MAKE YOUR OWN LIQUID FEEDS

It's easy to make a liquid feed for your plants and there are many benefits from doing so, says Dr Anton Rosenfeld, knowledge officer of Garden Organic

- Dr Anton Rosenfeld

A liquid feed can be thought of as liquid meal replacement for plants. It contains nutrients in a soluble form that they can take a up very readily. These feeds are best used on container-grown plants, where the roots are restricted to a very finite supply of nutrients.

In the summer, a hungry fast-growing plant such as a tomato in a pot can use up all the nutrients within four weeks so, after that, it will need the extra nutrition from a liquid feed in order to thrive. Plants growing in the soil shouldn't normally need a liquid feed as they are able to exploit the slow-release nutrients from a much larger volume of soil.

Making your own organic liquid feeds is a much more sustainable option than buying one and can save you considerable money. Bought products are often made from synthetic chemicals and even organic products require considerable energy to manufacture, package and transport them.

COMFREY LIQUID FEED

Comfrey is perhaps the best plant to make liquid feeds. It is related to borage, and is very good at drawing up nutrients from the lower depths of the soil into its leaves. To grow your own comfrey plant, it is best to find the 'Bocking 14' variety, which doesn't set seeds, so won't spread around your garden, unlike the common comfrey. The leaves can be cut and harvested for making liquid feed from April onwards. In a typical summer, it is possible to get at least three cuts, but this very much depends on the weather – in a very dry summer you may get less.

HERE'S HOW...