MY GARDEN .(Early Season)

Today we spent in the garden, Potting on lots of little plants into the next size pots, I think potting Fuchsias on into only the next size up pot is important.When taking tip cuttings I put single ones into a 1.5" pot, two or three in 2.5"and so on. When these cuttings have rooted (about 3 to 6 weeks) pot them on singly in these small pots then every 3-6 wks pot them on again into the next size pot, repeat this at least twice more, its a lot of trouble but well worth it. When potting on gently firm the soil around the plant never push too firmly.My cutting compost is simply grow bag peat(as cheap as possible) then mix 70 parts of this compost to 30 parts of silver sand or fine vermiculite or perlite and plant. When plants have rooted and been potted on for the first time you can apply a weak feed to them every third or fourth watering, Any weak liquid feed will do to start ie Growmore liquid, Phostrogen or Vitax, water like this until potting into the next size pot, when potting on use a good quality multi purpose compost. Here I'm afraid I have to go a bit technical, every serious plant grower has his own formula for growing wonderful Roses, Vegetables, or flowers that they keep secret.But all plants need slightly differing feed types so I will try to explain a plants needs.When choosing a feed you will need to understand that fertilisers (feeds) contain three main (and lots of minor elements)these are Nitrogen-Phosphates-Potash And are shown on your feed packets as N -P -K. For a typical feed of say Growmore would be 7.00 7.00 7.00 or said as 1-1-1 feed. Now to help simplify this they try to put all feeds into these single numbers, ie Vitax 103 is Nitrogen13.00 I part, Phosphates 0 o parts, Potash 43 3parts, simplified to 1 -o -3 , no well I did say it was a bit difficult did'nt I. Now to finish i will try to explain what I understand these elements do (remember I'm no expert).Nitrogen helps growth, makes green foliage and increases plant size. Phosphates stimulate root growth and speeds up the flowering. Potash helps plants (especially Fuchsias) take up the nitrogen for leaf and stem growth,prevents soft growth and helps fight diseases finally helping flower colour. Fuchsias (and possibly other plants) benefit from different N-P-K feeds at different times during their growth I will touch on this on a later blog. I promise nothing too technical on my next blog.