[gowing238]

Hey all.Have a full allotment. Decided against manure the past year due to that weedkiller problem, so last year grew a green manure mix. I have found all my regular crops to be behind this year so was thinking bout feeding my sweetcorn with chicken pellets and the rest with blood fish n bone.( regular stuff, lettuce, beans, peas, brassicas.) Do you think sprinking these dry feeds round their stems will make much of a difference in the long run??

[Plot74]

FBB is a slow release plant food do not put it close to the plant stems.
As for chicken pellets I believe you can use this all year round as a general feed probably better feed than manure but manure does improve the soil structure better.
John

[fatcat1955]

FBB is a general fertilizer whereas chicken pellets are mainly a straight nitrogen fertilizer, good for all leaf crops.

[Kirpi]

Using green manures is not a quick fix, but a way of feeding the soil over the seasons and building heart in the ground which your veggies then benefit from and of course, in being composted, become a part of.

Quick fixes like BFB and chicken pellets become unnecessary.

[sunshineband]

This year in particular, rain is washing nutrients down out of reach of many plant roots, and so some additional feed would help if yours look like they are struggling

[Kirpi]

working on the structure of the soil or growing medium such as in lasagne gardening and green manure growing and mulching, leeching nutrients is not a problem as the nutrients stay in the upper growing level. My crops have remained lush while others on the same allotment are seeing yellowing leaves and stunted growth.

[sunshineband]

This can take time to build up, and so until then it is helpful to be able to know what and when to feed

[Kirpi]

hmm - no - only takes one growing year

[mumofstig]

I've sown green manures over winter for the last 3 years, and added the contents of many compost bins and piles of cardboard etc.

It really has improved the soil structure, but my veggies still need a lot of feeding. I think it really depends on what soil you had to start with - whether you need extra feed or not.
On sandy soils you really do need to feed a lot more than on clay or a loam soils

[Kirpi]

My soil is sandy but it is underneath the homemade compost and lasagne layers I have built over the past two years.

I just thought - I do use quick fix remedies but I prefer not to use any animal waste or by product on my land. I use nettle tea for leafy growth, comfrey tea and comfrey liquor for fruits and drowned-perennial-weeds (the weeds I don't put in my compost bins) tea as a general all rounder.

[potatogrower]

i'm using volcanic rock dust to replace trace elements in the soil combined with nettle/comfrey/grass cutting tea feed. after 2 months of putting rock dust i'm suspicious that its working because one of the  weeds has a dense short root structure and is dark green and very healthy. i've used pinches of epsom salt but no where near the where the weeds i've picked. i've yet to compare them to like for like weed growing else where i've not used rock dust.

there are sceptics of using this depending on using the right rock dust that has the right elements in it because it is a by-product of the quarry industry and if our soil nutrients are not rich in the right elements that we need as nutrients for ourselves then i see no harm in using it.

[shokkyy]

I'm a believer in rock dust. I've got a big bed which had been dug out of a lawn. Last year I tried to dig it and had to admit defeat. It was so compacted i was struggling to get a fork in it, and everything I planted in there last year did not do well despite copious applications of BFB. The soil looked dead and everything planted in it looked sickly and starving. At the end of the year I put some garden compost down on it, but didn't have enough to cover well. I also put down a generous sprinkling of rock dust and seaweed meal. This spring the soil was transformed. It's miraculously become crumbly black stuff which is easy to dig, and everything I've planted this year has done fantastically well in there, despite the lousy weather.

I seriously doubt the garden compost made a great deal of difference because there wasn't enough of it and my compost is usually not all that good because I'm not very good at making it. It's most likely to have been the seaweed meal that made all the difference to the soil structure, I'd think. Seaweed meal is also supposed to help with trace elements, but it is mainly for improving soil structure, and that it did extremely well. But it's the rock dust that must have made such a big difference to the health of the plants. All I've done this year is put down some chicken manure and BFB when I plant, but I haven't been giving any top-up feeding, and everything's growing like a triffid and giving very good crops.

[sunshineband]

My soil is sandy but it is underneath the homemade compost and lasagne layers I have built over the past two years.

I just thought - I do use quick fix remedies but I prefer not to use any animal waste or by product on my land. I use nettle tea for leafy growth, comfrey tea and comfrey liquor for fruits and drowned-perennial-weeds (the weeds I don't put in my compost bins) tea as a general all rounder.

Any photos of your plot so we can see your beds, by any chance?

[Kirpi]

IF the sun has got his hat on tomorrow I'll take some pics for ya!

[sunshineband]

IF the sun has got his hat on tomorrow I'll take some pics for ya!

Pictures in the rain would be fine too 

Look forward to seeing them