Ste wrote:What is potash? All I used during the summer was a handfull of chicken pellets a few times and miracle grow about every 2 weeks.
On fertilizer packets there is normally an N:P:K ratio, Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potassium (Potash). Broadly speaking Nitrogen is for green growth and Potassium for Flowering and Fruiting. Fertilizers may also include trace elements.
If the N:P:K ratio is 10:0:0 then the fertilizer only contains Nitrogen - the sort of thing that farmers put on their cereal crops in the Spring, and we use for Lawns.
An N:P:K of 7:7:7 has the same amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, a "general" fertilizer (often generically referred to as "growmore")
The difference between an N:P:K of 10:0:0 and 20:0:0 is that the second one contains twice as much Nitrogen - so you can use half as much fertilizer for the same benefit.
N:P:K of Chicken Manure is 1.1 : 0.8 : 0.5 and Chicken Pellets 4 : 2.5 : 2.3, so its higher on Nitrogen than Phosphate and Potassium .
Miracle grow is 24:8:16 (although there are different strengths)
For things high in Potassium you can use "Sulphate of Potash" (0:0:50
) or a Tomato fertilizer (they tend to be around 5:5:10), or if you want to grow your own then Comfrey makes a good Potash fertilizer (around 8 : 6 : 20.5) [best to grow the sterile Bocking 14 variety otherwise it will spread everywhere!]