[Maccbean]

I have four raised beds as follows:

1. Potatoes, radishes and salad leaves
2. Peas and Beans
3. Onions, carrots and salad leaves
4. Squashes and courgettes

All planted over a month ago, so well on their way.  Could I get some advice on whether and when to feed please?

Ta

[JayG]

Hmmm! 8 different crops with different feeding requirements! Could be a long thread!

It depends to some extent on whether your soil is light or heavy (light soils lose nutrients much more quickly than clay soils) and also whether you fertlised the soil prior to sowing/planting out.

The shortest answer I could give is that salad leaves, squashes and courgettes are the hungriest plants on your list and would benefit from a liquid feed once or twice during their growing lifetime.

Spuds are also hungry plants but unless you've only got a few they are a bit impractical to liquid feed; adding a sprinkling of growmore before you earth up is probably the easiest way (ideally you would use a specialist potato fertiliser but I don't bother).

[Stevens706]

I agree with JayG, if your soil was well manured then you shouldn’t need to feed for some time if at all.

[stompy]

When i put my squashes, toms, peas and beans (etc) in i put a small handfull of organic chicken manure pellets in the bottom of the planting hole, then they get a comfrey or rhubarb leaf feed once a month.

I never feed carrots or salad leaves and once the carrots have been thinned to their final spacing i dont water them either, same goes for parsnips, this makes the root go down in search for water giving you a longer root.

Potatoes get manure in the bottom of the trench and get watetred when they are flowering, and i sprinkle BF&B on the ground and rake it in a week before i plant my onions and i only water them if it's been dry for more than a week.

It works for me, good crops most years 

[Maccbean]

Mmmm, I put my homemade rotted compost in, but then put topsoil on top for some reason  , so might have wasted it I think.  The potatoes will be near, but I'm not sure about anything else.  God I hate having no gardening commonsense!