Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: viettaclark on September 27, 2011, 23:19
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I use fbb in the planting hole for all my plants and top up the raised beds every planting with compost, mushroom compost, top soil and sometimes chicken poo. I am definitely noticing there is a growth surge after about 3 months or so and assume it's the fbb that's slow release. It wouldn't matter if you kept using the fbb every 3 months all the year but it's easy to forget!
Does anyone know the release time for chicken poo, homemade compost and mushroom compost? I don't tend to use the pelleted stuff (Growmore etc) on the veg but that's slow release too.
Is it because certain things like nitrogen are more soluble so you get lots of growth first? If it's dry (like this year) does it just stay in the soil and activate when it rains?
I know soluble feeds work quickly because they're easy for the plant to absorb.
This is a fascinating subject but I'm no chemist/biologist!!!
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FBB is certainly a slow acting fertiliser.
It does take a while to actually be available' in the soil (I thought this was about 6 weeks) and then there is the time between when the plant begins to take up the nutrients and this shows in it s growth (Now this is about six weeks) So overall I guess it is about 3 months. I tend to use it a few weeks before planting, so the first few weeks are 'pre-plant' so it feels a faster effect, if you see what I mean.
Chickne poo pellets give out there goodies as they hit the damp soil, and again it is six weeks before this effects shows in the growth.
Home made compost has a huge variance of what is contains, but I always feel it is more of a soil structure creator, than a fertiliser (same with mushroom compost although this is limy as well of course) and so consider it nul and void in that respect and add FBB or chicken poo after it has settled in.
And yes, plants take up any nuriensts more slowly when the soil is dry as they are all water soluble. Nitrogen is not more soluble, it is just that as it benefots leafy top growth the effct tends to be more visible that anything else. Potassium for example needs to be used for flowers/fruit which is a slower process for the plant that growing leaves.
Hope that makes sense
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The only effects you are likely to see are from nitrogen which is very soluble and increase the size of leaf and makes them a darker green. Its effect is usually observed in crops like lettuce and brassicas about 10 days after application when things like sulphate of ammonia are used. Chicken poo has some nitrogen immediately available but some is slow release. Heavy rain can wash it down the soil profile out of reach of small plants.
Potash, phospate and others are much less soluble and a general health and good root systems are the result which nothing spectacular happening.
If a general fertilised id put on the surface the nitrogen will become available to the plants when it rains or you water. Phosphate and potash will remain unavailable unless hoed into the root zone. Hence the importance of working them into the seedbed.
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No dry fertiliser will work until it has been thoroughly wetted so it can physically break down and then dissolve its nutrients into the soil; this can take a long time in dry weather, especially if the fertiliser is merely sprinkled onto the surface and not hoed in.
Nitrogen and potassium salts are generally highly soluble and will be available first (and leached out the quickest), phosphates and calcium salts have relatively low solubility so will take longer to act but also last longer before they too get washed too deep into the soil to benefit shallow-rooted plants.
Any sort of compost helps to hold moisture within the soil, so it retains its nutrients for longer.
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Any sort of compost helps to hold moisture within the soil, so it retains its nutrients for longer.
except for multipurp, nowadays, which seems to turn into dust :(
Adding it to raised beds seems to provide only a very short term improvement, when the old peat style ones would last a couple of years if topped up with FB&B :(
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Any sort of compost helps to hold moisture within the soil, so it retains its nutrients for longer.
except for multipurp, nowadays, which seems to turn into dust :(
Adding it to raised beds seems to provide only a very short term improvement, when the old peat style ones would last a couple of years if topped up with FB&B :(
Think you may be right Mum, although I think sandy soils like mine pose a particular problem in that the organic matter tends to lighten it still further and make it even more susceptible to drying out, particularly very near the surface. That's why I'm always on the look-out for lovely lumps of sticky clay ( ::)) to try and get it to all stick together at bit more (apologies to those struggling with clay soils which bake like concrete!) :wub:
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That's why I now top up with Homebase top soil which is quite clay-ey and my bought compost is a peat based one.
Your answers have made me think that I need a fertiliser REGIME! ::) :D
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I have notes alongside my bed rotation drawing, showing what I am going to add where and when.
I have it pinned in the shed so that I know what is going where both this season and next, and where the contents of the compot bins are going , manure etc
Werks fer me :nowink:
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You are soooo organised ;)
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You are soooo organised ;)
I have to contend with Mr Sunny's occasional helpful burst of doing something when I have my head down, so at least he knows there is a plan....... and then there is my memory to deal with too :lol:
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and then there is my memory to deal with too :lol:
you have one of those :blink: ...........I don't know where mine is :wacko:
:D