COMPOST REVIEW 2013

I was happy with B&Q verve , and just added either xtra grit, sand etc if needed but did need to feed pots etc much earlier than usual .

Spruce

 

I'm still very happy with the B&Q Verve MP compost. I've potted lots of plants with it this year and they are all doing well

The best compost I've found for my containers is B&Q multi purpose with John Innes which was £3 for 50L. I bought lots of it which I used to pot up some shrubs which have really done well this year. It was so nice that I had much fun digging my hands into it. Very therapeutic if you haven't tried. Unfortunately they ran out of the stuff quite early on and haven't had any more in stock. I'm just hoping they get lots more in next spring so I can stock up. I've improvised in the meantime with my own mix of Verve with a bag of JI No 3 mixed in but it's a more expensive way of doing it and doesn't have quite the same result texture-wise.

I find B&Q ericaceous compost good too.

Worst one I've used this year was Miracle Gro ericaceous - yak!

 

I was very happy with Asda's 'professional' MP, been using it all year, just adding perlite and vermiculite, however they stopped stocking it a few weeks back when it was selling like hot cakes (even before the sale). Since then I've tried Wickes again and to be fair its considerably better than last year but still way short of their old stuff - sadly. Also tried J Arthur Bowers MP which was very 'woody' but strangely after adding perlite and removing some of the larger bits it made a half decent mix

 

I've only used Arthur Bowers multi purpose for the last N years - 'coz that's what the local garden centre sells, and when they have it on Special I stock up ...

There's quite a lot of straw in it this Autumn, but its much the same, and friable.

 

P.S. What I keep promising myself is that I will buy a bag of some really posh nosh stuff from the Hydroponics store and grow a batch of plants half-and-half next year to see how they compare. I just can't see me spending £12.50 for 50 litres of BioBizz All Mix when a 65L bag of JAB MPC is around £3 ...

 

Yes, there is a LOT of straw and bits of paper? what's that all about? The best multi purpose now is Levingtons!! Very nice still.

Val

 

They are required to use less Peat I believe.

 

Coir is better than straw!!

Val

 

Hauled half way across the world? I don't have an answer (except that every year I ask myself "How hard would it be to make my own compost that is no worst than this muck" ), but I, personally, am keep to move towards things with smaller environmental footprint.

At every turn I find a snag. I want to store rainwater for irrigation, rather than use mains water (which has been made fit for drinking). Running a pump to drive my irrigation system would use more embodied energy that the water company use cleaning up water and making it fit for me to drink and delivering it to my door ... where does one draw the line? :(

 

Flat as a pancake here ... I can pump to a header tank to then use gravity, and I can do that at night (Economy-7, or failing that using electricity when the generating companies probably have excess). Better still if I can only pump uphill when I have solar energy ... but most solar [powered] pumps won't lift high enough. Generate PV electricity on the roof, and just use electricity when required, is probably the answer to that one.

... but the cost of the header tank is somewhat prohibitive ...

Agree with you that "do what you can" is all one can really do. I get depressed with how difficult (or "far too blinking expensive") it is to do as much as I want to