[Matt31]

Hi

Going to be starting an allotment soon and plan to go the organic root.

There seems to be a whole lot of varying advice about this subject so i'd interested to see what my friends from this forum have to say.

My question is what ORGANIC fertislisers should I use for the following:-
Brassicas - Cabbage(savoy), Sprouts(undecided veriety), Broccoli(undecided.v)
Lagumes - Runner Beans(White Lady), Peas(UV)
Apiaceae  - Carrots(UV), Onions(UV), Red Onions(UV), Parsley, Leeks(UV)
Potatoes - Maris Piper(main crop), King Edward(main crop), Sharp's Express(early)

Of course I will be rotating my crop with a 4 year plan withe four main groups as above.

So which ORGANIC fertilisers should I use and WHEN ?

Look forward to your advice

Thanks in advance.
Matt

[mumofstig]

Chicken manure (pellets) for brassicas, Bloof Fish & Bone for everything else.

Rake into soil before sowing/planting and when/if the plants need it through the season - which depends on how fertile your soil is   I have to use quite a lot as I grow on sand, you'd need less on clay, I think.






edit to clarify

[sunshineband]

Did you want to know about organic fertilisers then???

I think I got that message  

I only use organic fertilisers.

Chicken pellets for anything that needs an extra nitrogen boost (ie green leafy crops)
Blood Fish & Bone as a standard, especially when replanting a bed the same season
Well rotted compost/manure for pumkins and squashed, potatoes
Kitchen waste straight in a trench during the winter where beans and peas are going: failing that, see line above
Wood ash for fruit beds and tress as this has potassium in for flowers/fruit
Comfrey or seaweed liquid feed for tomatoes

Hope that helps a bit

[LilacSandy]

Make your own compost.  The first thing to do on an allotment if you want to go all organic is to put together a couple of compost bins.  I have a bin at home where I put all my peelings, eggshells and shredded paper etc., and take this down weekly to the plot.  Later in the year all the plants that are finished go onto the heap and any weeds that are not seeding.   My dad also gives me his peelings to add.

[potatogrower]

i use a product called groworganic. its smells alot and i either let it stew in water over 2 weeks. dilute cup of that with gallon of water and give plants a feed every 2 weeks. you can do the same with nettles, any green manure soaked and allowed to degraded in water. this will provide the nitrogen but it will stink alot so be warned  . wood ash or coal leftovers will provide the phorphous and potassium. any plant you grow will have its own specific requirements of ph balance and what strength of NPK it needs to grow successfully

[bigben]

If you dont already have some comfrey growing on your plot have a word with others and get a root cutting. Check out http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=92481.0 for good stuff on propagating it.

If you have nettles on your plot or nearby then they can be cut and used to make nettle tea which makes a useful free feed for stuff. I have access to a lot of comfrey so tend to gather up bags of leaves and mulch with them for most things as well as making comfrey tea. This is in addition to bfb and chicken poo pellets.

[potatogrower]

think comfrey and nettles are really good nitrogen feed but i believe comfrey does tend to spread wildly like a weed through the roots so will need to control its spread.

[moose]

Bocking 14 comfrey is sterile and from my experience does not spread very much. Had it for 5 years now.

[solway cropper]

Like LilacSandy I make all my own compost and most of my own feeds and I think that's the way to go if you want to be organic. At least then you know exactly what's going into your soil. I do supplement this with the usual chicken manure pellets and BFB but by and large I get by without much external input apart from the seaweed I collect (see sticky about this) and some local farmyard manure.

[goodtogrow]

To answer the question directly I would agree that compost is the general fertilizer for all your intended crops if you want to stick to organic principles.  The basic principle is that you feed the soil, not the crop.

When it comes to applying a specific organic fertilizer to a specific crop we move away from the basic principle.  Experienced growers know what the existing level of fertility is for a given crop, i.e. how capable an existing soil is to support a given crop, and will add supplements where they see fit, but that's not easy, because it's possible to provide too much nutrition as well as too little.

Because different crops take up different levels of nutrition it becomes an exacting science to know how much of what to give what, and that assumes you know what each organic fertilizer contains in the first place.

Garden compost is said to be rated NPK 7-7-7, as is manure, and is regard as a 'general' organic fertilizer.  Large applications of this stuff does it all.

Tom

[Yorkie]

Garden compost is said to be rated NPK 7-7-7, as is manure,

Can you provide a source for this information, Tom?

The information on the relevant page of the main website here is very different.

[Matt31]

Garden compost is said to be rated NPK 7-7-7, as is manure,

Can you provide a source for this information, Tom?

The information on the relevant page of the main website here is very different.

Agreed Yorkie!!

Interesting about the Rabbit manure as there is a Rabbit breeding farm just down the road from the allotment I will  be starting who's owner just so happens goes to my church and know fairly well.  hummmm I wonder??!!

Thanks for all your advice guys all very useful and informative.

Many Thanks
Matt

[Matt31]

My thinking now is apart from applying a well rotted manure before planting my potatoes, I could probably use something like Growmore which has a balanced NPK of 7-7-7 unless any particular patch has a particularly low level of Nitrogen then something like Bloodmeal would be ideal or even a manure tea for a quick fix.

Would anyone disagree or anything to add to that ?

Matt

[mumofstig]

Growmore isn't organic!

[goodtogrow]

I can provide a source, Yorkie, but am gonna have to dig it out!  I think it's either Coleman's 'New Organic Grower' or an HDRA publication.

A quick internet search didn't turn it up but I did find a value of 5-2.5-6 (variable) for horse manure (depending on how much dung vs straw litter?), whilst lots of others were comparable with those on this site.

The NPK of Growmore, although agree not organic, is still a useful measure of general fertilizer strength, so I'm very motivated to show that organic dressings are comparable!

I'll get back to the forum, one way or the other.  This is too important not to!

Tom