Under control

摘要

Many plants can stay fresh after weeks on shelves if slow-release fertilisers are used. Ensuring a plant continues to look fresh weeks after it has left the nursery is not always easy. But it must be done if that plant is to make its way into the picky consumer's shopping trolley or the second year of life on a landscape scheme. Many growers, of both bedding and hardy nursery stock, have come to rely on controlled-release fertilisers - known as CRFs - as a means of keeping plants looking their bestpost-production. These granular, coated fertilisers are incorporated into growing media. They release nutrients over a set number of months. Depending on the product, this can be from three to 18 monthS. CRFs have many advantages. As well as providing essential nutrients, they prolong the shelf-life of containerised stock, reducing the nutrient leaching that is experienced with liquid feed. But they am not without pitfalls.