Can Homemade Acorn Fertilizer Be as Effective as Natural Fertilizer?

Overview

Many acorns fall to the ground unused and end up wasted. This project set out to see if a homemade fertilizer made from acorns could work as well as natural fertilizers like bonemeal. The hypothesis was that an acorn-based fertilizer would be just as effective and more acidic, which can benefit certain plants. The mixture used consisted of 50% acorns, 25% peanuts, and 25% cashews, with black oak acorns providing phosphorus and the nuts supplying nitrogen and potassium. Bermuda grass seeds were chosen because they thrive in soil with a pH between 5.5 and 7.5. Six pots were prepared: three received bonemeal fertilizer, and three were given the acorn-nut mix. The type of fertilizer served as the independent variable, while the dependent variables were soil pH and the area covered by the grass. Controls included Bermuda grass grown with no fertilizer and with bonemeal. To prepare, the nuts were ground, mixed into soil at an initial pH of 7.0, and Bermuda grass seeds were planted. For the bonemeal pots, layers of bonemeal and soil were alternated before planting the seeds. Ultimately, the results did not support the hypothesis. The pots with acorn fertilizer showed about 33% grass coverage on average. The soil pH in these pots fell from around 7.2 before planting to 6.8 after, a decrease of roughly 30%. In the bonemeal pots, soil pH shifted only slightly from 7.2 to 7.1. The findings suggest that homemade acorn fertilizer is comparable in effectiveness to bonemeal.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Plant Biology (Junior Division) · Entry J-18-08

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