You can make your own feeds @josusa47. Nettles, either composted or made into a smelly concentrated tea you dilute, are full of nitrogen so good for leafy plants. Comfrey is high in potash and so on and is very good for roses and tomatoes and other flowering and fruiting plants. Horsetail makes a good fungicide.
As for commercial stuff, what about seaweed based feeds?
Definitely not Growmore and the like - petrochemicals as @Dovefromabove rightly says.
I try and buy only cotton, linen, natural wool for my sewing projects and clothes and even use bamboo and cotton wadding for quilting but it seems that even cotton has an eco price as the irrigation needed to produce it in ex Soviet satellites is ruining the surrounding flora, fauna, soil, rivers, lakes, fishing, lives and livelihoods.............
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Compost will do most of what you need, I don't use artificial fertiliser or animal byproducts (though I would use manure if I could get it) if you need a nitrogen boost you can always water your plants directly as it were. If your garden is overlooked it may be best to do that inside and then discretely pour it out.
It is here. Septic tanks get emptied into a big council run composting plant along with green waste. When it has been duly processed it is then used on council plantations and can be bought by locals as a sol improver.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I don't use artificial fertiliser or animal byproducts (though I would use manure if I could get it)
That's one of the problems faced by some people tho - manure IS an animal by product like it or not. It's not that long ago that human manure was used on growing crops. Probably still is if farmers/water companies have any sense. Living organisms produce waste - it should be used until we can come up with a plan which stops all of us pooping every day of our lives
The reason a lot of vegans prefer not to use manure (unless it comes from rescued animals) is that the money usually goes back into propping up animal exploitation.
If you can grow or collect nettles and comfrey you can make your own liquid feeds by steeping the leaves in buckets or bins of water. I believe nettle is rich in nitrogen and comfrey in potash, but I haven't tried either myself. Apparently they whiff a bit though.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I compost, use homegrown comfrey, forage nettles on wasteground, use seaweed meal and liquid, seaweed off the beach, and "liquid gold".
It's just that I've been reading about how to prune my cherry tree, and the advice included feeding with BFB. I wondered which non-animal feed would be the nearest equivalent. I'll just give it a bit of everything!
BFB is a balanced 5-5-5.5/6 fertiliser plus other elements like iron from the blood and calcium from the bone components. So the question I would ask myself would be, what does it provide that I am not already providing?
Well you have the nitrogen covered with your own ‘liquid gold’ plus nettles, potassium with the comfrey, lots of other trace elements from seaweed, you probably mulch with compost or other organic matter to improve soil structure and feed soil microorganisms and all of the above will also do that. Your plants will soon tell you if you have a deficiency of iron, calcium or anything else. If so you can use the appropriate mineral in the form of powdered rock, sustainably mined of course. Mined minerals are natural inorganic substances (‘inorganic’ is not always ‘bad’). So I guess that only leaves phosphorus to encourage healthy root growth and rock dust is a major source of that too, plus it lasts longer in the soil than animal sources of it.
If your plants are generally happy and healthy, I would say they are already well provided for and you don’t need to feed anything extra when pruning your cherry tree.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
As for commercial stuff, what about seaweed based feeds?
Definitely not Growmore and the like - petrochemicals as @Dovefromabove rightly says.
I try and buy only cotton, linen, natural wool for my sewing projects and clothes and even use bamboo and cotton wadding for quilting but it seems that even cotton has an eco price as the irrigation needed to produce it in ex Soviet satellites is ruining the surrounding flora, fauna, soil, rivers, lakes, fishing, lives and livelihoods.............
Its all about reducing demand.
If your plants are generally happy and healthy, I would say they are already well provided for and you don’t need to feed anything extra when pruning your cherry tree.