In article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:

Can you tell me please Charlie what is "slow release" fertiliser?

I use Osmocote 18 month but as the bbc often say "other brands are
available!" basically they are all similar and are little pellets of clay
that contain the fertilizer it percolates out slowly over time (It is often
mistaken for snail eggs by new gardeners!)

Because peat free composts contain composted wood products or other
composted green waste they are often unpredictable as the composting process
is sometimes still on going which starves your plants of nutrients, you can
tell pretty quickly as the plants just sit there.

Predictability is what its all about and is the reason that the John Innes
recipe was widely adopted for soil based composts (its good but I find sets
like concrete on its own. would that some similar standard could be achieved
for peat free composts but at the moment it varies bag to bag.

Thanks very much Charlie -- very useful!

John