Sorry @Dovefromabove, l meant rather than apply seaweed feed to the leaves, l would be better off applying tomato food the roots of the rose bushes ? I need more tea 😁. Thanks @Fairygirl
Dove has summed it up very well, but I understand the confusion, some seaweed products contain feed as well. E.g. the leading brand of tomato feed is seaweed based. There are other complications. There are different ways of extracting the nutrients out of seaweed, and a big debate about which is best. The leading brand of seaweed feeds uses a chemical extraction method. The organic catalogue sells a range where the seaweed is processed by heat. All I know is the Organic brand is much more concentrated (10ml in 5 litres) . I am a big fan of seaweed feeds and tonic and use them extensively, you can get a granular version as a slow release fertiliser to use as a base dressing. Things like Brassicas and Celery seem to respond particularly well to it.
Just as an aside, a couple of years ago I fed my roses with granular tomato feed instead of rose feed, they were in almost identical packets in the shed. When I realised what I had done I looked at the rose packet and they had the exact same NPK and trace elements so interchangeable.....a very good marketing ploy, i'm much wiser now!
@AnniD If you used granular rose food at the beginning of the season, you can repeat it after the first flush. You don't need to do anything now. If you want to give them a slight boost, you can use diluted tomato food or seaweed. Both would be good for the roses, they provide different nutrients (tomato food is mostly NPK and seaweed has a lot of trace elements).
I also think of seaweed as more of a tonic/trace nutrient source than a feed as such.
@floralies funny you should say that, I went to see what rose food I could buy today for my second feed at the GC as fertilisers in general seem to be scarce right now. A local brand had granular rose food with a the perfect NPK balance + other elements roses need. I also checked out their all-purpose. The ingredients and quantities were exactly the same but the all-purpose was exactly half the price!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
The label will always tell you the relative amounts of nitrogen phosphorous and potassium in the mix. You might also want to add micronutrients such as manganese, boron etc. Again the label will tell you if they are included. Seaweed fert is excellent for micronutrients. Some feeds are instantly available to plants, others released over a period of time. Price varies hugely. I use mainly growmore because its cheap and contains N P and K. Then the cheapest liquid feed I can get for containers in summer. Plentiful organic matter will enable your plants to take up the fertilizer you provide. Poorly growing plants, too cold, wet, wrong pH, too dark etc will not be able to make use of your fertilizer so get the growing conditions right first. Everything in my garden and both allotments gets the same food regime.
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I need more tea 😁.
Thanks @Fairygirl
There are other complications. There are different ways of extracting the nutrients out of seaweed, and a big debate about which is best. The leading brand of seaweed feeds uses a chemical extraction method. The organic catalogue sells a range where the seaweed is processed by heat. All I know is the Organic brand is much more concentrated (10ml in 5 litres) . I am a big fan of seaweed feeds and tonic and use them extensively, you can get a granular version as a slow release fertiliser to use as a base dressing. Things like Brassicas and Celery seem to respond particularly well to it.
If you used granular rose food at the beginning of the season, you can repeat it after the first flush. You don't need to do anything now.
If you want to give them a slight boost, you can use diluted tomato food or seaweed. Both would be good for the roses, they provide different nutrients (tomato food is mostly NPK and seaweed has a lot of trace elements).
@floralies funny you should say that, I went to see what rose food I could buy today for my second feed at the GC as fertilisers in general seem to be scarce right now. A local brand had granular rose food with a the perfect NPK balance + other elements roses need. I also checked out their all-purpose. The ingredients and quantities were exactly the same but the all-purpose was exactly half the price!
Some feeds are instantly available to plants, others released over a period of time.
Price varies hugely. I use mainly growmore because its cheap and contains N P and K. Then the cheapest liquid feed I can get for containers in summer.
Plentiful organic matter will enable your plants to take up the fertilizer you provide. Poorly growing plants, too cold, wet, wrong pH, too dark etc will not be able to make use of your fertilizer so get the growing conditions right first. Everything in my garden and both allotments gets the same food regime.