Fertilizers

Well I am not an expert here but I know what I like and I know what I use and that is about all I can talk about with any certainty. The other problem I have is that I am based in the UK and the fertilizers that are available to me may not be available to you wherever you are in the world so I will keep this basic and try to avoid trade names.

Over the years I have used a lot of different fertilizers and most of them have been chemical concoctions developed by scientists to feed my plants. These are known as inorganic fertilizers and the other major group is organic fertilizers which I now try to use.

The major difference is that an inorganic fertilizer is one that has been made from chemicals, whereas an organic fertilizer is one which tends to be made from natural products.

I do not know what inorganic fertilizers you have available to you and if you want to use them by all means do so. I used to, but now I generally stick to organic fertilizers except when it comes to my greenhouse. In there I grow tomatoes, cucumbers and chilies as where I live I need the extra heat a greenhouse traps to produce a good crop. I would use an organic fertilizer but I tend to go away in the summer months for 3-4 weeks for my major holiday and have to leave the greenhouse in the care of a neighbor. To cut down his work, I has a drip irrigation system linked to an Ez-Flow fertilizer system I had shipped over from the US. This needs a fertilizer which can be applied at every watering and the only fertilizer I have found which works with this system is a mix of chemicals - an inorganic fertilizer. I am currently drying, well allowing to wilt really, some comfrey and I intend to sprinkle that round the tops of the pots of tomatoes before I go on holiday as comfrey is very good for tomatoes.

For the rest of the garden I use organic products. I use a product called "Fish, Blood and Bone Meal" and this is a general purpose fertilizer with a balanced mix of NPK. The N stands for Nitrogen, P for Phosphorus and K for Potassium. These are all essential for vegetable and plant growth but more of this later.

The other products I also use are an organic concentrated chicken manure pellets, home made compost, worm juice and worm casts, Epsom Salts and comfrey and I intend to have a page on each of these as they all have their uses.