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Want healthier, faster-growing plants without relying on expensive garden products? 🌱 In this video, we reveal a simple **SECRET powder** that gardeners can use to support plant growth while helping keep unwanted pests away.
You’ll learn how this powder can be used in the garden, the best way to apply it, how much to use, and some important mistakes to avoid. Whether you're growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, flowers, or other backyard crops, this simple gardening trick could become a useful addition to your routine.
We’ll also explain why proper application matters. More isn't always better, and using any garden amendment incorrectly can cause problems for your plants. Follow along to see how to use this method safely and effectively.
If you enjoy simple gardening tips, natural pest-control ideas, and inexpensive ways to grow stronger plants, **subscribe for more gardening videos!**
#Gardening #GardenTips #PlantGrowth #PestControl #OrganicGardening #GardeningHacks #GrowYourOwnFood
Want healthier, faster-growing plants without relying on expensive garden products? 🌱 In this video, we reveal a simple **SECRET powder** that gardeners can use to support plant growth while helping keep unwanted pests away.
You’ll learn how this powder can be used in the garden, the best way to apply it, how much to use, and some important mistakes to avoid. Whether you're growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, flowers, or other backyard crops, this simple gardening trick could become a useful addition to your routine.
We’ll also explain why proper application matters. More isn't always better, and using any garden amendment incorrectly can cause problems for your plants. Follow along to see how to use this method safely and effectively.
If you enjoy simple gardening tips, natural pest-control ideas, and inexpensive ways to grow stronger plants, **subscribe for more gardening videos!**
#Gardening #GardenTips #PlantGrowth #PestControl #OrganicGardening #GardeningHacks #GrowYourOwnFood
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Near every day, in kitchens all over this country, folks peel an orange, eat the sweet fruit, and toss the
00:07peel straight into the trash without a moment's thought, throwing away a thing that could do their garden a world
00:13of quiet good.
00:14For that orange peel, dried and crushed to a powder, makes a fine free feeding for your plants and helps
00:22keep certain pests off them besides, and it costs you nothing at all, being only the leavings of the fruit
00:28you already ate.
00:30Now, I will not tell you it is some secret miracle, for it is not, and I do not deal
00:36in miracles. But it is a genuine, useful, thrifty little help for your garden, made from what you were about
00:43to throw away, and today I am going to show you how to make it and how to use it
00:48honestly.
00:49My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania. And this is exactly the sort
00:57of old thrift I love the best, the taking of a thing bound for the trash and turning it to
01:03good use in the garden, for that is the whole heart of the old way of living, that near nothing
01:08is truly waste if you only know its use.
01:11An orange peel is not garbage. It is a bit of feeding and a bit of pest help waiting to
01:18be put to work. I think of my grandmother, who had a jar for everything, a jar for the eggshells,
01:25a jar for the coffee grounds, a jar for the dried peels, all lined up on the windowsill above the
01:31sink, each one on its slow way to the garden.
01:34As children, we thought her a bit odd for it, saving what everyone else threw out. But her garden was
01:41the finest for miles, and I came to understand, long after, that those little jars on the windowsill were the
01:48whole secret of it.
01:50She was not saving garbage. She was saving her garden's supper, a peel and a shell at a time.
01:57Before I go on, I will say this once, and then leave it be. I gathered the whole of it,
02:03all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book. You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:11The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it again.
02:17Now let me be plain and honest with you first about what this powder does and does not do, for
02:24I would never have you expecting more than it can give.
02:27It does two good things, both of them real, but both of them gentle.
02:31The first is that it feeds your soil a little, for the orange peel holds within it some of the
02:37same good feeding a plant wants, the sort that builds strong stems and sweet fruit, along with a bit of
02:44the lime-like goodness, and as the powder breaks down in the ground, it gives that feeding back slowly to
02:50your plants.
02:51It is not a strong feeding mind, not like a good compost or manure, but it is a real one,
02:57and free.
02:59And the second good thing is that it helps to discourage certain pests, the soft little ones like the aphids,
03:05and the ants that trouble a plant, for the strong, sharp citrus oils and the bitter smell of the orange
03:12are not to their liking, and they tend to keep away from it.
03:15But hear me close on that second part, for here is where the sellers of miracles overreach, and I will
03:22not.
03:23This powder helps to keep some pests off.
03:26It does not, and I will not tell you it does, build a wall that keeps all bugs away and
03:33leaves your plants forever pest-free.
03:35It is one small help among the many I have taught you for keeping a garden healthy, a bit of
03:41discouragement to the soft-crawling pests, not a cure-all, and not a fortress.
03:47Use it as one good tool among your others.
03:50Expect honest help and not a miracle, and you will never be disappointed in it.
03:55That is the truth of the thing, and now let me show you how to make it.
03:59The making is simplicity itself, and it comes in two steps, the drying and the crushing.
