Effective application of liquid feed to bedding crops

When and why should you consider changing your liquid feed regime?

Feed is becoming an increasingly expensive part of growing plants, and there is also more awareness of the environmental impact of run-off from irrigation water, so efficient use of feed is an important strategy on the nursery.

There is also ongoing change in the type of growing media supplied to nurseries and when you use peat-free and peat reduced growing media, the approach to feeding needs to be considered.

As heating costs increase, it is important to understand the impact of growing in cooler glasshouses on your liquid feed regime.

This guide will help provide the information you need to make best use of liquid feed.

Understanding the factors in your growing system

Your irrigation system, your growing media, your water quality, and the weather conditions will all affect how effectively feed is delivered to the crop. Our recommendation is to monitor the following factors:

• Have a laboratory analysis done to understand the quality of the water you are using for irrigation, it may be high or low in some important nutrients.
• Ask for the details of all the nutrients in your growing media, or have a laboratory analysis done.
• Check the amount of nutrient in the growing media as the crop grows by measuring the electrical conductivity (EC) with a simple handheld monitor.
• How much water is being applied to the crop and how often, this has a direct impact of the amount of feed plants can get.
• How warm it is in the glasshouse, this can be used to predict water use.

Watch this short video summarising the research done in this area:

Interactions between irrigation method and liquid feed delivery

Read this page to find out more about how feeding your crop effectively is affected by your watering method.

Interactions between growing media and liquid feed delivery

Read this page to find out more about how feeding your crop effectively is affected by your growing media.

When using a controlled release fertiliser may be a better option

Using liquid feed is reliant on watering plants, the more water you apply to more feed you can give the crop. Use this page to consider what to do when water use is low.  

What level of EC should I have?

Looking at the electrical conductivity (EC) of growing media and irrigation water is a simple way to monitor crop nutrition, but how much is enough? And when is it too much? Read our quick guide to understanding this subject.