[Neil Doncaster]

Hello there

which do you recommend as a general feed for  all types of plantsIs it growmore or blood fish and bone.I would be interested in what you all think
                                         Cheers Neil Doncaster

[Sparkyrog]

It depends on your outlook .Organic or non organic ! I choose not to use pesticides but not that fussed about inorganic fertilersers

[Hampshire Hog]

I sprinkle chicken poo pellets onto beds when preparing them for most veg. Use grow more for a quick boost.
Don't use blood fish and bone personally but it is ok as slow release fertiliser I tend to associate it with roses for some reason??

Cheers HH

[Kristen]

I think it is worth having some high Nitrogen fertiliser for leafy greens, some high potash fertiliser (e.g. Tomato Fertiliser) for things when they are fruiting, and then a general "growmore" type (basically the N, P and K figures on the packet are all the same/similar) for anything else.

That apart the fertiliser can be organic or not ... or made from Nettles (Nitrogen), Comfrey (Potash) ... or something else!

personally I always plant with a few chicken manure pellets in the planting hole, but then use granular fertiliser for general boost (as it is taken up relatively quickly by the plants) and then a liquid Phosphate feed for anything (like Tomatoes) once it starts fruiting

[moose]

Like many others I have given up using BFB because of foxes. They seem to give up on the chicken pellets after a few tries, guess they don't like the taste. I use growmore along with comfrey and nettle tea.

[ptarmigan]

I use BFB for slow growing perennials - or for things that are going to be in for a while (PSB etc).   But only a bit on those.  I too associate it with roses but put it on asparagus too.

Generally comfrey tea, little bit of growmore, chicken pellets and/or seaweed.   

No fox problem!

[GreyScales]

Blood, fish and bone is my go to general purpose fertiliser when preparing a bed or potting on a plant, I then have a general purpose and tomato organic liquid fertiliser for regular feeds depending on the plant.

I like that BF&B is a slow release fertiliser as I know the plants will be fed over the next month and so without too much attention on my part. It's a lower risk of burning the roots like a synthetic fertiliser, it's less likely to cause soft growth like a faster acting feed, the rain is less likely to wash it all out as it's slowly breaking down.

A good deal of this is theory on my part of course 

[Goosegirl]

BFB for planting, Maxicrop liquid feed or chicken manure pellets as a boost for leafy greens and Maxicrop tomato feed for anything that flowers like toms, peas and beans.

[BabbyAnn]

If you just want to up the NPK (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous) then Growmore is fine - the nutrients will disperse in the soil and are available for plants (it is recommended to rake the Growmore in the soil about 2 weeks before sowing/planting).  BFB as mentioned is slow release because it has to break down in the soil first before plants can use the nutrients - when growing from seed direct, seedlings don't need fertilizer so the initial nutrient load will not be critical.

Depending on your soil type such as sandy soil, you may need "micro-nutrients" (calcium, iron, manganese, boron etc) which will not be in Growmore - if you dig in lots of compost and manure, these are locked in the plant material and become available as it rots down.  Some sources are richer than others such as from seaweed, comfrey and nettle leaves which you can compost down or make tea and foliar feed instead.

Some plants need more of one nutrient such as calcium or magnesium regardless of soil type - crushed egg shells (or grind it to powder) in the compost can provide calcium, you may need to get some Epsom salts for magnesium when growing tomatoes and potatoes (all plants need magnesium but they seem to demand more) 

For me, Growmore is cheap and provides a boost of the main nutrients especially after a wet winter before spring sowing and planting.  I've had foxes on my plot in the past so this put me off using BFB and chicken manure but (fingers crossed) I think they've moved away.  From an ecological point of view, a lot of commercial fertilizers use materials and energy which are not very green so ideally I'd like to shift to a more "organic" way of soil improvement.

[Dave NE]

I never knew how much gas and oil went into commercial fertilisers until I watched Farm for the future, it has had a big impact on the way I think, I still have some old growmore and some blue stuff in a box but when they are gone, that's it, comfrey/nettle and I might even check out dandylion which has deep roots, I have a woodstove for ash and all our eggshells are blitzed into powder, Dave

[Kristen]

I never knew how much gas and oil went into commercial fertilisers until I watched Farm for the future, it has had a big impact on the way I think, I still have some old growmore and some blue stuff in a box but when they are gone, that's it

I'm not as single minded as that:

We grow as much of our vegetables as we can, and use Comfrey and Nettle tea and lots of animal manure sourced locally.  But ...

I think it is far more important that I use a fossil fuel based fertiliser to increase / guarantee my yield, rather than me having to resort to buying vegetables at the supermarket. It is much cheaper (I think?? and including all environmental and production costs) to get a 10kg tub of fertiliser here than it is for me to buy XXX kgs of additional vegetables over the course of a season including, presumably, some specific journeys to the shops which would otherwise have been avoided.

But I have NO idea how the maths stacks up, in practice.

[Dave NE]

Whatever works for you Kristen go for it, I am using this year as an experiment to see just what I can get using home made fertiliser, I don't need to rely on my crops as you do so if I have failures so be it, cheers Dave

[Kristen]

I'll be interested to hear how you get on ... always keen to try to reduce my "Carbon Footprint", or whatever the in-phrase of the moment is ...

[ARPoet]

I will only apply growmore when i know its gonna rain. But I do put a couple of grains in the hole before tansplanting cabbages... but water in it well before hand.