Past ways of feeding
Peter remembers how he got fantastic results many years ago without resorting to plant food in a bottle
INTRODUCED to gardening towards the end of the Second World War, I recall the driving force was to grow more food from limited resources. We did have Growmore, the balanced 7 parts nitrogen, 7 parts phosphates and 7 of potash, general fertiliser, some dried blood and fish manure. The dried blood was a very swift way of delivering high nitrogen and the fish manure smelt really fishy. Both quickly turned leaves a
“Tomatoes and cucumbers love it”
healthy dark green. Today’s equivalents do not seem to have the kick – I’m not sure, but perhaps because of heat treatments to eliminate human diseases.
Our main sources of plant foods, however, were animal manures and brought up on a farm with a milking herd of cows there was no shortage of that. The chicken coop also supplied heaps of manure under night time perches, but while rich in nitrogen and potash it was pretty hot when fresh and best incorporated into the compost heap.
Liquid leaching from the cow manure heap was our best source of plant food in the growing season, scooped up from puddles around the huge dung heap. Diluted in water down to the colour of tea it was watered onto the soil around a wide range of crops.
Tomatoes and cucumbers love it; tomatoes grow so fast the tips curl in on themselves and cucumbers develop huge leaves. A similar source of liquid manure came from sheep droppings, picked up and put in a hessian bag ready to be hung in a barrel of water.
The resulting liquid does wonders for chrysanthemums, dahlias and sweet peas, although there is no specific measure for these diluted manures. You need to keep an eye on leaf size and colour. Once the leaves get large and dark green it’s then time to stop feeding for a while!