Plant food advice please

[TeresaFoodie]

I have a Numex Twighlight chilli plant courtesy of Suttons on my kitchen windowsill which suggests regular feeding with tomato plant feed. It looks healthy enough and seems to be springing back to life after our winter with a fruit already and blossoms, but also a few sorry looking leaves, some of which appear to have been nibbled a little bit (aphids?).

My question is, when I pop to our nearby retail park this lunchtime, can anyone recommend a good tomato feed, also, would it be good to feed my miniature rose with the same or something different at the same time? I pruned the rose a couple of weeks ago as it did look dead, now it has shoots popping out all over it, it looks very healthy. Should I re-pot, leave it alone, feed?

Can you tell I am quite new to this?

[Herbidacious]

I think any would be ok as long as high potash, but don't do it too often yet. I think you are not supposed to do it until the flowers appear - otherwise the food goes to producing foliage??? Are the leaves sticky?

tbh I usually go to the RHS and other gardening sites for advice. This site looks useful:

http://www.chilliupnorth.co.uk/howtogrowchillis.php

and this

https://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/ ... li-plants/

see the F&Q

Sorry don't know much about roses.

[suffolk]

Good advice from Herbi I find that the unbranded Wilko or similar tomato feed are just as good as the more expensive oneso. Don't overdose!

As for the rose ... if it's not been repotted since you had it then yes ... I'd repot it now ... most roses need something a bit more substantial than ordinary 'multi purpose compost' but I think it'll be fine for a miniature rose ... then in six weeks time (which is how long the fertiliser already in the compost will last) it'll need feeding with something ... a weak dose of a 'bog standard' Miracle Grow' type general purpose would be fine to start off with and then a weak dose of tomato feed every couple of weeks or so through the summer to help it produce lots of flowers ... stop feeding in September.

I would point you in the direction of the Gardeners World forum, but it's been offline for a week for a major re-vamp and we won't be functioning properly until some time later today ... but we're a friendly lot, just like the Wildies ... so do feel free to pop over there too
https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussions

[TeresaFoodie]

Thanks both. Lots of useful information on the links and I shall check out the gardening one soon.

I noted on CB that I have found a feed in The Range and will be buying that soon. I've also found a suitably sized pot for the rose, just need the compost, probably Homebase up the road will do that, and my mum has a ceramic pot. I'll then have to move the rose to my living room windowsill as two large pots (rose plus chilli) won't fit on my kitchen windowsill together with the five cactus that are all there too. Amazing how many plants you can fit on one tiny windowsill!

[suffolk]

As spring turns into summer you may find that the rose isn't terribly happy indoors ... they're sold as houseplants but they're not really suitable ... if you don't have anywhere outside to put it, it might look lovely on your Dad's boat ... there's a tradition of using roses to decorate narrow boats and barges, and the things on them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8SLmWoYtcc

[TeresaFoodie]

Ah yes, of course, I am familiar with roses on narrow boats! That's a delightful video. I'll bear that in mind. I'll see how it goes on here first though. It would look lovely when flowering on the living room windowsill, but it ultimately needs to be happy.

[TeresaFoodie]

99p Phostrogen from The Range purchased this morning. 99p on the shelf, £2.99 at the till. That's the second time they've done that to me recently. Of course I queried it. The £2 almost overcharge pays for my swim today!

[suffolk]