How To Safely Use Cow Dung For Plants? (3-SECRET WAYs)
Cow dung Is the Most Useful Fertilizer in The World, We Are Using It From 1000 Of Years To Grow Food. But in Home gardening, We Can’t Just Use Cow dung Directly in Our Potted Plants, Use of fresh Cow dung many times Shows Severe Effects. So In This Post, We Will See Some of The Most Safe Ways To Use Cow Dung Fertilizer For Our Plants, So let’s Begin.
What Is Cow dung, & What Are Its Qualities?
First Of all We Should Know About Cow dung, So Cow dung is Simply The excreta Of Cow only. The Extcreta of Other Related Animals Wont Count as Cow dung. Fresh Cow dung is 70% Moisture, With traces of Organic Matter, A lot of Plant required Nutrients, Like Npk & some Trace Elements.
The Ph of Cow dung is around 7 to 8, which is Good For Most Plants. Proper use of Cow dung Do alot of Good For Plants, & Soil. But Basically It’s A fertilizer Containing Npk elements, With More Nitrogen & Lesser Other phosphorus & Potassium.
Why Its Harmful To use Cow dung Directly?
Cow dung Contains a Greater Amount Of Nitrogen, & Nitrogen Creates Heat when Applied To the Soil, So This Can Simply Burn The Roots, & Some Times Burn the Whole plant. On The Other hand, Nitrogen Presence is also Helpful, Because Everything You See Green On a Plant came Out because of Nitrogen.
Nitrogen Promotes Vegetative Growth like leaves, Stems, Etc. In The Ground, farmers Uses Cow dung Directly, Which Is Not an Issue For Them, Because one They don’t Add Cow dung When there are Plants In The Field.
& Second ground is a Bigger thing that can Absorb this Much of Nitrogen Inside of It Very Easily, unlike the Soil Of a small Pot. So That’s Why Farmers can Use fresh Cow dung, But When we use It on a Potted Plant, The Plant Burns out Overnight. But Dont Worry We Have The solution.
SECRET Ways To use Cow dung:
There are a few Ways To reduce The heat Of Cow dung, & Make It Use able For Our Potted Plants.
Drying Cow dung:
The First & The Most Simplest Way To Use Cow dung is To Let It Dry Out Completely, When You See The Cow dung Is Dried You can Crush Into a Powdered Form Like This, & use a Small Amount For Plants.
Drying Reduces around 30% of The Nitrogen from The cow dung, Making it a Bit Safer To use. This Dried Form of Cow dung Is also Available To Buy From here. Dried Cow dung Can Be used In a Small Amount, ideal Dose would Be a Handful For a Gallon Of Soil Media, only Once a month. & Avoid using Cow dung in hot Months of The year, Like June & July.
Composting Cow dung:
Another Simple Way To use Cow dung For Plants, Is By Composting. When Decomposed The nitrogen Of Cow dung again Reduces, & This Makes It safer To Use On a Potted Plant. When We Use Some Manure, it Decomposes Under The Soil & Then it becomes Absorb able By The Roots.
So In Case of a Composted cow dung, Its Already Decomposed, Means You will See The result of Cow dung Within Days. It’s Very Easy to make a Compost Out Of cow dung, Simply Follow This Guide To Know About That.
Composting Of Dried Cow dung Reduces upto 50% Of The Nitrogen, While Composting of Fresh Cow dung Reduces Only 10% Of The Nitrogen. You can Use Around a Handful Of Cow dung Compost for a Gallon of Soil Media, Only once a month.
Fermenting Cow dung:
One Way To use Cow dung is To make a Liquid Fertilizer out Of it. The fermented Form of Cow dung absorbs Into The Roots Very Quickly, & If You Use Dried Cow dung To make The Liquid Fertilizer, it’s also Very Safe To use.
You can Use It Even Twice a Month. Simply Add a handful of dried Cow dung or Cow dung Cakes in a liter of Water. Place It in Shade For A few days, When all The Cakes or Powder Settles Down In The Water, You can Use This.
Dilute This fermented liquid with 10 parts of More water & Then Use For Plants. 100 ml For a 5″ Pot, Is Enough, use once A Month In Hot Seasons. You can Even Use this Liquid as a Foliar Spray For House Plants.
Benefits Of Safely using Cow dung?
Safely Use of Cow dung Have alot Of benefits. like a lot better Leaf Growth, Stronger Stems, Bigger & shinny Leaves, bushier Plant, Stronger Immune System, Improved Soil health, More Microbes in the Soil etc. So Overall Cowdung is the fertilizer We Should not Miss, It works like a Miracle, So Just Give it a Try.
On What Plants Can We Use This?
Following a Correct Way, We Can Use Cow dung On Any Plant, ranging from Seedlings, To trees, seasonal Vegetables, to Flowering & Fruiting Vegetables, House plants To cacti & succulents. all Plants get Benefits from Cow dung Use. For A Small Plant use Lesser, For Bigger Plant Use only a Little Bit More. Avoid The Use Of Cow dung In June & July. & Follow This Guide, to Know about other Nitrogen Rich Organic fertilizers.
