Household Items as Fertilizer: Kitchen Waste, Baking Soda, and What to Avoid

The best fertilizers are in your garbage pail, not the garden center. But some "home remedies" do more harm than good.

Golden Resources (Compost These)

• Vegetable scraps, salad trimmings
• Coffee grounds, tea leaves, undrunk coffee/tea
• Fruit peels, cores, expired juices
• Eggshells (calcium), stale bread, moldy spices
• Potato peels, celery tops, onion skins, pineapple cores

Compost → humic acids → earthworms → perfect plant nutrition. Free, complete, safe.

Baking Soda: Use With Extreme Caution

• NaHCO₃ = SALT. Alters leaf pH to deter powdery mildew (works)
• But: kills soil microbes, disrupts balance, accumulates
• Compost tea works better for fungi—no collateral damage

Sugar: Don't Bother

Bacteria prefer glucose; fungi use sucrose. But dumping sugar feeds the wrong microbes, creates imbalances. Not cost-effective.

What to Avoid

• Epsom salts (MgSO₄): Mg is 8th most abundant element; most soils have plenty. Excess Mg locks out K, Ca. Only sandy, low-CEC soils need it—and it leaches anyway. Jerry Baker's fan club ≠ science.
• Listerine: High alcohol kills beneficial bacteria/fungi. Disinfectant ≠ garden aid.
• Household ammonia (NH₃): Caustic poison; same damage as synthetic fertilizer. Anaerobic byproduct; favors pathogens.

Core Principle

Feed the soil food web (compost, diversity, no toxins). It feeds your plants better than any bottle.