Plant feed

What do we use to feed our plants?

I usually use miracle grow for everything, but growing tomatoes for the first time in years I bought some Tomarite. This got me thinking, my garden, being a townie's idea of natural, deliberately doesn't get much nitrogen. It sounds harsh but I don't want to over feed anything because I find the wild flowers do better without too much competition, but I feed the few cultivated flowers, and anything that produces fruit, so I'm more interested in the P and K than the N number.

So, it's too late for this year because I have all my supplies. But for next year, any thoughts on my feeding regime in terms of products?

Or tips on avoiding the need to buy feed? I know some people make infusions of various foliage, eg nettles, to make feed.

 

I tend to feed only my Roses and Clematis in the border, tomato fertilizer in the greenhouse

 

When I had the choice, it was Blood,fish and bone for the borders, especially the Clematis. Nowadays it's the French equivalent of Growmore. All the pots and the citrus trees get Miracle-Gro when I can get hold of it. My attempts at reproducing MG weren't spectacularly successful, although at least nothing exploded

 

I call that a success

This reminds me of a funny anecdote. When my eldest son was still small, someone gave him a chemistry set for his birthday or Christmas. We did some of the experiments in the book but they were boring. So, figuring there's nothing dangerous in a kids chemistry set I let him do his own experiments. I'm just sat on the sofa watching TV as my son does science on the carpet in front of me. He mixed random things together in a test tube and put the stopper in. Suddenly, my son proclaimed, 'daddy, it's doing something, and it's making a noise'. I looked just as it went POP. Test tube flew across the room one way, stopper flew the other way. Fortunately no harm was done but it was surprisingly exciting.

 

As I garden on a balcony I have no access to "natural, plant made" fertilizers I have to use commercial products. I, personally, use a general fertilizer for my plants from roughly the spring equinox to the summer solstice then a tomato fertilizer from there to the autumn equinox when I suspend using any fertilizer. That regime of feeding has done me very well over the more than 20 years I've been gardening on this balcony.
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My wife swears by Tomorite for all her flowering plants. I mix and match. I like Richard Jackson's "Flower Power".