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Plant Food
Laura Turner 2
Posts: 99
in Plants
I'm a newbie and no nothing about plant feed. Is there a multipurpose feed for all plants or do some need special stuff? Which feed do you recommend and do you have any tips on using it? Thanks!
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For hanging baskets, tubs window boxes, I use Tomorite, and for tomatoes.
I'm no expert but I've just put down a layer of chicken manure pellets on my beds. It whiffed a bit for a day or two but the smell has gone, and it seems to have kept the cats off too.
I bougth the big tub £9.99 from Homebase.
I'm no expert but I've just layed down some chicken manure pellets from Homebase. £9.99 for a big tub. They get great reviews. The smell was a bit off putting for a day or too but after watering in it's gone. It's kept the cats off the beds too.
There's not a great deal of food value in chicken pellets but it's a good soil improver, as your home made compost is.
Thanks Lyn. Would I be better off with fish and bone meal?
Do you really need to feed your soil, if it's in good condition, it will replenish itself, I don't usually feed the borders, but maybe I will put a bit of bone meal around this year. I usually just make a lot of compost through the year and put that on, the soil knows what it needs and will compensate.
When we dug out a row of old coinfers, all I put on the soil then was the chicken pellets, nothing else, the plants all grew very well, sometimes there a bit too much feeding of soil than it really needs.
having said that, there are a lot of people on here that will say otherwise and feed with fish blood and bone, or bonemeal every year.
Thanks Lyn. I feel I've neglected the beds for a couple of years in terms of nutrients so wanted to secure any investment in bedding plants with a bit of tlc early on. My compost bin is only half ready so I was going to leave that alone this year, or for most of it anyway.
I think it's predominantly clay based soil and after the heavy rains we had ove winter, need a good turning over and a feed.
I use blood fish and bonemeal before planting in the garden.
I use phostrogen for feeding tomatoes and anything else in pots that flowers.
Anything that is an acid lover gets a dose of miracle grow for acid lovers if I remember about once a year or when its looking a bit anaemic