Liquid Fertiliser

Liquid feeds for when plants need help now — taken up through roots or foliage within days, not weeks. The fastest way to correct a deficiency mid-season.

Liquid fertiliser and plant feed: the fastest way to feed a plant

A granular feed takes weeks to break down and reach the root. A liquid plant feed takes days, and a foliar spray takes hours. That is the whole case for keeping liquids alongside your dry amendments: they are what you reach for when a plant needs help now, not next month.

Everything on this page is an organic liquid fertiliser: concentrated liquid plant food, single-nutrient correctors and micronised mineral suspensions, all of them diluted into a watering can or a sprayer. If you already run a granular programme, treat these as the correction layer rather than a replacement for it. All of it is made in small batches by the people who sell it, and every bottle carries a full analysis.

What is in the range

Which liquid feed for which job

  • Tomatoes, chillies, strawberries and anything fruiting: the 3-2-6 from first flower onwards, weekly in pots. The granular blends and the calcium that deals with blossom end rot are in Tomatoes & Edibles.
  • Leafy crops, hedges and anything pale and stalled: the liquid amino nitrogen, or the 5-2-5 where you want balance rather than a push. Granular and liquid nitrogen are compared in Nitrogen Fertilisers.
  • Flower size, colour and fruit quality: the liquid potash, or the 3-2-6. The straight potassium sources are in Potash & Potassium Fertilisers.
  • Yellowing between the veins on older leaves: liquid magnesium, which acts in days where kieserite takes weeks.
  • A lawn that has gone pale: the Liquid Lawn Feed, sprayed after rain; the rest of the lawn programme is in Lawn Care.
  • Seedlings, plugs and transplants: the seedling feed, half strength, from the first true leaves.

Liquid plant food for pots, containers and grow bags

Containers are where a liquid plant feed earns its keep. Limited soil volume, frequent watering and nutrients leaving through the bottom mean a single spring application of anything rarely lasts, and dilute, regular feeding suits them far better. The pattern that works for most container crops is a balanced liquid through establishment and the potassium-led 3-2-6 once flowering starts, with a magnesium correction if the older leaves yellow between the veins. Dilution rates are on every product page, and the liquid fertiliser calculator works out how much to mix for a can or a tank.

Liquid or granular: when a liquid suits better

Granular carries the season; a liquid feed handles speed. The liquid earns its place when something is visibly short now (pale new growth, yellowing between the veins, a crop that has stalled), in containers and raised beds, at peak demand (a tomato in full fruit draws more potassium than a spring application allowed for), and in cold soil, where slow release barely moves and small root systems cannot mine a bag of granules anyway. The reverse holds just as firmly: if you want one application to cover a bed for the season, granular is simpler and cheaper, and Organic Fertilisers is where to look.

Foliar feeding

Foliar feeding means applying a dilute nutrient solution to the leaf rather than the soil, and letting it enter through the cuticle and the stomata. It is fast, working in hours, and efficient, because a small quantity goes where it is wanted instead of into the soil's chemistry, where much of it can lock up before a root reaches it.

It is also routinely oversold, so here is the honest version. A foliar feed works well for the mobile nutrients and trace elements: nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and boron all move readily. It is much less reliable for calcium, which travels with the transpiration stream and barely redistributes once it has arrived. The published evidence for foliar calcium correcting a calcium problem in fruit is thin, and we would rather say so than imply a spray settles it; consistent watering and calcium in the root zone do more. Spray in early morning or evening rather than strong sun, cover the underside of the leaf as well as the top, and add a natural wetting agent so the solution spreads instead of beading; what a wetting agent actually does explains why that matters.

Common questions

When should I use a foliar spray rather than a soil drench?

Foliar for speed, when there is a visible deficiency you want corrected in days. Drench for depth, when you want to feed roots and soil biology for longer-lasting effect. Many growers do both across a week.

Can I mix several liquid feeds in one watering can?

Most are compatible, but patch-test first. Avoid mixing strongly alkaline products with acid-pH biostimulants, because they can precipitate out and clog a sprayer.

Are micronised suspensions safe in a sprayer?

Yes. Agitate well before pouring and use a 50-mesh or coarser nozzle to prevent clogging.

How often should I apply?

It varies by product, and rates are on each page. Most are reduced or paused through winter and dormancy.

Do liquids replace my granular feed?

Not usually. Granular feeds carry the season, liquids handle speed and correction. Most growers run both.

Is a liquid fertiliser the same thing as a liquid plant food?

In practice, yes. "Plant food" and "plant feed" are the everyday terms and "fertiliser" is the trade one, and they describe the same bottle; what a fertiliser actually is unpacks the definition. What distinguishes one from another is the analysis on the label and whether it is a complete feed or a single nutrient.

Will rain wash a foliar feed off?

Some of it, yes. Give a foliar feed a few dry hours to be taken up before rain arrives, and reapply if it is washed off within the hour. A root drench is unaffected either way, which makes it the safer choice in an unsettled week.