Fertilizer: Growmore

Growmore is a multi-purpose plant food with an even balance of nutrients to feed all the plants in your garden, with a content of N-7, P-7, K-7.

When preparing Beds, Borders and Vegetable Plots, scatter 140g per sq m (4oz per sq yd) onto the soil 7 – 10 days before planting or sowing and fork well in. 

• For salad crops use half the quantity.  This should give sufficient nutrients for 6 to 8 weeks.
• Growmore can be applied to the soil surface once a month to keep your plants well fed throughout the growing season. Scatter 70g per sq m (2oz per sq yd) onto the soil and lightly fork or hoe in.
• Growmore has its place in the garden as an all in one feed, quick and easy with no messing.
• It's a good beginner fertiliser but you will soon find that it is not adequate for more specialised subjects.  There are alternative fertilisers around such as Pelleted Chicken Manure which also has the advantage of being organic.
• The key points with Growmore are:
• Can be used for soil improvement, planting and feeding of established plants.
• Apply as a top dressing around trees, shrubs, beds and borders.
• Ideal granular fertiliser for use in the vegetable garden.
• Promotes vigorous plants which produce heavy crops of fruit and vegetables, and beautiful flowers.
• Contains equal levels of the three most important plant nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. N-P-K 7-7-7
• Can be applied throughout the growing season from February-October, every 4-6 weeks.
• Contains none of the trace elements, which will have to be supplemented if the soil needs them.
• During WWII the British Government introduced a campaign called 'Dig For Victory', when most gardens were converted to growing food and more allotments were created. To increase cropping yields, the war time government had a balanced fertisliser formula developed that was called 'National Growmore'.
• Growmore as it become known had a ratio of N-P-K of 7-7-7 and even today this is what you will find on boxes of Growmore produced and sold by many different companies, including some German manufacturers.
• A search on the web will show that some people will not use Growmore since it is balanced and thus not suitable for growing their particular plants. However, they miss the point, as Growmore is the base and certain crops would likely need additional treatment throughout the growing season. So for example, cabbages will benefit from a nitrogen feed later to encourage leaf growth or tomatoes will need a potash feed for fruit development.
• During the war many people referred to Growmore as 'artificial' since they were manufactured rather than coming from animal or other waste products applied directly to the soil. The leaflets at the time explained that products like Growmore were not artificial but inorganic. It is for this reason that many of todays organic gardeners will not use Growmore since it is not likely that it is made from renewable resources.

NPK 7-7-7