Topic: Growmore or Fish, Blood & Bone?

[Tiny Clanger]

Looking a bit forward I need to replenish fertiliser.  Usually use manure, but supplement with Growmore.  All used up this season so I need to replenish.  WHat I need to know is; is Growmore better than Fish Blood & Bone as a general fertiliser? 

[Tee Gee]

The choice is your but here is some info to help you to decide:

Fish Blood & Bone is Organic with an NPK: 3 - 9 - 3

Growmore is a general purpose synthetic fertiliser with an  NPK 7-7-7

I tend to use FB&B on foodstuff and GM on flowers.

Although with the latter if Growmore is more expensive I use FB&B on my flowers

[johhnyco15]

i always use ffb  i know it varies from packet to packet  but it works for me  if you have any comfry you can chop up the leaves and put them on the ground or make a tea  the tea i use is 3 parts comfry 1 part pigeon poo however chicken pellets will do the same hope this helps

[Obelixx]

I have never used Growmore. 

[ancellsfarmer]

Or for the "organic" option :Vitax Q4

[Tiny Clanger]

Thanks everybody, especially TeeGee. Always great help x

[squeezyjohn]

My 2p worth - there's something just wrong about putting purified chemical crystals that are a by-product of the petro-chemical industry on home-grown food.  The glory of growing your own is to get better tasting, lower impact, organic produce.  You might as well buy the cheapest veggies from the supermarket if you're going to use the mass-producing methods of growing - even if you don't factor in your effort and time it would cost less than the cost of the growmore you have to put on does!

[pumkinlover]

Groworganic is made from chicken manure and seems to work really well.

[Digeroo]

I have never managed to find out precisely what is in growmore.   According to the RHS the 777 is incorrect and it is high in nitrogen, so being a wartime formulation I have always thought is contained urea.  It was originally made by the Humber Fishing and Fish manure Co. Ltd. 

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/national-growmore-fertiliser-a-brief-history/

Seems in 1942 you could by a Cwt (50kg) for 25 shillings. (£1.23)

I have always hoped that BFB contained more trace elements. 

I buy BFB from a horticultural supplier in 25 kg bags.  Works out about £14.50. 

[picman]

I buy FBB in 25k bag , use it all over the year , 2  4x30 m plots , GM seems to give more green less root...

[ancellsfarmer]

I have never managed to find out precisely what is in growmore.   

www.sinclairpro.com/files/.../file/.../Safety%20sheets/sinclair.../Growmore%20MSDS....


www.proctorsnpk.com/docs/Growmore.pdf

www.bashplots.org.uk/uploads/documents/coshh/Growmore.pdf

Seems to vary a little with source. Don't use it anymore. 50mm FYM,or compost on no-dig seems to provide sufficient nutrient. Chicken pellets &/ or VitaxQ4 held in reserve...

*First link may not open, but google search "growmore hazard sheet", and it opens as No 1-strange?

[Tee Gee]

So far as I remember it was produced by ICI now Sygenta and was known by a number rather its name Growmore.

It (the original recipe) is a post war product designed to increase grain output after the war.

Trouble is farmers seemed to have been misinformed as to how much to use and as a consequence, waterways become overgrown with water weeds due to the surplus nutrients from over fertilising the land feeding into the waterways through land drainage systems and subsequently feeding the weeds.

This meant canal boats were getting entangled in the increased amount of weeds,it also affected freshwater fishermen as they were getting their tackle entangled in the same weed masses.

Then of course there was the additional dredging carried to rid the waterways of these additional weeds.

It was around this time that more emphasis was put on regulating,fertilisers,pesticides and to a point GM crops. for example grain crops were designed to produce more seed and had shorter stems.

This was beneficial to some  but the shorter stems led to less straw for bedding so one problem was solved but created another and it has been ongoing like this ever since.

Gone are DDT, Nicotine, Paraquat etc. Well gone in name that is; but  I am not so sure that controlled amounts of these products are still used in some of today's weed & Pest control.

Then came " Organic Growing" which in my opinion is not a level playing field so as I see the amateur grower is always going to be the scape goat for horticultural changes, it certainly won't be commerce!

It is for reasons like this or similar that I will not call myself an organic grower as I see the use of chemicals ( which I rarely use) as plant medicine.

 Look at it this way if am poorly I will go to the doctor and he/she will prescribe some chemical to make me better and I won't think anything of it, so why can't I  give my plants some medicine when they need it?......I rest my case!

[Digeroo]

As far as I was aware it was a wartime product linked to dig for Victory about 1942.  My mother in law was very keen on it.  When I first knew her in about 1970 she still had some old wartime packets.  I think it was subsidised to help people grow vegetable. 

I am finding that nettle tea, two days old is very good for green fly.  Takes several applications but then lasts quite a long time.  My blackcurrants were covered in green, black or blue now they are all free.  And it is really cheap.