Best Supplier Of Compost 2020

Got some Wickes MPC today, they have reduced the bag size to 50L.
It looks Ok compared to the rubbish they sold 3 or 4 years ago. It's 70% peat and no green waste just what looks to be composted straw or wood:

 

I ordered mine on 20th March when there was a sale on, it's taken till yesterday for them to deliver for obvious reasons. They were doing Click n Collect then but I didn't want to risk going to a store, to get free delivery I had to order over £75 so I guess many people did the same and cleaned them out. My load came from Southampton presumably straight off the docks.

 

I found everywhere was sold out online at the moment.

 

I do that sometimes depending on what grew in it last year. I am eeking out my supply by adding about 30% soil taken from an uncultivated bit of my garden. Not the top weed infested layer, I dig down to bring up inert stuff and replace the hole with last years compost.

 

I'm going to try and order some compost from the local nursery where I have been buying since the Wickes fiasco. I now just buy Clover and it works for us. We won't need our usual large amount this year and I normally go and get three bags at a time as it's just down the road. They are not allowing people in now but are doing deliveries so I'll give them a ring later. I've still got almost three 60 litre bags so shall need to make room for more.

 

I ordered my compost Monday afternoon and had it delivered 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.

6 x 60 litres cost £24.

 

I've run a small experiment with three sets of compost to see how much better a really expensive one is. I have:

1) Cheap and cheerful Wickes MPC, peat based, very lumpy, needs breaking up before use. Very dry - not so easy to wet. Bought fresh this spring.

2) Jack's Magic, feels much nicer. Bought last year in a sale and stored outside all winter.

3) A very expensive professional MPC supplied by a local nursery during lockdown, they describe it as "premium grade multi-purpose compost that we grow all of our plants in". It is lovely to work with, flows easy making potting on quick.



3 weeks ago I potted up various plants and today I have the results, not as I expected. I am only showing the Lettuce and Courgettes but all the others I tried showed the same result.

Courgette


Bigger image of the 15 May photo - Left to Right: Wickes - Jack's Magic - Professional MPC:




Lettuce:


Bigger image of the 15 May photo - Left to Right: Wickes - Jack's Magic - Professional MPC:


I was expecting the cheap Wickes MPC (on Left) to come out last but it is a close second to the Professional compost (Right) costing over three times as much. Jack's Magic (middle) was very poor in comparison. Maybe I have a bad batch of Jack's or storing over-winter outside lost some of the nutrients.

 

@JWK A brilliant test John

We don't grow salad and rarely anything edible that stays in pots, apart from chillies, so have never thought to do comparisons. The things we do grow such as beans (different sorts), courgettes, squash, corn etc. all seem to catch up to each other over about a three week period when put out in the well composted veg plot. For catch crops your test and use of different composts can be very important.