Tomato feed v seaweed feed

Daisypic

Being a newish gardener I am learning as I am going along, but some things confuse me! I know it is time to start feeding certain plants and I have been reading my GW magazines which says to start feeding. 

My query is, is tomato and seaweed feed the same thing or do you use one for veg and one for flowers. 

Any help would be appreciated. 

Dovefromabove

Tomato feed is good for anything that you want to produce flowers or fruit eg tomatoes, courgettes, roses, beans. Not for foliage plants and veg like lettuce and cabbage. 

Seaweed feed is more of a tonic rather than a fertilizer. I use it for all plants … not too often, probably once a month in the growing season, applied diluted with water around the roots. I also use it as a foliar feed by spraying a dilute mix on the leaves of my bay tree every two to three weeks in summer. 

Hope that helps. 😊 

Daisypic

Thanks @Dovefromabove, that’s really helpful. I will be growing a fruit bush and lettuce, radish and onions in the same raised bed. I guess it will be okay to feed them differently although they are all being grown together?  Out of curiosity what would I use for the lettuce etc, fish blood & bone? 

Fairygirl

I never feed lettuce. It isn't necessary 

Daisypic

Fairygirl said:

I never feed lettuce. It isn't necessary 

Brill, one less thing to worry about! 

Dovefromabove

For all of those an application Fish, Blood & Bone at the beginning of the season will usually be enough as it's a 'slow release' organic mix.   You might want to give the fruit bush an occasional watering with a dose of tomato feed when it's about to flower and forming the fruit.

My veg patch is on quite poor free-draining gritty loam and despite lots of manure and compost over the past few years I've found I need to supplement the FB&B with a little bit of Growmore type fertiliser when I plant stuff out to get it growing away well.  

So really it depends a bit on what the soil in the raised bed is and how long it's been there.  

Fairygirl

Yes- if the soil's poor, you may need extras, especially for the fruiting bush, but a raised bed would need additional nutrition each year to top it up anyway - organic matter. Are you doing that?

AnniD

Sorry to hijack your thread @Daisypic, but l was just about to ask a similar question 
I want to feed my roses but don't really want to buy a specific rose feed when l already have loads of tomato and seaweed feed. I had a pelleted type shrub/rose food that l applied in early Spring.

Just wondering if anyone could confirm which Is best, l'm guessing from @Dovefromabove 's answer that the tomato food is best for the roots ?

Fairygirl

My guess would be tomato food for your roses as they're heavier flowering. 
Seaweed is a general tonic as @Dovefromabove says, and is mostly beneficial for foliage. 

Re your raised bed @Daisypic, another idea [you could do this in autumn] is to put a dividing barrier in your bed so that the fruiting plant has it's own area, and you can target your feeding more accurately. I do that with mine, and although they aren't for veg, it means you can grow plants side by side which like a different medium   

Dovefromabove

AnniD said:

...

Just wondering if anyone could confirm which Is best, l'm guessing from @Dovefromabove 's answer that the tomato food is best for the roots ?

Not quite sure what you mean by this?  Tomato food promotes flowering ... it won't really have any impact on the roots ........ or was that an auto-correct typo ? 

Uff

May I jump in please and ask if tomato food would be beneficial for promoting good cobs on my sweetcorn this year?