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Fish/blood/bone

Chris MasonChris Mason Posts: 159
in Fruit & veg

Hello, I'm a new gardener here and a new member so please excuse my ignorance.  

 

 Im planning on buying a 200L galvanised water trough, putting lots of holes on the bottom and filling it with 70L composted horse poop and the rest with organic soil (130L) and mixing it all up.

A few people have also recommended I add fish/blood/bone.  

My questions are:  

Will this work? (i plan on growing: strawberries, red currents and black currents)

 How much and how often shoud I add the fish fertilizer?  (i was told 1 tablespoon per 5L or soil) 

 

-thank you 

Posts

  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    About right Chris, welcome by the way, you should have some great fruit from an arrangement like that.

    On here no question is too daft or silly so ask away, everyone is helpful and if you don't get an answer straight away someone will be along and know the answer.

    Happy gardening.

  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    Hi chris, i think thats the one which aids root gtowth, there will be instructions on the box, so dont worry too much. Try to add some topsoil to your mix or you will find it dissapears very quickly as it is still decomposing, it wont hold moisture too well either. Also foxes are very partial to blood fish and bone and will dig holes to try and find it (just incase you have them around). But yes it will work, very well i would imagine, you might still be supprised how quickly it dries out tho. Please post pics when its done image
  • Chris MasonChris Mason Posts: 159

     

     

    I did consider the soil drying out so don't worry :P I'll either do as you two reccomned and add a top soil or I'll buy a small plant that will spread across the soil doing the same job as the topsoil. (I'll see how things go) 

    I should have also specified that I don't really have any intentions of placing the fertilizer on the top of the soil, I plan on mixing this in with the soil as well.

    Yeah, after doing a lot of research on a good fertiliser I read a lot of stories of cats, dogs and wild life digging around the plants looking for the stuff, the only idea I have is place a little on my grass and see what they do. 

    Also, I've just found a big problem, I just read a article which says "...red currents should be plant 4 feet apart..." the trough I'm using is four foot long and I'm going to be placing three of them in there.... Thoughts? If it means anything the article praises these for being very hardy plants.

     

    -thanks again

     

  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    Ive only grown blackcurrants, they do become big plants, but will also need regular pruning, i think 3 would be the limit, but the wont be too big when you start and if they are too big after a couple of years, you can take one out.

    Remember as useful as these articals are, they have to advise "best practise", most of us just cant follow it to the word image
  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    Scuse spelling- im shattered!image
  • Chris MasonChris Mason Posts: 159

    I can read it fine lol, I plan on doing all of the above for the first year, if everything goes well and it's successful then I'll buy a second trough and I'll do the same but I'll grow strawberries (me and my neice love them) I guess when I buy the second one I could move the third plant to the second trough just to easies treasure on the first two (if that makes sense?) 

    I'll make sure to upload pictures when things start moving along. Thank you so much for your help! 

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