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Wilko Seaweed Plant Feed Concentrated
by ryeb Wilkinson's is one of my favourite places to browse for gardening items as I have quickly come to realise that many of the things I would normally buy at the garden centre cost a fraction of the price in Wilko. One thing I never fail to buy each year is some of their concentrated seaweed feed for plants which I use as a plant boosting ... tonic both at home and on my allotment. I was introduced to it by a fellow allotment holder and I am very glad I tried it myself. THE PRODUCT The Wilko seaweed feed is described as a natural plant tonic that can be used to help plants "withstand environmental stress" and it is also supposed to encourage the healthy cropping of fruits and flowers. It is recommended for use on shrubs, plants, vegetables and flowers. It is supplied in a concentrated liquid form so the 800ml makes an impressive 373 litres of food once diluted. WHAT I USE IT FOR As the feed is described as a tonic rather than a fertiliser you will not find the usual nutrient breakdown on the bottle, telling you what the potassium, nitrogen and phosphorous levels are. From research gathered from the textbooks I have and from talking to my gardening colleagues [I am a kitchen garden trainee], I have gathered that the main benefits of seaweed are believed to be in the fact it delivers trace elements and minerals to the soil that may be missing form traditional compound fertilisers. The bottle states that it can be used alongside other liquid and soluble feeds, and I have used it both in that way and on it's own as I will explain below. This is useful because there seems to be some debate over how much of the other nutrients it provides, or rather how accessible they may be to the plants. By using it in combination with other fertilisers you needn't leave anything to chance. When I first heard of the reported benefits, I did some research online and I found that one of the crops that was said to benefit most was broad beans. I fed one set of 12 of these with the seaweed feed, 12 had a general purpose liquid feed, and 12 more had no feed at all, bar the same compost rich trench that all the beans were planted in. At the end of the growing season of 2011, the seaweed fed beans had produced a larger crop per plant and the plants also cropped for about 10 days longer than either of the others. They were noticeable taller and bushier plants too. This convinced me to continue with the feeds which I had made weekly, in following seasons. I subsequently tested just seaweed fed beans against those feed on both that and potash and the last combination seems to be the optimum one. I give the potash feed and seaweed in alternate waterings. I have conducted experiments on other crops and I feel it is legumes as a whole such as peas and runner beans that seem to benefit especially from the seaweed, along with cauliflowers and tomatoes. Leafy salad plants make no better growth one way or another and the difference with potted flower such as pansies is minimal. I do think it helps give a boost to the sort of plants you rescue from the garden centre that look half dead, although as I don't have a control sample I can't be sure that it was the seaweed feed that made the difference. EASE OF USE The full dilution instructions are on the bottle and are easy to follow as you can use the bottle cap to measure the feed into your watering can. It mixes in a jiffy and is then ready to use straight away, as either a root drench, foliar feed or by watering in - the last being what I do generally. I must say that it does not smell at all nice. It is a dark sludgy brown and stinks. However the scent is at it's worst when the feed is concentrated in the bottle and after dilution it is much less offensive. I can't smell it around the allotment after it has been watered in unless I pressed my nose close to the soil which I wouldn't do usually, and even that fades. The instructions suggest various frequencies of use depending on the plant, from a root drench when planting out to feeds every 6-10 days. I tend to use it at every other watering or weekly, but I think it's best to use your own judgement and see how your plants respond. One capful [15ml] usually goes into either 5 or 7 litres of water so it is economical to use in general. WOULD I RECOMMEND? Yes, I think it is a very useful tonic and the fact it can be used alongside other feeds makes it useful if you aren't sure how well it will work. I tried it when I was less experienced at growing things because if one of my plants looked like it wasn't thriving and I wasn't sure what type of feed to give it, I knew I could safely use seaweed tonic to give it a bit of a boost until I knew what else - if anything - to do. It doesn't smell great admittedly, but nor do many feeds and it isn't as if you have to put up with the smell for long. Some similar tonics cost a great deal, so if you are tempted to give one a try, this is a cheap way of experimenting at £4.50 for 800ml. Only available at Wilkinsons as it is own brand. If you have bought it in the past, be aware it isn't in a green bottle anymore, but a white one so it looks identical to all their other feeds - how helpful! Read the complete review |
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Baby Bio Original Plant Feed
