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Best feed/product
bekkie hughes
Posts: 5,294
in Talkback
What feed etc have you found to be best, what would you reccomend? Its nice to know what other gardeners do 
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I use Fish Blood & Bone - a balanced slow release fertiliser suitable for growing organically.
I also use chicken manure pellets on the veg patch in the spring where I'm going to grow leafy veg.
I use a liquid tomato feed on toms, courgettes, squashes etc when they're beginning to set fruit. I find this is also good for roses and clematis. I also use a specialist clematis fertiliser on the climbers (roses, clems, honeysuckle) a couple of times a year as they can need a bit of a boost.
I dig as much well rotted farmyard manure as I can into the veg patch early each spring and mulch everywhere with homemade garden compost.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
intereseted to read clematis feed for roses dove when do you use this and do you still use bfb on these?
I use chicken pellets as a general fertiliser on everything in Spring. Bonemeal when I'm planting anything new (it's good for root growth).
Tomato fertiliser same as Dove, Liquid seaweed fertiliser on fruit and most other things in pots, liquid Rose fertiliser on the one rose I have plus the Clematis and Honeysuckle.
Liquid Ericaceous fertiliser on acid loving plants and Blueberries.
Spring and Autumn I'll mulch with my garden compost.
Rosemummy - my roses are planted in front of clematis so to me it makes sense to treat them both the same as the fertiliser would spread and treat both plants anyway. I use BF&B on all the herbaceous perennial beds in the spring and late summer and again in the autumn before mulching and tidying the garden for the winter.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
ok so bfb 3 times yearly? sorry if i'm being a pain and being thick , i'm rubbish at feeding
That's just what I do - I know some people use it more frequently.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I only use BFB in Spring, on the veg plot and around herbaceous plants. The blood gives a quick dose of nitrogen, the Fish meal feed feeds through the summer, the bonemeal breaks down slowly and feeds roots and gives a strong plant for winter. Many plants, if you feed late in the season, you get soft growth which is more prone to fungal rots over the winter and frost damage.
Plants in pots need feeding with a soluble fertiliser like phostrogen or they become nutrient deficient very quickly. You could use osmocote which will last for 12 weeks.
Fish, blood and bone and comfrey feed. I haven't found the need for anything else since I started using this combination about 20 years ago. I grow a large variety of fruit & veg, plus greenhouse crops of many kinds.
I generally dig in well rotted manure and some compost in spring, where appropriate. I think it's the root veg - carrots parsnips etc that don't like it freshly manures ( please correct me if I'm wrong, I usually look it up in books each spring ) Then mix in some B F & B a couple of weeks before planting. Then as things establish a weekly or twice weekly feed of liquid nettle feed to put in top growth. Then as things establish and need a different mix of nutrients, move on to the comfrey feed for flowers and fruit.
As things get bigger after 8 weeks or so of being planted out I give a light top dressing of B F & B again as a slow release boost.
As for the flowers I'm a bit lazy and they usually only get a B F & B in the spring and a top dress of compost if available.
Great thread by the way ! Really look forward to other people's answers !