Fertilizers

[Sajid]

Salams

does anyone use any if so whic ones?

tend to use Miracle Grow!

[~Obsidian~]

Doffs tomato feed and it seems to have worked wonders!

[Riz]

Salams

does anyone use any if so whic ones?

tend to use Miracle Grow!

you have come to the right person to ask this...

i will let you know later on tonight with pics,

[Riz]

Over the years i have used so many diffrent types of nutrients and fertilizers.. and i have stopped using most of them apart from fish blood and bone and seaweed extract, and i have a box of "7 trace elements" which i ocasionally use.. and of course tomato nutes/fertz .

I have grown tomatoes succesfully without the aid of any nutrients in the past on many occasions. If you are growing in a veg patch,
If the existing soil is lean and hungry, coat it in large quantities of organic matter such as well-rotted manure and spent mushroom compost or good quality topsoil and scatter some chicken pellets and rake in well, If you take care of the soil you will not need to spend a small fortune on nutes and fertz..

but i always have some laying around the house......

[dawud_uk]

i dont know, using chemicals just seems like cheating to me so i am only using seaweed based fertiliser this year, maybe i'll be a little less puritanical when i see my prize plants start dying on me one year.

[Riz]

i dont know, using chemicals just seems like cheating to me so i am only using seaweed based fertiliser this year, maybe i'll be a little less puritanical when i see my prize plants start dying on me one year.

seaweed fertilizer is a "slow release" fertilizer it takes time for the soil and the plants to absorb it all ( but well worth it) you`d be suprised how many proffesional growers use chemicals its invalubale to them,
flower growers espically they need the flower to bloom at certain times and to get bloomage quicker they use chemicals ( chelsea flower show). In some council allotments they forbid the use of chemicals period. I have no issues with anyone using them ( i have used them in the past) i like to go organic were i can, but if i needed to use chemical nutes/fertz i would do.

[~Obsidian~]

So is it true that the waster you use to wash meat is good for roses? What's in it that makes it so good?

[Riz]

because of the nitrogen in the blood ?

[~Obsidian~]

Hope so! Coz it's kinda gross!

[Riz]

Hope so! Coz it's kinda gross!

i use fish,blood,bone for my plants and they make a huge diffence, its powdery and it looks like sand.. you can buy them from any garden centre.

[Te'oma]

another good booster for your plants is to water them with cold tea

[Kirsten]

For tomatoes - diluted milk; I know people who actually go out and buy milk for the sake of pouring it on their plants but I can't bring myself to do it (it's actual good milk!). Instead I just pour the rinse water from my cup over the tomato roots whenever I have a glass of milk.

[Riz]

diluted milk, well thats a new one.. ;)

[Te'oma]

another little trick is if you notice that the leaves of your tomato plants are turning yellow, get some one a day plus iron vitamins. Every 2 or 3 days, crush one up and mix it with the water. Tomatoes need a lot of iron in the soil and one of the first symptoms of the defficiency is that the leaves go chlorotic.

[~Obsidian~]

Aww bless, vitamins for your plants. What's chlorotic? Yellowish/light green leaves?

[Te'oma]

Aww bless, vitamins for your plants. What's chlorotic? Yellowish/light green leaves?

exactly. Multivitamins contain most of the minerals that plants need and at a fraction of the cost of commercial fertilizers. Add nitrogen, potasium and phosphorus and you have the complete mix

[~Obsidian~]

I'll be sure to bear that in mind :)

[dhakiyya]

my parents have a stables behind their house, so in the spring my mum goes to muck out the stables, in return for taking the manure home to spread on the garden. Also her next door neighbour has rabbits, my parents give the weeds to the rabbits, and their neighbour gives my parents rabbit droppings back for them to use as fertiliser. If that's not permaculture then I don't know what is lol :p

Also my parents have a compost heap and a green cone, all the biodegradable waste goes in there, if its from vegetables or other things that won't attract rats or foxes it goes on the compost heap, if its bones or other stuff that might attract rats or foxes then it goes in the green cone. All this compost they use on the garden. They've done this for years, I hardly ever remember seeing artificial fertliser in their garden, greenhouse or shed.

Whoever said about being as organic as possible but maybe use chemicals if need be, I think this is the right attitude. Manure and compost is full of the whole range of nutrients so would reduce the need for keeping on putting chemicals on it. But if the plants were becoming ill because of pests or a lack of a specific nutrient I don't see what is wrong with a small amount of a chemical to fix it. Just like if you are sick you go to the doctor....! And I love Te'oma's suggestion about the vitamin pills...

[Nife180]

Here are a couple of Organic fertilizers:

Calcium:

Eggshells are more than 90% calcium so they are a good lime replacment. wash to get rid of the inner skin and dry them. Then crush them in a food grinder to turn it into powder. So this raises the pH of the soil and gives calcium to the plants.

Nitrogen:

Coffee grounds are rich in Nitrogen, just collect used grounds, dry them and sprinkle around the ground.

Magnesium and Sulfate:

Sprinkle Epsom salt on your plants, it's really a mineral not a salt.


This is a summary of this (http://frugalliving.about.com/od/doityourself/tp/Homemade_Fertilizer.htm) page

[Kirsten]

Lol I did the eggshell crushing thing a few days ago (some of my friends baked a cake and had lots of shell leftover). Then I put them all into a small clear baggie... and realized that it looks a LOT like some sort of drug, so I hid it in a drawer so no one would think I'm dealing or something.

*hopes the police don't come by*

[Tania]

I use once per week chicken manure diluted in water. I leave the manure 2 or 3 days in water before to use it. I will try the eggs shell too.

[felicity]

Over the years i have used so many diffrent types of nutrients and fertilizers.. and i have stopped using most of them apart from fish blood and bone and seaweed extract, and i have a box of "7 trace elements" which i ocasionally use.. and of course tomato nutes/fertz .

I have grown tomatoes succesfully without the aid of any nutrients in the past on many occasions. If you are growing in a veg patch,
If the existing soil is lean and hungry, coat it in large quantities of organic matter such as well-rotted manure and spent mushroom compost or good quality topsoil and scatter some chicken pellets and rake in well, If you take care of the soil you will not need to spend a small fortune on nutes and fertz..

but i always have some laying around the house......

What are chicken pellets?

[Riz]

chicken manure ( droppings) they are high in nitrogen levels, so make your veggies and flowers grow big leafy and lush..

[felicity]

eww gross, tell me don't buy those! I didn't even know those things exsited; at first I thought you meant little pellets of plant food.

[Riz]

the pellets really work, tried and tested method for years... good for your soil, i had a tub i got from bnq 20kg for under 8 quid, bargain !!!

[felicity]

Well, at first I thought these chicken pellets where gross but now I am thinking of using the in my garden as the my plants etc are slow growing. How often should I add these pellets to soil?

[Riz]

just add them to the soil and rake in, or if in pots add at the bottom of pot and fill container with soil.. its a slow release of nitrogen though,, usually gardners rake in the chicken manure in spring time so by the time they are ready to plant or sow the soil is fullof goodness, but you can still add now if you wish too......