Philip shares how his batch of swamp water has helped the garden:
At a month old in this Tennessee summer. It has really changed the water into a deep dark green. We tested small parts of each plant bed with 1 qt in a 2 gallon waterer.
Black sunflowers leaves have doubled in size and plants are 6″ taller than the rest.
Corn has grown 6″ in 5 days (I have pictures).
Okra did not seem to care one way or another.
Tromboncino squash did not seem affected. But tromboncino is planted with a lot of bacterial fixed purple yard long pole beans. I always plant the troboncino on a trellis with lots of inoculated pole beans and i never fertilize either one.
Gonna try on brassica and carrot seeds as well as cucumber trellis.
Added some to watermelon and cantaloupe hills yesterday.
Karen writes:
DTG, your posts are always an encouragement. Thank you and your family for giving out such wonderful information. As I was stirring my fetid swamp water and wondering if my root exudate would bring my husband out to the yard, I had a nice, hearty laugh and made up my mind to drop you guys a line saying “thank you”. So here I am. Thanks again!
Swamp Water Works!
On Tuesday I drove home from Hannibal, Missouri where I spoke at the Homesteading Life Conference on minimalist gardening and extreme composting. It was a blast, but I was beat after all that driving, preparing, socializing and more driving, on top of being in the middle of a move from one homestead to another.
At the event, a lovely lady with a great husband and cute kids came up to me and said, “David – I have to thank you. Swamp water saved our garden this year! We started late, and ended up with scrawny, bug-eaten crops in our so-so soil. So I made a batch of swamp water and started feeding it, like you said. Within a week everything was greening up, and then they really took off. We actually got a harvest, and we weren’t going to get anything! It works!”
I was very happy to hear it. Swamp water works! It’s one of my favorite methods. If you’re not making swamp water yet, it’s one of the methods I cover in Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting.
With Dave’s Fetid Swamp Water, you can replace fertilizer AND avoid having to make a bunch of compost to feed a large garden.
Here’s a video:
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
6 comments
I can confirm this too! My squash and tomatoes look amazing eversince using swamp water. So simple but VERY effective.
Thanks, David!
I’ve had a batch chooching for about a month now. Not looking forward to opening it…. I think I will this weekend anyway to see if it can kickstart some peppers that got shaded out by the lacinato kale rainforest I started.
“tromboncino is planted with a lot of bacterial fixed purple yard long pole beans. I always plant the troboncino on a trellis with lots of inoculated pole beans”
No pics? sigh!
Just curious Dave, do you know if the breakdown in the swamp barrel will kill off rust spores? I’m thinking yes it should eat away spores just fine but wanted your thoughts too
I never worry about it – there is so much bacteria in there, I bet it wouldn’t survive.
We are at the point where the garden is getting once a week swamp water applications. We have set a empty barrel by each garden, drag out the sump pump and fine kitchen strainer. It’s a 15 gallon barrel that gets 7 quarts per fill.
1 strain 7 quarts of swamp water into barrel
2 put pump in barrel
3 top off with rain water from cstchment system
4 foliar feed corn, sunflower, and squash until we see flowers. Then only use 4 inches off the ground for corn and sunflower.
By the way the asian pears seem to really appreciate the nutrients. This is the last month fruit growth and all look perfect. Especially for trees that were in pots last spring. We plant 2 or 3 corn seeds per hole this year and got 2 or 3 plants. After 6 weeks we decided to thin with scissors. Between the thinnings and weeds that get thrown back into the rows. It has pretty much self composted the bed and really keep the swamp water moisture in. My wife thought i planted the sweet corn way too close. But between the remineralizer and swamp water we have dark green fat corn leaves. My father in law grew up raising nothing but corn and market hogs in west Tennessee. He was surprised by how greenn and well shaped the corn is. He said,” It’s got good color. I would jeep doing what your doing” So my swamp water corn compares to corn raised in the 60’s and 70’s. Back then they pumped nitrogen gases into the soil. So to say I’m beyond pleasanly surprised? Thanks again David for saving us a lot of money on fertilizers. Plus we are not killing ourselves making compost.
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