Butterfly Farming Articles

Make your own Organic Liquid Fertilizer / Growth Enhancer!!
Linda Rogers


A while back there was discussion about the great fertilizer product called HASTA-GRO™, which is the organic alternative to Miracle-Gro™. Hasta-Gro is available in Texas through Marshall Grain in Ft. Worth, or through Medina Company in Hondo, Texas.

For those of you who want to make your own, the IBBA's advisor, J. Howard Garrett (aka The Dirt Doctor) has the following recipe:

Organic liquid fertillizer/growth enhancer:

Mix the following per gallon of water:

  • 1 cup of *compost tea or liquid humate,
  • 1 ounce liquid seaweed,
  • 1 ounce blackstrap molasses,
  • 1 ounce apple cider vinegar and one cup fish emulsion.

(*Compost tea is simply made by putting some compost in a bucket and adding water. Let it steep for a few days, then the liquid is "compost tea".)

The Hasta-Gro product is amazing. We used it in the flight cage on the buddleias and on our pecan trees as a foliar application. We have huge blossoms that appeared almost overnight!!

It's sorta fun mixing up this concoction (whee-yooo! stinky, too!)