The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: anthony55 on July 02, 2024, 04:17:42 pm
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I have access to a quantity of Horsetail weed. Normally it would be killed off but I was thinking of turning it into liquid fertilizer to spray on my fields. Has anyone had any experience or knowledge of using it this way. I have read that it has a number of nutrient especially silica which is great for root and cell growth.
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We used to be told to compost the stems and needles for that reason but I haven't heard of making liquid fertiliser for fields with it. Sounds interesting, let us know how you get on!
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I'm usually trying to encourage folk on social media not to hate horsetail so much, and not to waste their lives trying to eradicate it. But here we have someone trying to make use of its properties - great 8)
I've never used horsetail as a liquid feed. Our allotment before we moved here 30 years ago was covered in the stuff, but we have none here. I use comfrey and nettles where a liquid feed is needed.
I would imagine that horsetail would need to be thoroughly bruised before steeping, to allow the active ingredients to get into the water. Otherwise I would use the same method as I do for comfrey and nettles - fill a 40 gallon blue barrel (with a tap at the bottom) with horsetail then fill with rain water. Cover and leave to steep until it looks like a good brew - three months?
If I was using it as a general trace element supplier, I think I would mix it with comfrey, nettles or seaweed, or even all of those together, to make a one application crop booster.
One caveat, I wouldn't use the spore bearing shoots, just in case the spores survive the soaking process and you spread horsetail over your land.