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@Broadfork tell me more about the fermented nettle drink?

@magnus Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) is a commonly used Korean Natural Farming method to provide low cost plant available fertiliser from plants for plants.

Pick the plant material on a dry day and don’t rinse it before making, as water reduces the indigenous microorganisms (IMO) on the leaves.

Nettles are a dynamic accumulator plant and FPJ made with them will add a lot of nutrition to young plants.

Dilute 1:500 to 1:1000 with rainwater. It can be added weekly as a foliar feed.

@Broadfork amazing, I heard about people in France doing something like that, but the story was that it was somehow criminalized after pressure from Big Agriculture

@magnus Not heard that before, very bizarre to criminalise something as naturally organic like FPJ.

@Badgardener Well, if someone’s compost heap doesn’t work one of the better things they can do with it is add a compost accelerator like nettle leaves to it.

I take your point clarifying the use of nettle leaves before they’ve flowered.

If making a hot compost it’s ok to use the whole plant at whatever stage of its life. It will compost down beautifully in this context.

Generally, I leave my nettle patch alone after late spring so it can become the insect rich habitat it should be.

@Broadfork

Someone's compost heap has never worked, because someone never turns the damn thing over and never gets the balance right. Someone is getting a new chipper today, so someone can actually go back to basics with the compost and mulching. Hopefully, someone will actually produce something resembling compost by the end of the year.

@Badgardener Ha! Don’t forget to add some water to it too. Good luck. Do all those things and you won’t fail to have some pretty good compost.

Throw in some chicken manure and you could have some hot compost going on too.