Selfsufficientish.com

On reading lots of gardening books it very often says "once planted, incorporate some general fertilizer". Just wondered what other peeps use as Im never sure what to go for so currently havent really used anything apart from well rotted muck prior to planting.

Thanks
MEW

Use compost/soil from a home composter to build up your soil.

I don't use anything apart from muck, compost, nettle brew, lime and/or rock dust, either. I suppose it depends on what you are growing - there might be a specific deficiency (potash for example for tomatoes etc). "General fertiliser" really is the quick fix - one fits all - solution for non-organic gardening.

Advocating home made compost/well rotted muck is the right thing to do, but these take time to make and if you are starting off and need them quick results then organic pelleted poultry manure is easy to use and safe to handle.

For the non organic people, pelleted Growmore is usually what is meant by 'general fertilizer' in books but they don't advertise it!

If you follow the RHS Vegetable book, you need a well stocked chemical locker - it is shocking what they encourage people to pour into their soil! Time the book was brought upto date me thinks....

Thurston Garden wrote:if you are starting off and need them quick results then organic pelleted poultry manure is easy to use and safe to handle.

True - I totally forgot about that! I used it quite a bit before I had access to all this muck. I also use seaweed meal, for example when I plant shrubs, trees etc - chuck a handful in with the compost - and bonemeal for the same occasions.

Dried blood can be useful for a nitrogen boost. It is even possible to find organically certified stuff. Personally I tend to restrict it to the compost heap where it is handy for speeding up the process of decay. Other useful animal products might include bone meal (phosphorus) and composted feathers or some combination of these. Obviously some people might have philosophical issues with the use of slaughterhouse products in the garden.

But otherwise: animal manures, green manures, compost and good rotations should ordinarily provide what you need, along with a bit of crushed phosphate rock and lime if really necessary.

I'd go along with the earlier comment: the levels of chemicals used in gardening is scary - far higher (relatively, not absolutely) than in conventional farming and completely uncontrolled.

My G/F and i have just been out to the beach today and picked up to supermarket bags full of kelp. Brought it home and washed it and have put it in a bin filled with water and a bucket of chook poo. As it rots down im going to add nettles and then use the resulting soup as a fertiliser concentrate for me veges

I use organic 'mixed' fertiliser with a higher potassium level in the NPK mix which seems to be the norm for potager type mixes.

When I'm planting shrubs I use dried blood and organic phosphorus (NP)

They've only just started producing organic fertilisers in France, in the last few years!

Before that it was blue granules which were a lot easier to distribute over the veg patch - if only organic stuff could be in granules instead of powder that blows all over the place like woodash.........

I used horse manure from a friend who has a riding school. Downside is that radishes don't grow very big, well the leaves do, but the radishes come out really small. Also seems to have attracted lots of flies. Other plants seem to like it though, tomatos grown from seed outdoors are racing along.