Feeding seedlings

[Elderflower]

I`ve just potted on my tomatoes, Marmande, into their first little pots. They`ve just got their true leaves. Do I feed them at this point or do I wait until they grow up a bit?
Come to think of it - what about other seedlings? I shall be potting my little cauli seedlings and cabbage seedlings soon - do I feed them or wait and feed the bed I shall transplant them into?

Value your advice friends!

[vivienz]

Hi Elderflower,

There should be sufficient nutrients in the potting compost for the young plants - if you feed them you may get lots of tall but leggy growth. The only time to worry is if you have to hold them back in adverse weather conditions, but they should be fine for now. How small are the new pots? I usually grow mine on in 10cm pots.
Best wishes,
Vivien

[John]

Hello Elderflower
I think you'll just have to use your own judgement on this one. Generally multipurpose composts should have enough nutrients for a few weeks of growth but it does depend on the size of pot that you are using. I've found bought composts vary considerably in nutrients not only between make but also from bag to bag with the same supplier. If you think feeding will help use a soluble feed like Chempak at half strength. The general purpose feed (balanced) will do for most things but the high nitrogen one might be be better for leafy stuff like brassicas and lettuce.

John

[Elderflower]

Thank you - I`ve used 10cm pots - I`ll probably wait until they go up into the next size pot then.
The brassicas will go straight from the 10cm pots into their final beds so I`ll wait until then and make sure the bed is well nourished.
Ta very much

[Lurganspade]

Almost all gardening presenters both radio and TV say, when using compost "Use A Good Quality Compost".
How! the devil am I to know, when is is "Good Quality" or not; you pays your money and takes your chance!

[Monika]

WHICH magazine presented a report on their compost tests recently and, in a nutshell, they found that B&Q compost was best and FOCUS didn't do very well. I use Humax multipurpose compost (which was not tested by them) and always found it reliable and with enough nutrients to see plants through for quite a while.

[Elderflower]

What about my home made compost? I`ve been sieving and using this for potting on.
Is this as good as the `multi-purpose` stuff you get?

[Primrose]

I have used home made compost for sowing seedlings in the past but found it generated a lot of weeds which is the last thing you want. Obviously my compost heap hadn't heated up enough to kill them all off.

[Mike Vogel]

I too have just potted on tomato seedlings. What I normally do is to include some seaweed fertiliser in the mix [very small amount] and this worked well last year. I dare say a few grains of Growmore would do as well.

mike

[Johnboy]

Hi Elderflower,
If your bought M/P Compost is old most of the nutrition will have diminished so for seeding I add approx the equivalent to a serving spoon heaped of Super Phosphate to 20 litres of M/P Compost.
When potting on I add the same amount of Vitax Q4HN
which is in pellet form. The HN means high nitrogen.
You could also use the same quantity of National Growmore if you have that and not Vitax.
When mixed thoroughly the amount each plant gets is a very small amount but just sufficient to ensure good root formation. At this stage root formation is actually more crucial than top growth. If you have a good solid root basis your plant will grow away happily when planted out.
I feel that to use hard made home made compost at these stages is actually a waste of your resource and is better used on the bed either at planting out time or as a mulch during the season as it progresses.
JB.

[Elderflower]

Thanks for that JB. Especially about my home made compost!