An unusual fertilizer?

18 years ago

Some nurses I know are using intravenous hyperalimentation fluid

(diluted) as a fertilizer. This is available from supplies that are regularly discarded in the hospital (bags can't be used for more than a certain number of hours because of the risk of infection).

This fluid contains protein, carbohydrate, even tiny globules of fat, and a slew of vitamins and minerals. They report diluting it, but don't specify how much.

I don't see this as something available except in rather unusual circumstances (hospital nurses with green thumbs). But I'm curious if anyone has heard of this, or a similar substance used

as fertilizer. I plan to try it when I can get organized to set up some similar pairs of plants, one as a control. But what kind of fertilizer would be a good control?

Any comments will be appreciated.

Coing

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Comments (2)

The_Mohave__Kid
18 years ago
Much if not all of what you listed I can't see being directly available or useful to the plant. The protiens stand out and via microbial breakdown could result in NH3 being released into the soil and therefore boosting the suplly and / or efficiency of Nitrogen use by the plant.

So perhaps as a control you would use a fertilizer containing Nitrogen for each test but the non control group would have the extra protien from the mixture your testing and look for a reponse that could be attributed to Nitrogen.

If you have an extra thousand dollars sitting around you could get a chlorophyll meter and track relative Nitrogen levels in the leaves of the plants in your different test. LOL.

Keep in mind you also need to control watering inputs light , temperature. Interesting experiment.

Good Day ...
albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
18 years ago
Does it have any chelating agents in it? Names are usually EDTA or some such - maybe ethylenediaminetetraacedicacid - sometimes the DT are different combinations of d and t and m. If so it might help get trace elements to the plant and make the plant look better when it isn't doing much that a cheap liquid fertilizer would do.