benefit from such fruits, only diseases were sent to the garden. But the mother-in-law dissuaded us from such waste and taught us to make an excellent fertilizer out of the falcon, both for the garden and for the trees themselves.

Two tricks

Now, every year in the fall, I dig a large hole, line it with grass mown over the summer and fallen leaves, put all the fallen apples (with rotten, spoiled and unripe). I chop the fruits with a shovel into a fine porridge. I put nettles on top: it is rich in protein and microelements. I specially bring nettles from the ravine and from the neighboring field. I sprinkle it a little with earth and leave it to pereperevat.

Two tricks to make your future fertilizer more nutritious:

• adding ash - it destroys fungal diseases that could be on fallen apples, and saturates the compost with nutrients;
• adding a can of dolomite soil after a week or two of fermentation - to enrich the soil with silicon and reduce the acidity of the fertilizing.

If necessary, you can also add a little composting accelerator, but there is not much benefit in it: by the spring, humus will be a great natural way.

After the snow melts, top dressing can be used both for flowers and seedlings, and for the fruit trees themselves.

Apple trees drop their fruits ahead of time for several reasons. The first one that is not worth fighting is too abundant harvest. In such years, so as not to exhaust itself and not get damaged by the weight of ripe apples, the tree gets rid of some of the unripe fruits. It is in such years that you can stock up on fertilizer from the falcon.

The second reason is pests, in particular, the moth. You need to fight them. At least twice a year (before flowering and after harvest) I process apple trees with a mixture of green soap, natural soda and ash. This allows the trees to be strong - there are no fungal diseases, no aphids, no caterpillars.

From fallen apples, which are ripe, but we did not manage to remove them from the tree in time, I prepare winter supplies. These apples are very rich in pectin and make an excellent jam. I clean, cut out all the damaged areas, grind into gruel with a blender, add 1/1 sugar and cook in a bread maker in jam mode or on the stove: I bring it to a boil several times, then cool it down.

Compote made from fallen fruits is also excellent: I cut apples into pieces, add a handful of chokeberry and sugar - my family loves sweet compote, I put a lot (400 g per kilo of apples).

I also prepare juice for the winter: I put all the washed and cleaned fruits in a juicer, remove the foam, add a little sugar - literally 5-6 tablespoons per two liters. I bring the mixture to a boil and immediately pour it into sterilized bottles. Stores well: until the New Year, it is definitely and much more useful than purchased drinks in bags.