blood fish and bone

Hi - can you tell me if blood fish and bone applied on top of a semi permeable membrane and bark (then watered in) is going to do any good to shrubs and trees. Will it go through the membrane?

Thanks

Ann

 

Yes it will, it will travel throught the membrane along with the water, perhaps not as quickly.

One thing to bear in mind with membranes though, anything you apply will spread across the surface of the membrane and so makes it difficult to individually treat a specific plant with something like sequestered iron.

 

I suppose if you had a specific plant, that needed specific liquid feed, that you could sink a plant pot into the membrane, and water/feed the plant via the pot.

 

It would also reduce the risk of run off of the specific treatment, even with no membrane-nice idea Kristen.

 

And I suppose, if you do have to water them, it would get the water to the roots.

 

Thanks Good idea! For the moment I just sprinkled the bf&b around the drip line of the trees and shrubs and watered it in but next time I will try as you suggest.

 

I'm not sure that BF&B is suitable for trees and shrubs. Too much nitrogen

Also, Judging from the BF&B I use, I dont think that it all would dissolve through the membrane

I think you would be better off using a liquid shrub fertilizer, although again I would question its necessity for plants grown in soil as its more siuted for plants in poys

 

H.B.C. I thought B,F&B was a general fertilizer - same amount of N as both P and K ??

 

For me I have to go off what I have experienced in my own garden. Fish, blood and bone is the best general fertiliser to use-the only problem I have experienced with it is that if some is left on foliage or flowers it will burn where it touches so needs to be washed off. It isn't so much that each individual grain of FB&B will get through the membrane but that it will degrade down and the nutrients will get through once that has happened-after all dandelions and couch grass can get through membrane which is why I think using membrane is of worthless expense and effort. You don't have to dig FB&B into the soil for it to be of benefit to the plants.

However if you are dealing with a specific deficiency that you know exists then it stands to reason to tailor the fertiliser to provide that.


All in all, it is an excellent general fertiliser.

 

Thanks Kirsten.

I'm off to the GC because I'm getting different answers from different books so will check out and report back.

HBC

 

"will check out and report back"

That would be helpful, thanks.

 

In gardening you will always get different answers from different sources

 

Do yourself a favour and bin the membrane, then increase the bark depth to 3", this way you'll get no weeds and retain moisture plus your bark will last longer and as it rots the worms will incorporate it into the soil.

Membrane actually encourages weed growth both on to and underneath as decomposing bark has no were to go other than form a nice fertile climate for weed growth. bindweed etc thrive underneath.

As the bark breaks down or the wind blows it you also get the site of the damned membrane, thus constantly having to replenish the bark or put up with an unsightly mess.

 

Reporting back.

Yup Blood, Fish and Bone IS a balanced fertiliser, so aplogies to all and i shall follow my more modern books

Westland NPK is 4-7-4 and others are similar.

It appears that:

Blood 10-0-0
Fish 9-8-0
Bone 4-20-0

other references give differing proportions of NPK

So it appears that there is no potash using the basic components. I wonder where that comes from?

 

"So it appears that there is no potash using the basic components. I wonder where that comes from?"

hahahaha ... brilliant! Never even thought about that before, and I have NO idea !!

Crematorium?