How to Make Organic Fertilizers

Looking to reduce your reliance on chemical fertilizers while boosting your soil’s health naturally? Making your organic fertilizer is not only eco-friendly and cost-effective, but it also provides your crops with essential nutrients for optimal growth. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover various methods and recipes to create organic fertilizers from animal manure, food scraps, agricultural waste, and natural ingredients. These techniques are proven by farmers and horticulture experts across Indonesia and can be applied globally with a few adjustments based on local resources.

Whether you’re a small-scale gardener or a large-scale farmer, this step-by-step guide will help you understand and create nutrient-rich organic compost, Terra Preta, liquid fertilizers, and more—all using sustainable and accessible materials.

Basic Organic Fertilizer Recipe

Ingredients:

• 200 kg of cow, goat, chicken, quail, or horse manure
• 1–2 kg of Urea or NPK

Instructions:

You can create this organic fertilizer using a drum, sack, open ground, or by digging a pit in the soil—choose what suits your space and resources best.

Option 1: Using a drum or sack

1. Layer animal manure to a thickness of 5–10 cm.
2. Sprinkle a small amount of Urea or NPK evenly on top.
3. Repeat the layers: manure, then Urea/NPK, until the container is full.
4. Seal tightly and let it ferment for two weeks. Your organic fertilizer will be ready.

Option 2: Open-ground method

1. Choose a shaded area that is protected from rain.
2. Spread a 10 cm-thick layer of manure.
3. Sprinkle Urea/NPK evenly.
4. Repeat the layering process until all materials are used.
5. Cover the pile with a tarp and let it ferment for 2 weeks.

Terra Preta (Black Soil)

What is Terra Preta?
Terra Preta means “black earth” and originates from ancient Amazonian farming techniques. It can be created anywhere using compost, charcoal, bacteria, and fungi fermented over four weeks. The main concept behind Terra Preta is to create porous, fertile soil rich in microbial life, ideal for root development.

How to Make Terra Preta (By NBP)

Materials:

• Any kind of manure (must be crushed first)
• H₂O₂ or nano-bubble water to sterilize the manure
• Charcoal
• Microbial starter (fermented with molasses and nano-bubble water)

Steps:

1. Mix sterilized manure with charcoal evenly.
2. Spray with the microbial solution in layers or mix thoroughly.
3. The key to rapid fermentation is ensuring a high population of microbes and sterile base materials.

Petrorganik “Cahaya Langit” for Generative Planting Phase

For a 5000 m² plot

Ingredients:

• 2 sacks of petroganic fertilizer
• 2 sacks of compost or Avatar solid
• 1 bottle of mineral cement acid
• 1 bottle of silica ash or 2 kg lime (dolomite or kaptan can be used)
• 10 liters of Avatar liquid microbes, POC, or molasses
• Optional: 5 sachets of herbal pesticide (e.g., Ally Plus)

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Mix everything until the moisture content is about 30–35%.
2. Add:
   • 1 sack of SP-36
   • 30 kg of NPK
   • 15–25 kg of Urea
   • 20 kg KCL (or replace with 10 kg rock salt)
3. After thoroughly mixing, the fertilizer is ready to be applied to your field.

Hulk Compost (By Alfianusdoe)

Transforms yellowing plants to green and healthy.

Materials:

• Mature chicken and goat manure
• Rock phosphate or guano powder (can substitute with banana stem compost)
• Ash
• Charcoal
• PGPR (Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria)
• Moldy stone acid

Method:
Mix all ingredients until moisture is at 50–60%. Store in a shaded place to preserve microbial activity.

Simple Method to Ferment Rice Straw in the Field

Materials:

• 1 liter of molasses mixed with EM4 or MOL, left overnight

How to Use:
Spray 200 ml (1 glass) per tank onto rice straw. This accelerates decomposition and enriches the soil.

POP Super KCL (By Kang Sani Ramadhan Mediansyah)

Ingredients:

• 250 kg of duck manure mixed with rice straw (1:1 ratio)
• 50 kg of cocopeat or coconut sawdust
• 5 kg agricultural lime
• 15 kg rice husk charcoal
• 100 kg dried catfish pond sediment (if available)
• 250 ml EM4 + 250 g sugar
• 10 liters of coconut water

Method:
Mix all materials under shade to avoid rain. Let ferment for 1–2 weeks, stirring every two days. Cover with a breathable sack (not a plastic tarp) to allow aeration.

How to Make Liquid Organic Fertilizer (POC)

Core Ingredients:

• Carbohydrates: rice water, flour, bran
• Molasses or sugar
• Water

Fermentable Additions:

• Leaves, fruit peels, banana stems, animal manure, etc.
• Chop or blend ingredients before use.

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Add microbial decomposer and mix thoroughly.
3. Ferment in a sealed container, stirring occasionally.

Organic Nitrogen (Urea) Source

Ingredients:

• Green leaves (tops), banana leaves, azolla, algae, moss, ferns, animal urine, manure

Method:

1. Use microbes to decompose materials through aerobic or anaerobic fermentation.
2. Speed up fermentation using acidic liquids like starfruit juice, noni juice, or citric acid water.

Organic Liquid Urea by Windanto Bin Edris

Performance:
This DIY fertilizer replaces two sacks of chemical urea (NPK 40-0-0), significantly reducing costs while enhancing early-stage plant growth.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg mung beans or soybeans (soaked 4–5 hours)
• 2 kg pineapple (including skin, minced or blended)
• 1 kg glutinous rice (soaked 4–5 hours)
• 2 kg molasses or melted palm sugar
• 10 liters of coconut/rain/well water
• 1 liter of banana leaf-tip microbes

Method:

1. Soak and blend mung beans and glutinous rice.
2. Add blended pineapple, microbes, and water.
3. Stir thoroughly and ferment for 14 days.
4. Strain and store in a sealed bottle.

Usage:

• 2 tbsp per 20L of water for foliar spray.
• 5 tbsp per 20L of water for soil enrichment.

Note: Avoid overuse—excess can yellow leaves and harm plants.

Organic Liquid Urea (POCO) by Juna Saputra

Ingredients:

• 1 kg mung beans/soybeans
• 2 kg rice bran
• 2 pineapples
• 2 kg molasses
• 10 liters of coconut water
• 1 liter EM4

Method:

1. Soak, drain, and blend the ingredients.
2. Cook and cool rice bran.
3. Mix everything and ferment for 2 weeks.
4. Use 20 ml in 20 liters of water for foliar spray or 50 ml for soil drench.

Liquid Organic NPK Fertilizer

Ingredients:

• Leaves (gamal, legumes, moringa, bay leaves)
• 1 liter of molasses or 1 kg of brown sugar
• Water from 5 coconuts
• Rice water or rice flour water

How to Make:

1. Chop and crush green leaves. Fill 1/3 of a container.
2. Dilute molasses in rice water or coconut water.
3. Mix everything, seal tightly.
4. Ferment in a shaded area.
5. Release gas daily and shake to promote microbial growth.

If you’re also interested in creating solid compost-based fertilizers, check out our in-depth guide: Organic Farming: How to Make POP (Solid Organic Fertilizer)