[tomboy]

When reading articles on fertilisers, There are as many as there are vegetables. One type for the use on beans another for tomato or potato, peas cabbage turnips and so on. So I was asking for views and opinions on which general fertilisers that individual growers use.

[galen]

Your right there tomboy !

I'm a novice on all this but have picked up many hints from John's advice on here(http://www.allotment-garden.org/growing_information.php), the forum and numerous books I've read. But the initial general fertilizer to use is either Growmore or Fish, Blood and Bone, which are balanced in the 3 main fertilizer "ingredients" (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Pottasium or N:P:K). Each element helps in its different ways and I suppose the best help I can give is to do a search on what you want to grow and its needs.

Here's a starter on a thread I've kept as a favorite on potatoes and there fertilizer needs - http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=31465.0

[tomboy]

Thanks Galen. MY allotment,  because in the country, has plenty of those  little vermin,(some not so little), so I did not want to attract them by putting down fish& bone fertiliser, has I have been told, this could  happen.

[solway cropper]

It's a bit of a learning curve when you start out but if you start with a good general purpose fertiliser like Growmore or BFB for most of the plot you won't go far wrong. If you grow toms /cukes/peppers you can use a liquid feed more suited to their requirements. Also keep in mind that some crops need a more acid or alkaline soil than others...hence the need for liming. By composting as much waste as you can and incorporating it into the soil you should need very little in the way of artificial fertilisers in a few years anyway.

[aelf]

These days, I use a scattering of chicken manure pellets at the beginning of the year and comfrey tea that I brew myself during the rest of the year. Other nutrients come from manureing one rotation (out of four) a year to grow the spuds in and that's it!