Fermented plant juice: a drink only a garden could love
Everyone loves a refreshing, fermented and nutritious drink… even your garden! Take your fermentation skills from the kitchen to the garden by brewing fermented plant juice.
Below is an excerpt The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Improvements By Nigel Palmer. It has been adapted for apply on the Internet.
How to make fermented plant juice
Fermented plant juices are uncomplicated to prepare, sturdy, economical, sustainable and regenerative mineral supplements.
These products take advantage of the wonderful mineral batteries found in our backyard – the weeds and not-so-perfect fruits that appear at the end of the season. In addition to minerals, these amendments also contain other beneficial compounds: enzymes and proteins, all in forms that plants can apply.
Mineral-rich weeds such as dandelion and nettle are good plants to try first. because they are uncomplicated to find and their proportions and amounts of broad-spectrum minerals provide a good source of nutrition for the well growth and development of many types of plants.
Experiment with creating FPJs with other plants, remembering that each type of plant has unique characteristics that can be exploited. Exploit them in conjunction with other amendments to facilitate specific periods of plant growth: germination, vegetative growth, reproduction, senescence.
Doing a lot
You can scale up this recipe if you have a larger container. For example, it takes about 2 pounds (1 kg) of plant material to fill a 1-gallon (4 L) pot.
The ratio of plant material to sugar ranges from 1:0.5 to 1:1. The more moisture in the fermentation material, the more sugar is needed. For example, fruits require more sugar than leaves. This recipe can be scaled to any volume.
Fermented plant juice
I first learned to ferment plants this way by experimenting with the technique described in Natural farming Agricultural materials by Cho Ju-Newborn.
Gear
- 2-quart pot or glass jar About 1/2 pound (225 g)
- plant material Approximately 1⁄2 pound (225 g)
- organic brown sugar 1 pint (1 liter) glass jar
- A stone or a glass of water
- Scale
- Sieve
- Funnel
- A neat dishcloth or equivalent
Instructions
Step 1 Pick leaves and stems of plants early in the morning, before the sun rises, while there is still dew on them. This is when plant leaves have the most energy. During the day, there is a significant flow of energy through the leaves as a result of transpiration and photosynthesis.
At the end of the day and at night, the plant stores energy. By collecting the leaves in the morning, before sunrise, this energy is used to produce fermented plant juice. Lactic acid bacteria and yeast are captured on the plant surface.
Do not wash plants or harvest them immediately after rain (as rainfall can also wash away lactic acid bacteria and yeast). If the weather has been very arid for several days, you can water the plants the day before you plan to harvest the material from them.
Step 2
For wetter ingredients such as fruit, apply a 1:1 weight ratio.
Step 3 In a huge bowl, mix the plant material with the organic brown sugar. Once mixed, transfer the mixture to a glass jar or pot. You can also place the unmixed plant material and sugar in a glass jar or pot, alternating layers.
A towering and narrow container will work better than a wide and shallow one. Cover the upper surface of the material with a layer of sugar.
Start fermentation by placing a stone or glass of water over the contents of the jar or pot.
Any object that will fit through the opening of a pot or glass jar can be used as a weight, but avoid objects made of plastic, stainless steel, or other metals. The weight of the added product will compress the sugar and plant material, initiating osmosis.
Make sure the scale is neat. For example, boil the stone before apply.
Step 4 Cover the entire jar with a cloth and store in a arid, well-ventilated place, at room temperature (approximately 20°C) and away from sunlight.
Step 5 Check the jar periodically. Within a few hours, a brown liquid will begin to form at the bottom. Once enough fluid has formed to submerge all the plant material, the weight can be removed. This may take approximately one day.
Allow fermentation to proceed for a few days, constantly monitoring the jar to ensure the plant material remains submerged.
After about a week, the fermentation process will be completed. The contents will have a scent that is unique and non-offensive.
I left the plant material fermenting for longer and still ended up with a stable product, but eventually the contents of the jar would turn into something else that might not be as useful. This is something you can experiment with, either intentionally or by default!
Step 6
To strain the liquid from the plant matter, Invert the fermentation container onto a sieve so that the liquid flows freely into a liter jar (1 l).
This configuration provides solid support for a 1/2-gallon (2 L) or smaller glass jar. For a pot or other hefty container, a different configuration would be appropriate.
A bit of imagination may be required.
Step 7 Leave the mixture to drain for a few hours, perhaps overnight. Do not try to squeeze any remaining liquid from the plant material.
The amount of liquid amendment produced will vary depending on the amount of moisture in the plant matter at the beginning of the process.
If foam appears on the surface of the fermentation liquid after extraction, more sugar should be added to eliminate it. Take note of these details and write them down in your garden notebook for future reference.
Step 8 The remaining material can be further extracted to produce long-lasting, mineral-rich fixes using organic apple cider vinegar as described in the “Vinegar Extractions” recipe.
Vinegar extraction from plant residues can be performed several times.
Generally, the remaining minerals in the plant residue will be less than those captured in the fermented plant sap, but I have sometimes obtained higher concentrations of specific microminerals in vinegar residue extractions.
This is an example of how to achieve higher concentrations of specific micronutrients in your amendment, based on conscious choice of plant type.
Step 9 Label the containers with the type of plant and parts used and the start and end dates of fermentation.
Add to your gardening notebook the weight of the plants and sugar used, the type of sugar, the time of day the plant was harvested, the containers used, and any other information you deem appropriate. Store in a well-ventilated place with a constant temperature, away from sunlight.
The apply of fermented plant juice
Using additives in fermented plant sap provides a balanced approach to plant nutrition.
To start with, I suggest using single-plant fermentation. Take good notes on what you apply and the results you see.
This is an amazing product to get to know and experiment with. Fermented plant saps can form the basis of short-term mineralization efforts throughout the growing season.
Nutrients from fermented plant sap
Fermented plant juices contain nutrients in a form available to plants. Apply them directly to plant leaves and on bark if there are no leaves (think trees in tardy fall to early spring) as a foliar spray or as a sprinkler to nourish plant roots and soil biology.
The optimal dilution ratio will depend on the type of plant being fermented and the needs of the plant being fed. Start with a dilution ratio of 1:1000 or 1:500. (The homeopathic approach is something to consider.)
Diluting fermented plant sap in a 5-gallon bucket filled with about 4 gallons (16 L) of good water works well because there is enough room at the top to allow for vigorous mixing. One tablespoon of fermented plant sap added to 4 gallons of water is a 1:1000 ratio, and 2 tablespoons is a 1:500 ratio.
If you make a quart of FPJ in the kitchen and dilute it 1:500, you will have 500 quarts (500 liters) of amendment – or 125 gallons! Diminutive amounts of this product last for a very long time.
Encouraging germination
Fermented plant sap is also valuable in promoting germination. The seeds can be soaked before planting. Dilute the fermented plant sap in the same proportions as above and soak the seeds for a few minutes before planting so that the minerals needed for growth are available as soon as germination occurs.
Continued exposure to fermented plant sap will ensure the availability of minerals in the form that newborn seedlings have access to, reducing potential sources of stress resulting from destitute nutrition.