Indoor planting season is now in full swing. If you haven’t started your own seedlings yet, we suggest you read the article on how to seed indoors in an eco-friendly manner.

It will soon be time to transplant your seedlings into the garden and plant the crops that need to get started directly outside.

But how should the soil be prepared before the plants arrive? Should you fertilize the soil or add compost? How much and when should you add chemical or natural fertilizer? Read on to find out the answers to all these questions!

Table of contents 

1. What is a natural fertilizer? 

2. Using Tero natural fertilizer for indoor seeding

3. Using Tero natural fertilizer for the garden

3.1 Mix the natural fertilizer directly in the soil

3.2 Sprinkle natural fertilizer on the soil surface

3.3 Use natural fertilizer AND compost

What is a natural fertilizer?

Often called organic fertilizer, natural fertilizer is an amendment derived from natural sources, either animal or plant origin.

Tero natural fertilizer is therefore an organic fertilizer, comparable to those sold in stores or garden centres, regarding its composition, its use, and its nutrients. It is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and many micronutrients. However, the nutrients it contains vary depending on the type of food processed by the Tero device (e.g., it will be rich in potassium if you eat a lot of bananas and rich in calcium if you eat a lot of eggs).

Other natural fertilizer solutions include:

• Dried chicken manure
• Insect frass
• Bone or horn meal
• Blood meal
• Shrimp or fish bone meal

To find out more about Tero natural fertilizer and its benefits, visit our website.

Using Tero natural fertilizer for indoor seeding

Using organic fertilizer, such as Tero natural fertilizer, is not recommended for indoor seedlings. Their roots are still too fragile to intake such a large quantity of nutrients.

For example, seedling soil should be very light and low in nutrients for optimal germination conditions. For healthy growth, the soil should not be too rich.

That said, using fertilizer can be interesting during the transplanting stage, which consists of moving the seedlings from a small pot to a larger one when they start to grow. At this point, the roots are stronger and may be able to take a small amount of natural fertilizer (about 1% of the soil volume).

But be careful! If you buy potting soil from the garden centre to transplant your seedlings, be aware that it is already very rich in nutrients and sometimes already contains compost and organic fertilizer, in which case it isn’t necessary to add fertilizer to the soil.

Using Tero natural fertilizer for the garden

One of the best ways to use Tero natural fertilizer is outdoors. In fact, we highly recommend using it to prepare the soil for your garden crops.

Adding organic fertilizer to the soil, such as the one created by the Tero device, enriches the soil and promotes plant growth. You can do this a week or two before transplanting your seedlings.

This gives the microorganisms in the soil time to digest the organic matter and make the nutrients more readily available to the new plants.

In this regard, Tero’s co-founder and gardening enthusiast Valérie Laliberté is pleased to share the following three valuable tips. 

Although it takes more time, it is the most effective method to prepare your crops for the garden. You can do it by hand or with a specialized tool, adding about 5% of the volume of soil in fertilizer.

If you have animals visiting your property, this is the best way to do it, since all organic fertilizers emit a slight odour. By burying the material in the soil or hiding it under a mulch, for example, you avoid attracting animals.

However, the soil should be mixed on the surface and not turned over completely (with a rototiller, for example). This technique could damage the natural structure of the soil and the balance of microorganisms and bacteria it presents. Instead, use a fork, a spade, or a broadfork to aerate the soil and mix the fertilizer properly.