04:06First, the drying.
04:08You save up your orange peels, and the peels of any citrus, really, your lemons and limes and grapefruit, too,
04:15all do the same good work, so save them all.
04:18And you must dry them, completely, until there is not a bit of moisture left in them, and they have
04:24gone hard and crisp and brittle.
04:26For a peel with any damp still in it will not crush well, and will only go moldy in the
04:33storing.
04:35Now the best and oldest way to dry them, and the one that costs nothing, is the sun.
04:41You lay your peels out in a single layer on a tray or a screen or a bit of cloth,
04:47and you set them out in the full, hot sun,
04:50and over a few days of good sunshine they dry right out, curling and hardening and going crisp, and the
04:58sun does it all for free.
05:01Bring them in of a night so the dew does not damp them again.
05:05If the weather will not give you sun, then you can dry them slow by the warmth of your stove,
05:11or spread on a rack in a warm, airy spot indoors, on a sunny windowsill, wherever it is warm and
05:19dry, and it will just take a little longer.
05:22However you do it, the one thing that matters is that they come out bone dry and crisp, snapping when
05:29you bend them,
05:30with no soft damp left at all.
05:33Then the crushing, the turning of those dry, crisp peels into powder, and again we do it the plain old
05:42way, by hand, no machine needed.
05:45Once they are good and dry and brittle, orange peels crush up easily.
05:51You can crumble them between your fingers, or better, put them in a cloth or a bag and go over
05:57them with a rolling pin,
05:59or crush them in a mortar with a pestle, the way the old folks ground their herbs and spices,
06:05or run them through a little hand-cranked mill if you have one.
06:09You are after a rough powder, and it need not be fine as flour, for a bit of rough texture,
06:16some small bits among the powder, is perfectly good and works just as well.
06:22Crush them as fine or as rough as suits you, so long as it is broken down small enough to
06:29spread and to break down in the soil.
06:32And there is your powder, made from what you would have thrown away, ready to keep in a dry jar
06:38until you want it.
06:40Now, two ways to use it, and I will give you both.
06:43The first way is to use it dry, right in the soil.
06:48You simply take your powder and sprinkle it lightly around the base of your plants, over the soil about the
06:55stems,
06:55and then it goes to work slowly, breaking down into the ground, giving up its feeding to the soil over
07:02time, and enriching it.
07:05And that citrus powder sitting on the soil about the plant also helps to discourage the ants,
07:11and the soft, crawling pests, from coming up to trouble it, for they mislike crossing it.
07:17So a light scatter about the base of your plants both feeds the soil a little,
07:22and gives a little guard against the crawling pests, two goods in the one simple act.
07:29But here I must give you the one honest caution about using it,
07:34so mark it, for the source of this idea always says,
07:38use all you like on any plant with no harm, and that is not quite true.
07:44Orange peel is on the sour, acid side, as citrus is.
07:49So you use it in moderation, a light dressing, not great heaps of it piled on.
07:56A little does good.
07:57Too much, piled on heavy, could sour your soil more than some plants like.
08:04And so, as with the wood ash I told you of, only the other way around,
08:09you would go easy with it around the plants that want a sweeter soil,
08:13and you would be glad to use it around the plants that like it a touch sour.
08:18But for most plants, a light, sensible scatter now and again does nothing but good.
08:25Moderation is the whole of the caution.
08:28Light and sensible, not heaps.
08:31The second way to use it is as a spray,
08:34and this is chiefly for the pest discouraging,
08:37and it is a first cousin to the weed tea and the other steeped brews I have shown you.
08:42You take a few good spoonfuls of your orange peel powder,
08:46and you stir it into a couple quarts of warm water,
08:49and you let it sit and steep for the better part of an hour,
08:53so that the good citrus oils and the feeding leach out of the powder and into the water.
08:59Then you strain out the solid bits through a cloth,
09:02and you have a citrus water you can put in any spray bottle or sprinkler,
09:06and you spray that lightly over your plants,
09:09on the leaves, both the tops and the undersides,
09:13for it is on the undersides of the leaves
09:15that the aphids and the little soft pests love to gather,
09:19so you must get up under there.
09:21That citrus water, with its sharp smell and its bitter oils,
09:26helps make the leaves a less welcome place for the aphids and the soft crawlers,
09:32discouraging them from settling in.
09:34And a bit of the feeding goes on to the plant besides.
09:38Now again, honestly, this is a help and a discouragement,
09:42not a poison and not a guarantee.
09:44It works best used regularly,
09:48a light spray every week or so through the season,
09:51keeping up the discouragement,
09:53rather than one spray expected to solve everything.
09:56And use it weak and light,
09:59especially on tender young plants,
10:01for strong fresh citrus oil,
10:03sprayed heavy,
10:05could irritate very tender new leaves,
10:07so a gentle, weak spray is the wise way.
