Miracle Gro MPC - avoid!

Is Jiffy Universal Compost (70l) not available in UK? It's the only one I've found here that is even remotely acceptable. The rest is chopped wood and road sweepings and in some cases killed plants within a few days of potting. At the very least a high proportion of wood waste encourages all the xylophage insects to lay eggs in pots. Jiffy still use peat. Not cheap at €15 a bag.

 

Yes, Jiffy is available in the UK but generally it will be growers who stock it, not retailers.
Most of the Jiffy products in the UK will either be peat free or peat reduced, but a stockist who I purchase my Osmocote slow release fertiliser from sells Jiffy baled peat, again this will generally be sold to growers and not your typical G/C.

LS - Search results for "baled peat" (lssystems.co.uk)

Jiffy | Fargro

 

Jiffy PRO 7

Jiffy Pro7 All + Mix 50L Bag - Peat Perlite Fertilizers (doctorblooms.co.uk)

Jiffy PRO7 Light, Peat Potting Mix 50L (londongrow.com)

Hydroponic stores and websites are probably the best source for commercial grade compost, which is more expensive than the general MPC stocked in G/C's, supermarkets and builders merchants.
Also the hydroponic stores tend to sell large bags of additives, you don't tend to see G/C's selling 100l bags of perlite but hydroponic stores will.

 

They should put a little 'window' in compost bags so you can see what the mix is like.
I wonder how much we've all wasted on crappy compost over the years..

 

A popular brand stocked by hydroponic stores and used by commercial growers, Plagron.

Plagron Nutrients & Growing Media | GroWell

Not cheap but most of the plagron growing media will have perlite incorporated into the mix.

 

And the Jiffy stuff is nowt to do with me

 

Morrisons don't have them all the time, but I got some from there last year, big ones that make up to 75 litres. When they do have them, they are usually outside with the plants. Robert Dyas sometimes has the smaller blocks. Wilko - sadly missed - was a good place to go for them.
I have bought the big blocks online too, it doesn't work out much more expensive if you can get them with free postage.
Since I don't drive and am too old and small to lift anything heavy, coir blocks are the most practical thing for me. Also easy to store. I use a saw to cut them up into chunks so I don't have to rehydrate the whole thing.

 

I've had quite good results in Norfolk with a compost called Erin and it wasn't very expensive. I used to like Miracle Grow when it had peat in it. I use the coarse compost for mulching.

I worry about coir and that natural forests have been cut down to make way for palm trees, then there is the transport and I read somewhere that the workers involved with coir aren't treated very well and earn a pittance.

 

Both containers of peat arrived from Estonia this morning, 48 pallets in total with 6m3 per pallet.
Had fractions of 0-6mm, 0-10mm, 0-20mm and 0-40mm, the 0-40mm was averaging 140kg per cube and the 0-6mm was 160kg per cube, compared to the Irish which has been averaging 330kg per cube.

 

I don’t think they list all the stuff they sell under “Compost” for nothing as I find it ALL more or less the same. Okay the degree of coarseness or fineness differs, but what it produces is what matters. I’d ask the question @Fat Controller what would you do with horse manure with bits the size of tennis balls (yes it’s a big horse)? Hence I currently have x4 different bags on the go at the moment x3 are very course, but the other (SupaGro manure ) is mostly very fine. Saying that I totally agree you should be able to buy compost of the type you want.

I’ve thought for some time now they stick road sweepings and/or other “mulched” rubbish in and call it compost! I really don’t mind recycling, but would rather know when I’m buying it.

 

I use Erin still and it does have some wood and fibre in it but it's not to bad so far this year. If I buy compost that's not so great I just store it in the shed until it's broken down a bit further. I find buying it by the end of the year makes it good for using early on in the next growing season.


Another huge problem with coir is that absolutely enormous quantities of water it's needs for production. I personally don't think it's environmentally friendly in the least but as it's manufactured else where it doesn't count on our ledger.

 

I've stuck to Sylvagrow so far this year for most, but I'm experimenting with Rocketgro with JI, tried it last year with mixed results but think my watering regime was faulty! It seems to hold the wet rather better than I'd realised! This year I'll use my moisture meter more to tell me when to water! I'm also amending with added composted manure and grit for most things I'm potting on, and topsoil too for perennials.
Struggling with the watering though....my seedlings seem to be either too dry or too wet!

 

From left to right, Estonia white moss peat, Irish peat, both 0-10mm an wood fibre.




This is then mixed 3 parts Estonia, 4 parts Irish and 3 parts wood fibre. This then bagged and sold to retailers as multi-purpose. Even using this ratio, sometimes more wood fibre for commercial growers depending on what they are growing and cell size they are planting in to.