Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: rowlandwells on June 20, 2018, 22:02
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I was talking to a fellow gardener the other day and he mentioned using a phosphorus based fertilizer that go me thinking about trying a phosphorus bayed fertilizer but still I'm still unsure about buying as a bag of Q4N Vitax 25kg would set me back £51.70 =VAT +delivery around £70 quid
so as usual I thought don't buy until I get some advise from our friends on this site according to my catalogue its there best seller so any advise most welcome :unsure:
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Bonemeal is high in phosphorus - I think the NPK is 3.5 18 8 and you can get a 25Kg bag delivered for just over £20.00 from ebay
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Would that not do it and save you £30?
Or you can get superphosphate which is just 0 18 0 but I can only find a wholesale only supplier doing a 25Kg bag - maybe worth asking your supplier. I think bonemeal is slightly cheaper.
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Do your plants need it? Bung on some manure, a few chicken pellets & some bonemeal is all I use, never felt the need for anything more. Feed the soil not the plants 😊
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thanks John there does seem quite a saving buying on line and I take your point about buying bonemeal as a substitute the Vitax I was looking at was 10-7.5-10.2+TE if that makes sense but I think I may give that a miss
I manure every second year with horse manure Snowdrops and use growmore and a nitrogen based fert for my brassicas but your absolutely rite feed the ground first priority I will also be sowing some green manure very shortly as trial
the only reson i was asking about phosphorus fertilizer was it seemed worth tying having spoken to a fellow gardener but on reflection as said i am going to give this one a miss
anyway thanks for those comments RW
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You can get some fairly good test kits and see how the NPK levels are and pH for less than £20. Using manure & compost you're unlikely to be short on trace elements. If you lime with dolomite lime rather than standard you add magnesium which may be short. Or you can use a small quantity of epsom salts.
Our base soil here is very depleted so I'm using more fertiliser than I used to but eventually it will have more heart. The results of mulching with grass clippings have exceeded expectations, big improvement on humus levels and worm population after 2 years. Helps a lot with water absorption, retention and resilience to both drought and downpour.