posted
this is one of those admissions of ignorance/stupidity that everyone encourages novices to make in order to learn. so, here goes... what, exactly, are meant by "side dressing" and "top dressing" when discussing feeding/fertilizing a growing plant? I have deduced, but never read anything specific.
thanks in advance
* * * * If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. - Oscar Wilde Plants: 24 | From: Hudson Valley, NY | Registered: Apr 2006
| Seeded: 68.199.186.81
posted
I reckon that's a great question. I hope this answer, which is only my interpretation of the terms, is sufficient.
A side dressing is an extra application of fert or lime etc. It would be done as an extra to the regular soil preparation which has occurred. For example, you may have a bed ready to receive tomatoes, all tilled and manured and composted but as tomatoes like potash, you could give them a side dressing of sulphate of potash. Similarly, cabbages may like a side dressing of a nitrogen based organic fertilizer like chicken manure pellets. So i see it as meaning an extra application of something, specific to the plant being grown.
Top dressing is when you cover an entire area with soil or sand and allow the plant, such as lawn grass, to grow up thru it. Or you may top dress a vegie bed with compost. Then till it in.
Again, these are only my interpretations.
* * * * The secret is the soil. Plants: 1184 | From: East Coast | Registered: Sep 2004
| Seeded: 211.31.253.100
* * * * If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. - Oscar Wilde Plants: 24 | From: Hudson Valley, NY | Registered: Apr 2006
| Seeded: 68.199.186.81
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