Cake fertilizer has deep fertility, but it must be fermented before it can be used for farming or growing flowers.

A friend asked whether rapeseed, soybean, and peanut cake meal can be directly spread into farmland as organic fertilizer. Although previous articles by Science Xingnong did not specifically address this question, their answers about farmyard manure also mentioned this: it must be thoroughly decomposed! Undecomposed farmyard manure contains many parasitic eggs and pathogens, and the organic matter in it is in organic form, so it is not readily available and cannot be well utilized by plants.

Cake fertilizer is naturally no exception. Although cake fertilizer is generally made by pressing the seeds of oil crops and contains relatively few parasitic eggs or bacteria, incompletely decomposed cake fertilizer still contains lactic acid and acetic acid, which can damage plant roots, stems, or seeds. After fermentation and decomposition, the organic matter in it is degraded into small-molecule substances, making it easy for plants to absorb and utilize, with fast fertilizer efficiency and high utilization efficiency. The fermented organic matter can also improve soil biological activity and improve soil structure, helping to increase yields.

Having said so much, let us now introduce some methods for fermenting cake fertilizer.

Traditional fermentation

A common method of fermenting cake fertilizer in rural areas is to pile the cake meal together and then mix it evenly with water. Basically, mix it at a ratio of 100 jin of cake to 20 jin of water. First mix the cake evenly, and note that too much water will prevent fermentation, while too little will also make it difficult to ferment well. Basically, it should reach the point where it forms a ball when squeezed by hand and falls apart when the hand is opened. After mixing evenly, pile the cake meal into a heap, preferably covering and sealing it with plastic film. After four or five days, open the film and turn the compost once, until it is no longer sticky and clumped together and its color has a reddish tinge, which means it has fully decomposed.

After fermentation is complete, spread it thin and dry it in the sun. After drying, it can be stored, or it can be applied directly as fertilizer without drying.

Fermentation with microbial strains

There are now some fermentation microbial agents on the market. Generally speaking, these strains have undergone biological screening, and their fermentation efficiency is much higher than traditional fermentation. That is, during fermentation, mix some microbial agent into the cake fertilizer to improve fermentation efficiency. However, the overall operation is basically similar to the above, so it will not be introduced further here.

The application of cake fertilizer still requires decomposition. It is best not to apply unfermented cake meal to farmland. Not only is its efficiency low, but some organic acids contained in it may also harm plants. Making fermented cake fertilizer is not troublesome either, and it can be used after decomposition for better results.

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