10:11A weak spray, regular and light,
10:14on the tops and bottoms of the leaves.
10:17That is the way of it.
10:19Now there are a couple of other honest goods in the orange peel
10:22worth a plain mention.
10:24As that powder breaks down in your soil,
10:27it adds organic matter to the ground,
10:29the same as any rotting plant stuff does,
10:32and that helps to soften and lighten heavy soil,
10:36helps it hold its moisture,
10:38and feeds the good life in the ground,
10:40all to the slow bettering of your soil over time.
10:44And it is commonly said, too,
10:46that the natural oils in the citrus peel
10:49help a plant fend off some of the fungus troubles,
10:52and there may well be something in that,
10:54though I will put it to you honestly
10:56as a thing commonly told,
10:59rather than a sure cure,
11:00for I would not over-promise you.
11:03Take it as a likely small bonus,
11:06not a guarantee.
11:07Let me say a plain word about
11:09who profits from you not knowing this,
11:11and it is no dark scheme.
11:14There are bottles and bags sold at the garden store,
11:17plant boosters and natural pest sprays
11:20and soil conditioners,
11:22and folks pay dear for them
11:24and buy them again and again.
11:26And there is no money at all
11:28in a man learning that the orange peels
11:31he throws in the trash every week
11:33would give him a bit of free feeding
11:35and a bit of free pest help,
11:37made in his own kitchen for nothing.
11:40Nobody earns a wage teaching you
11:42that your garbage is a garden tool.
11:45There is no bottle to sell
11:47in a dried orange peel.
11:48So the plain old thrift
11:51of using up every last thing
11:53which our grandparents practiced
11:55without a second thought
11:56quietly slips away
11:58and folks toss their peels
12:00in the bin of a morning
12:01and buy a bottle of plant tonic
12:03of an afternoon,
12:05never seeing that the one
12:06might have done the work of the other.
12:08It is not hidden from you.
12:10It is only never taught,
12:12for your peel jar
12:14is the store's small, steady loss.
12:16The money runs toward the bottle
12:18on the shelf
12:19and away from the peel
12:21in your own hand
12:22and it always has.
12:24So there is the whole honest truth of it.
12:27Save your orange and citrus peels
12:29instead of throwing them out.
12:31Dry them fully
12:32in the sun for free
12:34or by the warm stove
12:36until they are crisp and brittle.
12:38Crush them by hand
12:40with a rolling pin or a mortar
12:42into a rough powder
12:43and keep it in a dry jar.
12:46Then use it either dry,
12:48scattered light
12:49about the base of your plants
12:50to feed the soil
12:52and discourage the crawling pests.
12:54Going easy for it
12:56is a touch acid.
12:57Or, as a weak citrus water,
13:00sprayed light and regular
13:01on the tops and undersides
13:03of the leaves
13:04to help keep the soft pests off.
13:07Expect from it
13:08an honest, gentle help,
13:10a real one,
13:11and not a miracle,
13:13and use it as one good tool
13:15among the many.
13:16Do that
13:17and every orange you eat
13:19leaves behind it
13:20a little something
13:21for your garden
13:22for nothing at all.
13:24Tell me down in the comments
13:25what county you garden in
13:27and whether you have ever
13:28put your orange
13:29or citrus peels
13:30to use in the garden
13:32and how it served you,
13:33for I would dearly love to know.
13:35And if your own family
13:37had an old kitchen scrap trick
13:39for the garden,
13:40some peel or shell
13:41or grounds they saved and used,
13:44share it down there,
13:45for those small old thrifts
13:47are just the sort of knowledge
13:49worth passing on.
13:50Next time out here,
13:52I want to show you
13:53how to build a proper compost pile
13:55the old way,
13:56layer upon layer,
13:57for the orange peel
13:59and every other bit
14:00of kitchen scrap you have
14:01finds its very best
14:03and fullest use
14:04in a good compost heap
14:06where it rots down
14:07with all the rest
14:09into the richest feeding there is.
14:12This powder is one fine use
14:14for a peel,
14:15but the compost pile
14:16is the great one
14:17and it is past time
14:19I showed you.
14:20It is the foundation
14:21under all of it.
14:23But for now,
14:24remember this.
14:25There is a bit of good
14:26hiding in near everything
14:28we are quick to throw away
14:30if we only take the moment
14:31to see it.
14:32The peel,
14:33the shell,
14:34the trimming,
14:35the thing we call garbage,
14:37so much of it
14:38is feeding and help
14:40and use,
14:41waiting on a hand
14:42wise enough to save it.
14:44The old people
14:45knew that in their bones
14:46and wasted almost nothing,
14:49and their gardens
14:50and their households
14:51were the richer for it.
14:53The people who built this country
14:55with their hands
14:56knew that,
14:56and we are only just starting
14:58to remember it.
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