Feeding Crops

[Simon Kendrick]

I have had a search of the vine for an answer to this question I'm about to pose and not found any related thread. Apologise if there is one.

All my veg are on the allotment and doing fairly well (infact, I'm amazed - my 1st year and even my sweetcorn is growing, beginners look I reckon). However, what are peoples views on feeding crops? It takes me all my time to keep on top of the watering and the thought of having to pause to add feed really deters me.

Bascially, do you all feed or not? Have fellow viners tried half half (half fed, other half not fed) and what were the outcome come harvest time?

Your thoughts and advice are really much appreciated.

[Birdie Wife]

Hi Simon,

As always, it depends! Mostly on how you treat your soil before you start planting. If you have greedy plants that like rich soil, you'll get better results from digging in some well rotted FYM. For roots that like poor soil, don't worry about it. And for plants that are comfortable in the middle, get some slow release fertiliser granules or fish blood and bone if you don't want to spend all your time watering on fertiliser. You might not get such lush results and record-breaking veggies but you'll have a lot more time to enjoy it.

Hope this is helpful. Depends how you like to garden I suppose. I like to take a relaxed approach!

[Simon Kendrick]

Thanks for this Birdie Wife. I spread a load of cow manure during the winter over the plot and dug it all in well so it is a good quality soil. When I dig down into it, the soil has retained alot of moisture.

I'm with you, the relaxed approach is for me!!!

[sewer rat]

Simon
I feed my toms cukes and beans when they start to flower and produce their fruits - they just get Tomrite tomato food with every other watering. Don't bother with anything else unless it's looking under the weather and very poorly and pale.

[leona]

i spread calcified seaweed over the whole area a fortnight before planting and when i plant things i dig in a bit of compost or whatever in that area. i always feed my toms,peppers and strawberries but mainly thats because they all have the same food.

[JennieAtkinson]

I dig in alot of manure in the potatoe beds, but nothing else (four year rotation), and just add blood fish and bone before planting. (although now worried that this is not as green as I thought!). Seems to work ok. Feed tomatoe plants as Rat and try and give courgettes as much as I can being hungry feeders, and I like courgettes! But other than than not alot really. Again a fairly relaxed approach! Like BirdieWife, I don't have the biggest veg but more time to enjoy it all.

[pigletwillie]

As well as feeding the soil at the previous posts suggest, different crops require different regimes. I feed my tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and peppers/chillies with a 1/5th strength feed every time I water. I dont wait 7 days to eat and I find that my plants prefer it if they dont either. They much prefer much less more often.

I grow rafts of sweetcorn and stagger the planting by sowing 80 plants at 2-3week intervals. These are kept well watered and are given a liberal scattering of growmore or calcified seaweed when well established. Be carefull of overfeeding any crop as this will give you fabulous looking green plants with lots of leaf, but which are sappy, prone to insect infestation and produce a very small crop.

Other than watering, its best to keep plants a little hungry as this triggers the "I am going to die and must produce lots of fruit/seeds/crop before I do" that all plants have inbuilt in them, but not so hungry that they can't.