Westland tomato feed any good

balloo_2

Anyone had good or bad reports on this Westland Tomatoe feed, most of the cheapo shops do DOFF tomato feed but I am not sure about that either not to sure about what i should be looking for in the different tomato feeds (as to the ingredients added to make it a good feed) used Tomorite the last 2 years

A._Badger

The best tomato feed that I've found (and Gardening Which? appears to agree) is Chempak. The reason is because, being granular rather than a pre-mixed liquid, it is far more economical to use. It also, like the rest of the Chempak range, includes a full complement of trace elements, which some of the others don't.

The only downside is that to can be hard to find. I buy mine from the gardening direct website.

Hope that helps.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i normally put an old banana skin in near to the roots once i have planted the tomato plant in its final pot/place, and then use a general plant feed,

I dont know where i heard or read about the old banana skin, but it does work, something to do with bananas being high in potassium.

also good for eating the morning after the night before....;):rotfl:a good cure for hangovers..

dogstarheaven

I've never heard of CHEMPAK before, but I'll check it out. Normally, I use Tomorite too but can be quite expensive. It's 2 for £6 I think in Asda's atm, but i bought mine from Wilko's for about £2+ last yr and am hoping to see if the offer will come back again. I do use Wilko's poultry manure granules for the flower bed but I'm not sure whether it'll be appropriate to use for container veggies/flowers as it might be too strong considering the soil/pot size ratio. what do you think??

A._Badger

dogstarheaven wrote: »

I've never heard of CHEMPAK before, but I'll check it out. Normally, I use Tomorite too but can be quite expensive. It's 2 for £6 I think in Asda's atm, but i bought mine from Wilko's for about £2+ last yr and am hoping to see if the offer will come back again. I do use Wilko's poultry manure granules for the flower bed but I'm not sure whether it'll be appropriate to use for container veggies/flowers as it might be too strong considering the soil/pot size ratio. what do you think??

Tomorite is expensive - partly because it's a liquid but not least because it's a brand leader and they can charge a premium for it. But in reality there's no magic about fertilisers. If you read the ingredients panel on the side of the box, by law it has to tell you what's inside, so you can compare two products side by side and if they have the same ingredients they will do much the same job (with a few caveats, I admit - like slow release properties and how well they dissolve).

Chempak makes a huge range of fertilisers, but you rarely see them in the shops (though I strongly suspect they actually make a lot of the own label ones for major retail chains). I buy the specific types I want (cactus, rose, ericaceous, high nitrogen, high potash, etc ) direct from their retail arm www.gardendirect.co.uk

As for using poultry manure in pots, I know people do this, but I'm not that keen, personally - I think it's a bit fierce and could burn plant roots. That said, I think it does a pretty good job in open ground.

For pots, I prefer to use either a slow release product made specially for the job (there are plenty of these around - Osmocote, or Wilkinsons do one, as does Chempak) or I feed with a diluted powder made for the job - ideally Chempak 4 or Phostrogen. The only hassle is having to use a watering can to mix the stuff up, which can be a chore if you have 20 or 30 pots to water and feed at a time.

The advantage of feeding this way is that you can adjust the formula to suit the conditions. If growth has been slow, you can switch to high Nitrogen to boost leaf production, if you're trying to get fruits or flowers, you can switch to high Potash. Perhaps best of all, you can feed exhibition plants at very dilute levels with every watering. That overcomes the nagging worry at the end of a season, when you start wondering if a slow release fertiliser has run out of oomph.

Hope that's some help.

Furny

If you do decide on Chempak on the website courtesy of A BADGERS link it is currentley on BOGOF offer so two for £4.50!.

dogstarheaven

hi to you both

well, i've looked on the website and it seems a good deal at a BOGOF but i'm still weighing up the comparison costs with some other supplies i need (perlite, vermiculite etc from wilko's?) before justifying paying the delivery costs... the website name does sound familar and am not sure whether other threads on here have been given bad press to them - tho' i might be wrong..it's just the name rings a bell, that's all...

kaya

lol, depends if you are 12 years old and looking to get off your face i suppose, let me know how it goes!

A._Badger

dogstarheaven wrote: »

hi to you both

well, i've looked on the website and it seems a good deal at a BOGOF but i'm still weighing up the comparison costs with some other supplies i need (perlite, vermiculite etc from wilko's?) before justifying paying the delivery costs... the website name does sound familar and am not sure whether other threads on here have been given bad press to them - tho' i might be wrong..it's just the name rings a bell, that's all...

The postage is a turn-off, I agree. What I do is place one big annual order and buy it all in one go. The BOGOF is attractive but the real thing (for me) is that they carry the full range - you can get products you just never see anywhere else. They've never let me down, but that's just one badger's experience - others might have a different tale to tell.

Frankly, though, if all you wanted was a high potash powder, quite a few stores do their own Phostrogen clones and they will do fine. Oh, and there's really no magic about tomato fertilisers either. Any high potash feed will do and if you start getting Magnesium deficiency, just spray with Epsom salts!

A._Badger

kaya wrote: »

lol, depends if you are 12 years old and looking to get off your face i suppose, let me know how it goes!

Ummm... wrong thread? Am I missing something?

peter_the_piper

Mephadrone.
However remember that tomato food is great for toms, cuecumbers etc but is not good enough for hanging baskets and pots though.