A big thank you to One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Becky who sent me a link to this article about improving soil with milk and molasses. I just love it when solutions to life’s problems can be found in your pantry {I’m still looking for scientific proof that pie can IS actually a solution to most of life’s problems}.
The article, much more eloquently than I can summarize here, states that milk contains vital bacteria that actually helps soil. When milk is poured over compost it helps to feed the compost–giving it nutrients and helping it break down faster. Studies have also found that the sugars in milk can’t be digested by insects, so it is an effective insecticide.
Milk even out-performed fungicides when treating powdery mildew on zucchinis and melons. {Apparently, milk was used as an ancient technique in agriculture, but it the practice has kind of been lost in modern day.} You can even use milk as a fertilizer. Apply milk diluted by 20% with water to your garden soil BEFORE planting and voila, instant organic fertilizer.
Molasses has also shown surprising benefits in the garden. The mineral content of blackstrap molasses, combined with the sugar content, helps to feed microorganisms in the compost pile or garden soil. An application of 3 tbsp. of molasses combined with 1 cup of milk and 4 cups of water makes an excellent plant food to use throughout the season. {I seriously can’t wait to try this out.}
For those of you looking to transition to a more organic style of gardening, but still wanting big yields, milk and molasses might totally be worth a try. I know that I am going to give it a whirl.
~Mavis
Jada says
Mavis, please keep us posted on how this works. I am very curious and love anything non-chemical in the yard.
Cheryl says
This would be good if you had a dairy or milk cow. And a source of black strap molasses much cheaper than in the grocery stores. You won’t be buying $100 of groceries to feed your family for a week if you add milk and molasses to feed your garden to your list. Unless you have a very small garden. If you have a source of the molasses or suggestions on how to get milk more cheaply, I’m open.
E in upstate NY says
A few years ago I read that lightly spreading sugar on the lawn would help the soil, and discourage bugs. Tried it on a section of lawn that had lots of grubs. Didn’t for long!
Vicky says
Ummmm…I think that they mean RAW MILK has beneficial microbes, most milk in the store is either pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized and there are NO microbes left after those high temperatures!! There is a study in some state back east where a guy had lots of organic milk left over after making butter, so he started spraying it on his fields as a way to get rid of it by irrigation…wound up harvesting record amounts of hay that year and knew it was the milk. Got a university friend of his to help do a study and they found that it didn’t matter if it was 20 gal an acre or 1 gal an acre, the benefits were the same. The RAW MILK was feeding the existing microbes AND increasing the populations of beneficial microbes, it’s the life in the soil that makes the difference. You should find Azomite rock dust and put that out as well to help feed the microbes…watch your garden go BOOM with growth!!
Brandy says
Bone meal is an organic fertilizer that you can use to add calcium to your plants. Egg shells will also work. Both can be used for tomatoes, fruit trees, etc.–anything that produces fruit. I can buy a 10 pound bag of bone meals for $20 at our local nursery, and if I time it right, I can use a $10 off $50 coupon as well. For nitrogen, cottonseed meal and blood meal are good choices. I pay the same for blood meal and used to pay the same for cottonseed meal, but our nursery has switched to only carrying blood meal.
Paula Reed says
Is that what they mean when they say the “land of milk and honey”?
Rosaleen says
I wondered about expense as well as how many beneficial microbes are in pasteurized milk. Maybe recycling milk from a “milk bath” would cover both of these bases. Also, one COULD inoculate milk with some active culture yogurt, allowing it to incubate for a while before using it in the garden.
Updates on this idea should be very interesting.
vicky says
Just spray raw milk on the garden once or twice a season….
Charles Sifers says
Raw milk isn’t really going to be any better for the garden than pasteurized. There is already plenty of lactobacillus in soil, so adding more isn’t necessarily helping. In fact, lactobacillus isn’t likely to help plants at all, since it only eats lactose (milk sugar).
Plants derive their nutrients from the fungi that grows on their roots. While some bacterial can break down organic compounds, what is needed is a bacteria that breaks down complex proteins into nitrogen, and fatty acids into phosphorus.
BTW, even though store bought milk is pasteurized, it will still contain bacteria that will do this job. That is why milk sours.
Of course, milk contains calcium, magnesium, and a whole raft of other minerals that are just as good for plants as they are for us.
While the nutritional content is good for plants, the reason that foliar application of milk stops powdery mildew, is that the fats and sugars coat the leaves and smother the spoors and fungus.
Dale says
Wow! Got Milk? What a great deal. I wish we had known this when we had 8 milking goats. We fed all the extra milk to the hogs. Had great bacon!
Bren says
Here is a gross story. I had read that putting milk in the soil for pumpkin plants makes for huge pumpkins. I tried it and it didn’t make the pumpkin big. But what it DID do was make for a massive infestation of maggots in the soil. The pumpkin plant and the vine never stopped smelling of sour milk either and just touching the pumpkin would make your hands stink of sour milk even though the milk never touched the plant itself, it drank the milk in the soil and was within the whole plant. A milk mixture is supposed to help powdery mildew and I tried that without any smell or problems.
vicky says
You used pasteurized milk – raw milk doesn’t do that.
Charles Sifers says
Why wouldn’t raw milk do that? Same milk. It doesn’t make a bit of difference to the flys that laid their eggs in it.
Camaro Dehart says
Amen
Cynthia says
First time useing milk and molasses in my garden hopping for the best
Nancyb says
If farmers have had success with the milk and blackstrap molasses weekly feeding then it’s good enough for me and my little 72 square foot garden. Thanks