Rice and Baking Soda Water for Plants is a cost-effective, natural fertilizer for your garden. Revitalize your plants with this DIY hack!
The mixture of rice water and baking soda as a natural fertilizer can breathe life back into your plants when done right! It’s a simple DIY gardening recipe that is cost-effective, free of harmful chemicals, and provides multiple plant benefits. Here’s how to make it!
Benefits of Rice Water and Baking Soda for Plants
Rice water contains plenty of starch that plants use to store energy for growth. Ideal for both indoor and outdoor plants, the starch in rice water improves the soil structure, microbial activity, and drainage, creating a more hospitable environment for plant roots.
Baking soda is perfect for reducing soil acidity, keeping pests at bay, and preventing fungal infections. Ideal for herbs, houseplants, like pothos, peace lily, and philodendrons, and vegetables like carrots, beets, and asparagus that thrive in less acidic conditions, it also acts as a natural fungicide and deters pests like slugs and snails.
When combined in the right proportions, this rice water and baking soda recipe acts as a natural fertilizer that is rich in phosphorus, potassium, and many plant elements like iron and manganese that promote healthy plant growth and a safer alternative to chemical pesticides and fungicides.
How to Make Rice and Baking Soda Water
Things You’ll Need
- Uncooked rice
- 1/4 teaspoon (a small pinch) of baking soda
- Water
Steps:
- In a bowl or container, add a cup of uncooked rice to 3 cups of water. You can increase the ingredients as you need, but make sure the ratio remains 1:3.
- Cover the bowl and let the rice soak in the water overnight (12 hours) so the nutrients and starches from the rice have plenty of time to release and dissolve.
- Now, in the day, strain the rice water through a sieve or fine strainer into a bowl to separate the rice from the liquid.
- After separating, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to this rice water and stir well to dissolve it. Do not use too much baking soda; it will increase sodium levels in the soil, which isn’t good for plant health. Then, pour the prepared solution into a spray bottle for easy application.
Note: Baking soda helps improve the disease and pest-fighting ability and soil-balancing properties of the solution; don’t skip it.
How to Use Rice and Baking Soda Water on Plants
The baking soda and rice water combo is as easy to use as making it. You can use a spray bottle to spritz the mixture you’ve prepared around the base of the plants. This will nourish the roots and keep the soil healthy.
Your water mix should be fresh and not more than two days old. Prepare only as much as you need and use it within a day or two to prevent fermentation. Use about a cup of rice and baking soda water and pour it near the plant’s base so it can get to the roots.
Do this once in about two to four weeks. Rice water is fine, and you can apply it every couple of weeks, but with baking soda mixed in it, a safe approach would be to use it once a month.
Avoid spraying directly on the leaves, especially in the sun, as baking soda might cause slight burns. And remember, if your medium is amply alkaline, do not use baking soda, as it will disturb the pH balance.
