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Vegetable Growing

I'm fairly new to to veg growing, so I'm wondering which fertiliser & how much I should use on potatoes, beetroot, runner beans & onions.  Thanks for any help.

Posts

  • You can buy potatoe fertilizer garden centers or hardware stores, either organic or otherwise. But the first thing to note is what is in the ground where you want to plant now. Has it been fertilized recently, easier to help you if we knew the current state of play so to speak.

  • everoseveros Posts: 55

    Thanks for your reply No Expert. No I haven't fertilized the ground this year. I've just used my own compost.  My reason for asking for advise is that last year I think I used too much fertiliser on my beetroot as I had very small roots with & all tops.

  • Possibly small beetroot were the result of too much nitrogen, coupled with not enough water in a very dry year? 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • everoseveros Posts: 55

    Thanks Dovefromabove.  I'm thinking of using chicken pellets a few weeks before planting up, does this sound like a good idea?

  • I do use chicken pellets on my veg patch from time to time - but again they are high in nitrogen and better for leafy veg.  I feed my Swiss chard with it, and lettuce and that sort of thing.

    At the beginning of the season I give my veg patch a good sprinkling of Fish, Blood & Bone - it's a balanced fertiliser which means it has balanced amounts of nutrients, rather than being high in just one thing. 

    There's a thread on it somewhere ......... I'll have a look 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005

    I don't think I have ever used commercial fertilizer on vegetables.  Call me mean, but for me, part of the joy of growing your own is getting food for free (ish), so if I spent money on fertilizers it would be less 'free'.  I've been growing on soil that has been long term 'fallow' over the last three years.  I am now availing myself of the 'free horse poo' advertised round the corner, making compost, sprinkling incinerator ashes and planning to set up a nettle soup maker in an old water butt.  I have sometimes used some chicken pellets though, but sparingly.  I can only imagine going for commercial fertilizers if I felt I had a particular problem with my soil that needed righting.  I think my inexperience would leave me wondering if I would overdo it and unbalance things.  This year I am going to try cauliflowers though, and they may be my downfall.  Dove, is fish blood and bone the stinky stuff?  Seem to remember my Dad using something that made me feel sick, but it might have been hoof and horn.

  • Here we are http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/plants/blood-fish-and-bone/245519-2.html 

    Busy, I think some people find it smelly - but I grew up on a pig farm image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Busy Bee2Busy Bee2 Posts: 1,005

    Ah, so you were manured to it - err - I mean inured!

     

  • everoseveros Posts: 55

    Many thanks for all the good advice.  I think I'll be giving Adi's a visit on Thursday. I'll be posting later in the year with the results.

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