I'm really confused with all the advice given about fertilisers
I don't understand NPK ratio's and all that, sorry for being thick !
Is there a list of which fertiliser you use for specific crops? I have been using farmyard manure, BFB and bagged compost all over my plot. Just sprinkled lime on one bed where I'm putting a few spring cabbages this month.
ANY help will be most appreciated, thanks
Don't worry Nipper; you are doing nothing wrong as far as I can tell!
In general, Nitrogen is needed to promote leafy growth, Phosphorus for flowers and good root development, and Potassium for general health as it is an important constituent of plant cells and is more likely to be deficient than calcium (which is also important, but less soluble than potassium.) A truly "balanced" fertiliser therefore has equal proportions of all 3 of these "essential" elements and is expressed as a ratio of the percentage by weight of each (eg 7:7:7 for growmore.)
Manure helps to improve the structure of the soil, retain moisture and therefore nutrients, boosts the worm poulation, and supplies some nutrients (including trace elements)
Additional fertilisers like pelleted chicken manure, growmore, BFB and the like are useful in boosting the fertility of poor soils (particularly light, sandy soils.)
They are all good general purpose fertilisers and you don't really need to worry too much about the differences between them other than perhaps to not overdo the PCM on root crops as it tends to contain a bit more nitrogen than the others and could promote too much leafy growth at the expense of root development.
Growing parsnips and carrots in newly manured ground does increase the tendency to fork, and liming soil prior to growing potatoes does increase the likelihood of scab.
Other than that, manure is a great soil additive for all soils, and additional fertilisers are very unlikely to do more harm than good when used as per instructions.
Hope this helps!