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Plant tomato food, can you make your own?

NollieNollie Posts: 6,771
in Plants
Liquid tomato feed is difficult to find and expensive when you do, over here. As it’s the potash I am after to help fruiting/flowering, is there anything home-made or a cheaper way of buying the same thing?

I do have a log burner, would the ash from this work and would the ash alkalinity be problematic with my already extremely alkaline clay?

I have designs on a comfrey patch one day, when my injured shoulder is better and I can dig  a bed from my tough ground, but need something in the meantime...
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.

Posts

  • jondi1jondi1 Posts: 1
    Yes, Comfrey tea, or nettle tea if you dont have Comfrey. Youtube videos will help further. 

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    You can make 'tea' with almost any soft leafy stuff but most resulting liquid will likely be high only in nitrogen.  Banana skin tea would probably work well as tomato feed.  Some recipes here:

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • HelixHelix Posts: 631
    Banana tea, brilliant! OH won’t have banana skins in the compost as they don’t break down well here so this is a very useful idea. I use nettle on my tomatoes to start with, and then as soon as they start flowering I swap to comfrey.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 6,771
    Hi, thanks folks, I assumed nettle tea would be too high in nitrogen so not give me the desired effect re fruiting/flowering - but banana skins, that is sheer brilliance, thanks @BobTheGardener.

    Until I get the Comfrey patch going, I will have to peg my nose, I really really hate the smell of bananas - they are, in fact, banned from the house and if a builder turns up with one in his lunchbox I come over all faint! I might just have to relax that rule for the sake of the flowers and veg.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 6,771
    Well I was in the GC this morning for something else and I came across Liquid CANNABIS feed! 

    I assumed it was liquid feed for cannabis plants (since you can grow it legally here for personal use) but on closer inspection, it was an organic high potash feed made from cannabis leaves, with added seaweed extracts, specifically to promote flowering. NPK 4-8-12. Perfect. Much cheaper than tomato feed too.

    My toms, dahlias, clem etc., are going to be soo chilled 😎 

    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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