Grow Your Own Magazine

I have a bucket of nettle tea in my garden (rotten nettles in water which people say is good for plants).
However I am not sure what fruits will benefit and when can anyone help ?

I have the following fruits :- , strawberries *, apples *, blueberries *, gooseberries **, jostaberries *, blackcurrant (no leaves yet), mulberry (ditto), white currant, tayberry, bramble, apline strawberries***, cape gooseberry ***, sunberry and tomatoes *.

* = some in flower
** = some in fruit.
*** = only seedlings.

Which would benefit from nettle tea and when ?

I generally use nettle tea on my compost - makes for very happy, accelerated compost, does nettle tea.

Good idea - but would it not be a good source of liquid food as well ?

I would use it on every plant trying to flower or set fruit. First and foremost the Ribes genus: Gooseberries, currants and the like. They grow so rapidly that they need first.

Secondly, Tomatoes, sunberry and strawberries. This First two need lots of feed so you may want to use it twice or three times per week as things get going. In particular, nettles contain great quantities of trace elements like magnesium to which few other feeds can compare and as this is a common deficiency disease amongst tomatoes, I cannot recommend it enough. But I tend to alternate with another inorganic liquid feed as an extra boost in the summer. Strawberries too because they like a similar balance and are trying to set fruit.

Trees will respond to a good feed, but you'll need to spread this over such an area that to ensure that it reaches the roots before other plants is impractical. Far better is a mulch dressing of something like well-rooted manure or a dust feed of woodash or blood fish and bone, though I would not worry too much. Far better is watering, for big apple loads, when it gets hot.

The Rubus genus: Raspberries, blackberries and the like, will always respond well to a feed. But potash is the thing to aim for in combination with a good mulch (either compost or well-rotted manure). Nettles feed has a proportion this, so use it if you have enough, but I'd aim for woodash (not rained upon) because it can be 15% potassium (but not a lot else). You just need a light dusting anytime soon. The thing with Rubus species is that they are like native weeds and do well on next-to-nothing because they are adapted to cope. With a good drink you get the highest crops but a mulch assures this better that constant watering, less they be up against a wall.

Simon,

Thanks for the advice, particulary about woodash. I have an old metal bin which I hope to use to burn lots of wood soon - and I was going to pour it on the garden.

One question though do gooseberries and blueberries like a lot of food ? Some people say they don't.

I tend to find that gooseberries suffer quite badly with fruit drop, so I use something high in potash to counter the problem. I also see quite a bit of reddening in the leaves on some plants to indicate a slight lack of either phosphorous and potassium, so I tend to advocate a feed.

I'm less experienced with blueberries: They grow in the wild on nutrient poor soils. This exists because nutrient availability decreases with increased soil acidity... given that they live on soils at pH of 4.5 to 5.5, they will have adapted to low nutrient availability. However, these natural soils hold high quantities of organic matter that is held in the soil for quite a few years through the slow decomposition rates of bogs. The way I treat mine is to give a mulch of rotted organic matter (the semi-decomposed leaves of your comfrey tea for instance) and keep them sitting in soft water. This creates a similar situation to in the wild and provides enough nutrients over time. I have read that blueberries take up ammonium rather than nitrate from soil. This happens in anaerobic conditions and is typical of acid situations but it takes a while for the right microbes to play their part in this process. I would imagine that they could suffer quite badly from too much nutrition as similar acid-loving plants like certain pines, go into decline if fertiliser is used on say, a forest. But If you're after a feed then have a check on the web for what is used in agricultural-scale blueberry production.