Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Quetzal on January 19, 2009, 12:35
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Really stupid question time :oops:
I'm thoroughly confused about the difference between manure, compost, fertilizer etc. I have tried reading up on it, but have come out pretty much more confused. Could somebody straighten me out, please?
Would I use (well rotted) manure, and the compost from my compost heap interchangably?
I'm thinking of putting my supplies of these into: bean trench, squash/courgettes, brassicas, roughly in order of priority. Is that about right?
What about leaf mold - i can get a fair amount of that, would it be used the same as compost/manure?
OTOH, carrots and parsnip don't like to be manured, but the books recommend 'general fertilizer' put on those beds before sowing - is it something like blood bone fish?
I guess that'll do for now. Many thanks in advance for any advice.
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Well rotted manure and compost can be used interchangeabley essentially the same thing (bulky organic matter)
leafmold is good for digging in but probably best used as a mulch and let the worms finish the job.
Yep blood fish and bone, bonemeal, dried blood all fertiliser used in small quantities just before plants or seeds are introduced. If you're non-organic growmore or something similar
The brassicas may not need manure as they like lime otherwise it's pretty near right
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Your carrots do not really need fertilizer. There are probably enough nutrients left in the soil from last year. They like plenty of potash, I use Suttons potato fertilizers on mine which is high potash. Only light soils are likely to be short of potash
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Carrots like leafmould. I sieve my well rotted leaves when they're dry. I have one of those rotary sieves (much-loved pressie) :D