by Whizz11 Surprising enough, I'm doing quite well with my house plants this year. I usually end up killing them all by not feeding them properly or forgetting to water them and then I over water them, but so far so good. I do choose plants that are fairly hard to kill such as green leafed ones with no flowers that the garden centre man says are ... pretty tough but a while ago a friend bought me an orchid and I almost had a mild panic wondering if I could keep it alive for more than a few days. Well, a few weeks on and it is flourishing and I think that's in part to this plant food. As you can tell, I'm not very green fingered so as this is the only plant food that I really know about its the one I have been using for quite a while now. I always remember my mum and dad having a bottle of it in their house when I was younger, as they still do now and so when I went looking for a bottle of plant feed this was the first and only one I looked for. Given that its only £2 for a bottle in Wilkinsons and that it lasts for such a long time, this is a really economical buy also. Its been called Britains favourite house plant food for over 60 years and I can see why. It's very simple to use and very effective. Baby Bio is best described as a low nutrient fertiliser and is used on plants to produce greener leaves and vibrant colours. The brown liquid comes in a tiny little bottle but will last for ages as you only need to use a few drops every time you water. The liquid is concentrated and going by the instructions I add 5 drops of this liquid to a pint glass of water and then water my plants regularly. The top of the bottle has a dropper effect to it so it's easy to just add five drops without using too much which is good. The feed really seems to be working. My green leaved plants look really healthy and are thriving and my orchid so far is doing really well and hasn't lost any of its flowers. I would definitely recommend this plant feed if you're not the best gardener as its a no brainer type of feed. Read the complete review |
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Baby Bio Original Plant Feed
by SoadFan ~A reliable way to keep houseplants well fed!~ *********************************** Baby Bio is something that I have very often bought and used to help maintain the condition of green house plants and potted flowers around the home. I find that a small bottle of baby Bio will last a long time as I only tend to use the ... product every now and then in the growing season, so as not to over feed my plants and flowers. I like the fact that the product is easy to dilute with water to give as much or as little of the solution I want to use in order to help keep everything growing nicely. I find that the product gives good results if you follow the mixing guidelines. ~Using baby Bio~ ************* House plants and flowers can very often be rather neglected as we tend to forget that they are living things that need some TLC every now and then and even during those times when we do remember to take a little more care of things we all want a quick and easy option. In my experience Baby Bio is a good quick fix product that can be added to fresh water and used to add a little plant food to a variety of house plants with very little fuss or bother. I find that it is easy to dispense a few drops of Baby Bio into a spray bottle or small jug, mix this with fresh water and have the whole thing ready for application in just a few minutes. According to the instructions given just 5 to 10 drops of baby Bio are enough to make up a full pint of plant food which would be enough to water and feed a good number of smaller sized plant pots every other week during the plant/ flower growing season. As this is a feed product you don't need to drown you plants with it when applying it correctly in my experience in order to get good results from it. I very often just mix 2 to 3 drops of Baby Bio with 1/2 a pint of water to feed the mix of flowering and non flowering plants I have on the kitchen window ledge and find this is more than enough to keep the plants happy and well fed. You can mix larger amounts of feed if wanted and this is very easy to do in my experience as just one small cap of Baby Bio will make up 2 whole pints of plant feed. With baby Bio it is so easy to mix up as much or as little as you need without wasting a thing, which I feel is a real bonus. I find that if I follow the principle of feeding plants just once very two weeks when they are either growing or flowering they end up looking nice and green, as well as having a nice amount of flowers without looking over fed or over treated. I have often used the product to help maintain house plants and found that it works well if used with care and attention. I have also used Baby Bio as a substitute for those small sachets that often come with cut flowers and found that it does a good job of extending the life of cut flowers in most cases (bleaching your vase and rinsing it out prior to use will also help extend the life of cut flowers). I would say that the only down side to Baby Bio when used in this way is that the water colour does change slightly, meaning that it may not look as fresh and clean when poured into clear glass vases. When used in a coloured vase this problem is not an issue in my opinion. ~Rating/ price~ ************ A small sized 175ml bottle of baby Bio will last a good amount of time if bought to feed a small number of house plants in my experience and provides good value for money as far as I am concerned. The most I have ever paid for a bottle of this product is around £2.25 which I feel is good value. I consider that Baby Bio is a reliable plant feed that comes in a compact and easy to store bottle. My rating for the product is 4 stars as I feel it generally works well. Read the complete review |
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1 review Garden Chemical / Brand: Wilko |
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