Feeding

We have talked about when to sow, and how to sow on this forum. It might be worth looking at when and how to feed. Everyone has their own ideas on feeding - so these are purely my own.

Everybody and everything needs feeding - humans, animals and plants. Take a rabbit for instance; if its in the wild, it can find food for itself though it may also appreciate an occasional feed from a human. But it it is in a cage (sorry - hutch), its entirely dependant on outside help for food and water. The same goes for a plant. Plants in the wild (ie in the border) can look after themselves and you don't need to feed them - though they may appreciate an occasional feed from you. But a plant in a pot is entirely dependent on you, and must be fed and watered.

You don't need to feed very tiny seedlings. They get initial food from the seed itself, thereafter they should be kept hungry to encourage them to grow roots and seek out food. But by the time they have reached two or three inches in height I start to feed them.

Rather than repeat a lot, you might care to read this thread from last year. http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002948#000005

The gist of the thread is that the main constituents of feed are N nitrogen (good for foliage), P phosphorous (good for roots) and K potassium (good for flowers and fruit). For the first half of the season I give plants a balanced feed of Miraclegrow, but later when they start to flower I give them a high potassium feed such as Phostrogen. Don't buy liquid feeds, you are paying mostly for water. Buy solid feed and dilute with your own water. The table in the old thread shows that you pay �£6.24 per kg for granular Miraclegrow, but can pay �£73 for the same amount in liquid format.

Growing veg is a special case as you are taking a lot of material, in the form of produce, away from the garden - so you may need to feed a lot more.

How often? I feed pots once a week by watering with a dilute solution of feed. For hanging baskets you may want to feed more often as any feed in the compost tends to get washed out when the basket is watered.

 

thanks for that PeterS, i'm still not sure about feeding but am starting to now, with a liquid feed about once a week. Hope it's ok. last year i didn't feed anything :eek:

cheers

 

To be honest Borrowers - I think it's a very hit and miss thing. Very few people either have the ability or patience to experiment to find out what really is the best method or best product. I think you just have to do what you think is the right thing and then keep your fingers crossed.

 

As I said above Bob - its all a bit hit and miss. Thats what the suppliers say - but how can you tell? I feed everything on principle once a week. It costs very little and you have to water them anyway.

 

I think there are some very suspect feeds around these days, I dont know what everyone uses.
But I do believe that you only get what you pay for, and some of the tomato feed these days dont seem as good as some of the older ones.
Of course this could be due to most of the potting composts actually being C R A P, in comparison to the old peat based ones.
I dont know what they use these days in the compost but the plants very quicky seem to stop growing and get starved without loads of feeding.

 

Pete, the problem is - how do you know what the feed is like, other than read the packet?

Then there is the additional problem as you said -of is the feed held by the compost and available to the plant, or is it good feed that just washes straight through.

There are people who sell products that are not food themselves, but trap and hold food in the soil/compost. I tried to Google that but Plant + Food + Enhancement are such common words that you can't find anything useful.

 

I think the only way is trial and error, if you find a feed that works for you, then use it.
Looking in the gardencentre the other day, there was shelves full of different feeds for different plants, one for fuschias, one hanging baskets etc.
Makes me wonder how we managed before all these very expensive specific feed came along.

I dont know why, but I always tend to like the liquid ones, the granule types dont really work for me.
My pet hate is Phostrogen, I think overated, but others swear by it.

How about soaking the hanging basket gel in feed solution, before using it.

 

Like pete says it's trail and error. This year i'm going to experiment with pots on the front of my house. They are all the same size and going to be planted with the same compost. I will be planting geraniums in them. I'm undecided which food to try though. Next door swears by chickhen pellets, i've been using miraclegrow granules and tomato food in the past. Think i should use one liquid and one solid feed, What do you all think

 

Mowgley, its always good to experiment. I would give it a try.

Its also a good thing to keep the pots the same size, as in my experiance they can have a big effect. Two years ago I grew some Kochia from seed. By chance one was in a big pot, one was left in a medium size pot and one left in a small pot. They were all fed and watered the same. None of them were obviously pot bound. But the big one grew to four feet, the medium one grew to two feet and the small one never got above about six inches.

 

I used to live near a lady who had a magnificent geramium in her window it flowered all the year round,she said all she ever gave it was the dregs from the teapot every morning.don't know what that proves J

 

Joyce, it proves she drank very good tea.

 

Tannic acid, good for acid lovers, dont know if that applies to geraniums.

 

Should i feed some mint i have in a pot from last year thats just starting to shoot up again? With some miracle grow granuals i presume?

 

NG. Mint does pretty well by itself but I've had some in a pot for 20 years. I feed it about every 4 years just to keep some nutrition in the compost. Just add nearly anything. I use a sprinkling of BFB.

 

Newbie, I have found mint to be pretty greedy, if grown naturally it spreads to new ground each year, and the old woody stuff dies back.
For that reason I knock it out the container and plant in fresh compost, (the healthiest looking roots), each year or at least every other year.

Dont know its a feeding problem Bob, but the leaves can go white if the temperature is too low. Some morning glories like it pretty warm.