Last year at Hampton Court we bought a couple of delphiniums from one of the
specialist exhibitors there.

We have a desperate problem with snails here (less so with slugs), and I
mentioned that my previous planted-out dephiniums perhaps lasted a week
before they had been devoured beyond the point of flourishing.

Their advice was to leave them in the pots until late-spring this year, and
feed them with XXX food until they were big enough to be able to cope with
the onslaught.

Problem is I can't remember for the life of me whether XXX was rose
fertiliser or tomato food. My instinct is that it was rose fertiliser.

Anyone able to confirm or correct this?


--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

In article , RichardS
writes


Last year at Hampton Court we bought a couple of delphiniums from one of the
specialist exhibitors there.

We have a desperate problem with snails here (less so with slugs), and I
mentioned that my previous planted-out dephiniums perhaps lasted a week
before they had been devoured beyond the point of flourishing.

Their advice was to leave them in the pots until late-spring this year, and
feed them with XXX food until they were big enough to be able to cope with
the onslaught.

Problem is I can't remember for the life of me whether XXX was rose
fertiliser or tomato food. My instinct is that it was rose fertiliser.

Anyone able to confirm or correct this?


having this morning read the ingredients on a whole shelf full of
assorted fertilisers including rose feed and tomato feed, they all seem
to be relatively high in potassium, and it won't make a lot of
difference which you use. Rose fertilisers seem to be stronger overall
than tomato fertilisers, so presumably you would use them less
frequently.

--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Kay" wrote in message
news
In article , RichardS
writes


Last year at Hampton Court we bought a couple of delphiniums from one of
the
specialist exhibitors there.

We have a desperate problem with snails here (less so with slugs), and I
mentioned that my previous planted-out dephiniums perhaps lasted a week
before they had been devoured beyond the point of flourishing.

Their advice was to leave them in the pots until late-spring this year,
and
feed them with XXX food until they were big enough to be able to cope
with
the onslaught.

Problem is I can't remember for the life of me whether XXX was rose
fertiliser or tomato food. My instinct is that it was rose fertiliser.

Anyone able to confirm or correct this?


having this morning read the ingredients on a whole shelf full of
assorted fertilisers including rose feed and tomato feed, they all seem
to be relatively high in potassium, and it won't make a lot of
difference which you use. Rose fertilisers seem to be stronger overall
than tomato fertilisers, so presumably you would use them less
frequently.



Thanks, Kay. So high potassium is what I'm after? If so I'll go with
whichever is highest of my rose or tom fertilisers.

--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

In article , RichardS
writes

"Kay" wrote in message
news


having this morning read the ingredients on a whole shelf full of
assorted fertilisers including rose feed and tomato feed, they all seem
to be relatively high in potassium, and it won't make a lot of
difference which you use. Rose fertilisers seem to be stronger overall
than tomato fertilisers, so presumably you would use them less
frequently.



Thanks, Kay. So high potassium is what I'm after? If so I'll go with
whichever is highest of my rose or tom fertilisers.

Not necessarily ;-)

Search for Dave Poole's recent post on the topic - sorry, I can't
remember which thread, and although I 'kept' it I can't find it at this
second.

Gist was that phosphorous initiated the production of lots of flowers,
though once the flowers are developing, high potassium helps their
development. But since what is available in both tomato fertiliser and
rose fertiliser is high potassium, then it doesn't make much difference
which of them you use. I suppose advice might be to go for whichever
high potassium fertiliser has the highest phoshorous compared with
nitrogen content?
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , RichardS
writes

"Kay" wrote in message
news


having this morning read the ingredients on a whole shelf full of
assorted fertilisers including rose feed and tomato feed, they all seem
to be relatively high in potassium, and it won't make a lot of
difference which you use. Rose fertilisers seem to be stronger overall
than tomato fertilisers, so presumably you would use them less
frequently.



Thanks, Kay. So high potassium is what I'm after? If so I'll go with
whichever is highest of my rose or tom fertilisers.

Not necessarily ;-)

Search for Dave Poole's recent post on the topic - sorry, I can't
remember which thread, and although I 'kept' it I can't find it at this
second.

Gist was that phosphorous initiated the production of lots of flowers,
though once the flowers are developing, high potassium helps their
development. But since what is available in both tomato fertiliser and
rose fertiliser is high potassium, then it doesn't make much difference
which of them you use. I suppose advice might be to go for whichever
high potassium fertiliser has the highest phoshorous compared with
nitrogen content?


Thanks again - I'll find that thread. I did actually search google before
posting the q, but as ever, probably missed the result due to incorrect
search terms (bah - and I call myself a professional programmer!!!).


--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

"RichardS" wrote in message
...

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , RichardS
writes

"Kay" wrote in message
news

having this morning read the ingredients on a whole shelf full of
assorted fertilisers including rose feed and tomato feed, they all
seem
to be relatively high in potassium, and it won't make a lot of
difference which you use. Rose fertilisers seem to be stronger
overall
than tomato fertilisers, so presumably you would use them less
frequently.



Thanks, Kay. So high potassium is what I'm after? If so I'll go
with
whichever is highest of my rose or tom fertilisers.

Not necessarily ;-)

Search for Dave Poole's recent post on the topic - sorry, I can't
remember which thread, and although I 'kept' it I can't find it at
this
second.

Try Dave's post at 09:04 on 23/04 in reply to New Gardens Miracle Gro.

HTH

--
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Dorset UK Astro Society's Web pages, Info, Meeting Dates, Sites & Maps
Change 'news' to 'sewn' in my Reply address to avoid my spam filter.