[brucesgirl]

Bought a big box of this after watching Geoff Hamilton using it on Kitchen Garden, and looked it up on tinternet. It says it is a good plant food for fast growing plants, so I guess peas, beans etc.

My question is - do you just scatter it over the ground or does it have to be dug in?

I will probably dig it in when doing a quick spring turn over, but once the plants are established does a sprinkling around them do any good?

[WG.]

It is good stuff - fish and blood available quickly.  Bonemeal more slowly.

IMHO it is a waste of time applying before early to mid-summer.  Rake into the surface when things are growing well.  Peas and beans fix their own nitrogen so keep it for onions, cauliflower.  Good tonic for stuff needing a boost.

[brucesgirl]

Thanks WG - that will work in well. Hoe the weeds, rake them out and put the FBB in at the same time.

I love having a plan

Wish they would explain things that simply on other websites!
 

[Rob the rake]

It is good stuff - fish and blood available quickly.  Bonemeal more slowly.

IMHO it is a waste of time applying before early to mid-summer.  Rake into the surface when things are growing well.  Peas and beans fix their own nitrogen so keep it for onions, cauliflower.  Good tonic for stuff needing a boost.

The usual advice is to apply FB&B up to 4 weeks before sowing. As I understood, it's to allow the soil microbes time to break down the bonemeal before you sow and plant. Have I been doing it wrong all these years, WG?

[WG.]

Have I been doing it wrong all these years, WG?

Probably not although I'd be concerned that the readily available stuff would be lost before the plants got it.  In fact, newly sown stuff doesn't need feeding at all so I can't see the logic here.

[brucesgirl]

It didn't make it clear on the Geoff Hamilton program how he used it. He would harvest a plant, put FBB on the ground and then plant another plant.

Trouble is, with the editing, was he doing all this on the same day? And it was an old program, from the '70's from the look of his clothes and it didn't really go into a lot of detail.

One site I read said it can be used instead of manure.

[Trillium]

I know bone meal alone can take up to 6 months to release its nutrients, not sure about blood meal. Fish meal is faster, less than a few weeks.

I think Geoff's point was to simply keep on top of replenishing beneficial nutrients to take care of the varying times each individual ingredient in BFB breaks down.  And by adding it whenever you put in another crop is simply an easy way to remember. There's no rocket science involved in the why's and whens, only to simply add it on a regular basis.

[DD.]

One site I read said it can be used instead of manure.

Only as far as nutrients though. It won't add any humus to assist with the composition of the soil.

[pepper]

Just looked it up in GH Ornamental Kitchen Book and he says " fork over the soil and scatter a handful of blood, fish and bone fertilizer over the top. After forking over, level the ground.......scratch the seed drills in the soil with a stick"
I watched the tv series as well and got the impression that after removing one crop he scattered bf&b before sowing / planting another. I have done this ever since!!!!!!!