Crop feeding

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

Now that the lovely, longer evenings are here, we are getting prepared for the growing season really stepping up a notch!

In the GYO office, we have been discussing feeding crops and we want to know - do you give anything extra to your plants? If so, do you tend to go for shop-bought types, or home-made, natural ones?

Answers may be edited and published in the June issue of GYO.

Laura

[Bren In Pots]

I add Blood fish and bone to my beds about a couple of weeks before planting then after that its comfrey tea for fruiting crops like tomatoes, strawbs, and chillis with nettle tea for brassicas and other leafy crops.

[Bumberling Brian]

Likewise I use fish,blood & bone prior to planting out. After that I have used 'nettle tea' and 'manure tea'. This year I purchased some comfrey with the idea of setting up a small bed to enable me to make 'comfrey tea' would rather try to use natural organic than shop brought chemically concocted .


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[mothhawk]

I spread the contents of the compost bin around the garden every spring, and then through the year I give plants a foliar feed of seaweed solution if they need a boost, as seaweed is a sustainable source of nutrients, being commercially farmed.

I don't use fish blood and bonemeal because I don't agree with scooping hundreds of tons of fish out of the ocean food-chain just to be ground up for my garden, but I do occasionally use plain bonemeal if I'm planting a new shrub or fruit bush. Diluted milk as a foliar feed seems to prevent mildew so when I rinse out the milk bottles, the rinse water is tossed over the peas and cues.

[Mr Gardener]

I haven't a clue about the sciencey side of gardening, which includes fertiliser, soil conditioning, etc so I tend to follow the wonderful advice of forum members and / or the wider internet to get my ideas and then stick to brands I know in terms of picking the product off the shelf.

[bretty666]

Last year i got some of the liquid feed from the shops and some granules but i was a bit unhappy with it and especially worried about the chemicals in them touching the produce form my familys consumption so im going for the nettle liquid fertiliser which i jave never tried but being the impatient man i am i found a way to speed the process up ..for info on that read my thread titled "good idea or not" in the vegging out forum. will be interesting to see what the long term members of this site use as i see them as good advice resources!

[cheops]

I feed the soil regularly. Last autumn I spread a lot of rotted horse manure and dug it in where possible. I buy large bags of chicken manure and Growmore from my local allotment shop and spread often. And I have a relation who keeps pigeons. Their droppings in the pigeon shed is solid wet and like clay. He gives me bags of it which I dilute in water and spread with the watering can everywhere every two weeks from early spring to late autumn.

[Mikey]

Shame there wasn't an option for both Laura, I buy feed and make my own as a lot of others probably do too. You might not get a very accurate response to this survey, as it only gives you either or option.

I buy tomato feed and potato fertiliser, I buy lime not sure if you could technically call it a feed if you are not a brassica. I make nettle home brew, and bindweed broth, I also use wee which is kind of an activator rather than a feed, but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Mikey,

I have edited one of the options on the poll to reflect growers who may use a mixture of shop-bought and home-made - thanks for bringing this to my attention

Laura

[mothhawk]

Hi Mikey,

I have edited one of the options on the poll to reflect growers who may use a mixture of shop-bought and home-made - thanks for bringing this to my attention

Laura

Thank you - I didn't vote yesterday 'cos there was no option for both, so I've voted now.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Growing purely in containers of one sort or another I am forced to feed during the growing season. Again due to lack of space I have to buy in my fertilisers.

I also save my compost from year to year as I use over a 1000ltrs to fill my containers, this has to be freshened up ready for use. I start with a neutral 7-7-7 fertiliser like growmore, when the plant start growing I change to a high nitrogen feed to boost green growth and finally change to a high potash feed to help with fruit growth. By fruit I mean everything from strawberries to potatoes.

Potty

[Penellype]

I feed the soil with my own compost and my pots with bought liquid feed (Tomorite for tomatoes, Miracle Grow for anything thats staying in a pot for a long time). I don't use anything like as much feed as the packets recommend though as I think this makes plants soft and vulnerable.

[planetologist]

I follow the advice: feed your soil, not your crops. In fact I've taken it a step further: I feed my crops to me than I feed me to my soil ( Transition Norwich Blog: Alchemy ). Well, that's a step back as well as a step further, because that's how everyone and everything has always done it, except for a few fossil fuel dependent human beings for a few decades, and not for much longer. So no, I don't feed my plants.

[Spunky]

I'm the same as pots so have to fertilise regularly with shop bought fertilisers but This will be my first year of growing comfrey and I'll be hunting some nettles down and have a go at making nettle tea

[Florence Fennel]

I buy chicken manure pellets and blood, fish and bone, but I make my own comfrey and borage liquid feed and nourish the beds with my home made compost. I used to buy tomato feed, but last year I used my home made brew on my plants and the harvest was abundant, so it must work and it's free!