Can I feed my others with organic tomato and pepper food?

[bario1]

Dunno, my cats are pretty fat, but I use Iams to feed them.

[teakdesk]

Thanks KairdiffKid for clearing that little conundrum up .......

I'd like to say I understand, now .........

A simple mnemonic I learnt from someone is:

"NPK - Leave Rotten Fruit"

This easily reminds me of leaves, roots and fruit. So "NPK - Leave Rotten Fruit" means N for leaves, P for roots and K for fruit (and flowers).

Examples:
- Growmore is 7-7-7 so is equally good for leaves, roots and fruit/flowers
- Westland Tomato Feed is 6-3-10 so helps fruit/flowers more than leaves and does only a little for roots
- Organic Chicken Manure Pellets are typically 4-3-2 so are much better for leaves and do only a little for fruit/flowers
- Bone Meal fertiliser is often 3-9-0 and so works well for roots with a little bit for leaves and nothing for flowers


You would use these products for different plants and at different times for the plant's growth.

- A cabbage, for instance, is leaf based so chicken pellets are great but tomato feed is not.
- A small tomato seedling is all leaf so chicken pellets are great but as the plant grows and fruit/flowers start then tomato feed is preferred.
- A lawn in spring wants help to grow leaves so chicken pellets are good but in autumn a lawn needs to improve its roots for winter so bone meal is better

[AvidNewBee]

In general they all increment the Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (K) levels.
Cannot recall which is more beneficial for the assorted bits of a plant (Nitrogen is for foliage/leaves). So I would have said you will be increasing the available levels to the others simply by whatever the mad chemists have determined is optimum for a tomato.

The plant will not use whatever is best for flowers if it is not in flower or developing flowers but it will like the proportion that is for roots and leaves. There will exist the chance that getting a "flower" boost may confuse it a bit.

I use/have a more general plant food, in a box happily printed with "Plant Food" on the side. Everything gets that. Makes decisions easier.

One day I will find out what the difference between 7:7:7 and 14:14:14 is on these things. They are ratios and all reduce to 1:1:1.

That helps a lot, thank you I really didn't have a clue about the differences, let alone the reasons I really appreciate the way you have explained that , thanks again and here's to chemistry

[AvidNewBee]

A simple mnemonic I leant from someone is:

"NKP - Leave Rotten Fruit"

This easily reminds me of leaves, roots and fruit. So "NPK - Leave Rotten Fruit" means N for leaves, P for roots and K for fruit (and flowers).

Examples:
- Growmore is 7-7-7 so is equally good for leaves, roots and fruit/flowers
- Westland Tomato Feed is 6-3-10 so helps fruit/flowers more than leaves and does only a little for roots
- Organic Chicken Manure Pellets are typically 4-3-2 so are much better for leaves and do only a little for fruit/flowers
- Bone Meal fertiliser is often 3-9-0 and so works well for roots with a little bit for leaves and nothing for flowers


You would use these products for different plants and at different times for the plant's growth.

- A cabbage, for instance, is leaf based so chicken pellets are great but tomato feed is not.
- A small tomato seedling is all leaf so chicken pellets are great but as the plant grows and fruit/flowers start then tomato feed is preferred.
- A lawn in spring wants help to grow leaves so chicken pellets are good but in autumn a lawn needs to improve its roots for winter so bone meal is better

I am way more than 100% smarter (regarding plant food lol) after reading this thread :0) Thank you for sharing the knowledge

[Martin H]

A simple mnemonic I learnt from someone is:

"NPK - Leave Rotten Fruit"

This easily reminds me of leaves, roots and fruit. So "NPK - Leave Rotten Fruit" means N for leaves, P for roots and K for fruit (and flowers).

Yes, but now don't I need a mnemonic to remember that it's "NPK" and not "NKP"?

[Muddy_Boots]

Stuff

NPK is a simplification of what is going on. What the fertilizers contain are chemical compounds (synthetic or naturally occurring) - if your fertilizer contained pure potassium (K) you might be in for a surprise when you water it in (potassium is a metal that burns when exposed to water)! Pure N would be a pain as well as Nitrogen is a gas so good luck putting that in your growmore.

Potash is a compound so <100% will be actual potassium (it potassium + stuff), the K value states how much of it actually is potassium. Nowadays for commercial fertilizers it's a mined mineral called potassium chloride, so the NPK of pure "potash" is around 0-0-60 (60% potassium, 40% stuff ).

Bet you wish you'd never asked

MY HEAD HURTS