Vegetables & Allotment

Feeding a vegetable plot the organic way

An allotment or kitchen garden is a dozen different crops with a dozen different appetites, and no single bag suits all of them equally. Brassicas and leeks want nitrogen and firm limed ground; roots want lean soil and a little potassium; potatoes want a great deal of everything and a slightly acid bed; beans make their own nitrogen and want potassium. The way to feed that without buying a shed full of products is a balanced base plus a few single nutrients to lean the mix one way or the other. That is what this collection is: the two all-round blends, and the single-nutrient inputs to adjust them, with every ingredient listed.

Start with one of two bags

Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6 is the vegetable fertiliser for a mixed plot: enough nitrogen for leafy growth, with phosphorus and potassium ahead of it for root, flower and fruit. If you only buy one feed for the allotment, it is this one. Organic All Purpose Fertiliser 4-4-4 is the evenly balanced alternative, better where the soil is already rich in potassium or where you are feeding ornamentals from the same bag. What is 4-4-4 organic fertiliser sets out the difference, and the best organic fertiliser for vegetables takes it crop by crop.

The single nutrients

• Organic Nitrogen Fertiliser, 13% N. Plant-based nitrogen for the hungry leaf crops: brassicas, leeks, sweetcorn, and anything that has stalled and gone pale. High nitrogen fertiliser: when it helps and when it harms is worth reading first.
• Alfalfa Meal Pellets. A gentler nitrogen that also feeds the soil life; good worked in before planting.
• Sulphate of Potash, 50% K₂O. Potassium for beans, onions, roots and anything fruiting, without the chloride of muriate.
• Rock Phosphate, 31% P. Slow phosphorus and calcium for new beds and root crops; it releases over years rather than weeks.
• Organic Potato Fertiliser 3-5-8. The one crop that earns its own blend.

Each nutrient has its own page with the liquid and granular options together: nitrogen, potash and potassium, phosphorus.

Seedlings and liquid feeding

Liquid Seedling Fertiliser is a mild root starter for modules and pricked-out plants, when a full-strength feed would do more harm than good. Organic Liquid Fertiliser 5-2-5 is the balanced liquid for the growing season, for containers and for crops that need a quick lift between granular feeds. The liquid fertiliser calculator works out dilution for whatever can or sprayer you use.

Common questions