Best Supplier Of Compost 2021

Thanks everyone for your help. Looking at Wickes online, this years compost has had good reviews/ratings, but are they genuine?

 

Cynical Shiney, no never! I'm always wary of reviews particularly when it's only good ones that are displayed.

 

Or they make a very small variation to the recipe and delete all the previous bad reviews.

It's far too early in the season to take much notice of recent good reviews (other than of it's appearance) as nothing much could have been grown in it yet.

I opened a 120L bag of Wickes MPC bought last month and although there's s few lumps and pieces of shredded plant material/wood?, it's an improvement on the rubbish of previous years, but I wouldn't sow small seeds in it (too loose and fluffy), or use in small cells (risk of drying out), but looks as if it could be OK for container grown tomatoes and spuds.

I'll take another pic showing side by side with Jack's Magic and JAB MPC, plus put some in a pot in my growbox indoors in a heated propagator and check how it dries out compared to other composts, but comparing plant growth would take some months.



LH side as bagged, RH side pressed down, lumps in top RH corner.

 

Thanks for the information and picture @Scrungee - it has made up my mind for me. I won't be buying Wickes mpc. I need to start off 3000 seeds this Spring so I'll use Verve again, which I know. I've tried Jack's Magic in the past and wasn't impressed with that either.

B&Q have raised the price of their 125 litre mpc again since I posted here last Wednesday. It's now up to £10 from £9.95. The problem I have now is getting hold of it. They won't deliver unless I buy bulk and I'm not sure whether they are open here to shop on foot, or click and collect. Their web site is confusing so I'll use the good old fashioned telephone and ring them.

 

I got caught last year because of the gardening craze spiked by the lockdowns. I usually get my compost/potting soil in the fall when they've marked it down at least 50% but this year, there was none left locally. I saved and baked as much soil as possible from my pots and was lucky to score 8 x 25L bags from a landscaper several miles away which were very affordable. About 60% of the price of my regular purchase. Turns out it was much nicer than the expensive stuff. Really nice for seedling soil blocks

So I wrote their company last month and they have assured me if I place my order in March, they will have stock for me.

It will be well worth the drive as I fret about not having enough to get ready for the next year's annual pots.

 

It sounds like you've found a gold mine @CanadianLori.

The problem we have here at the moment is we're confined to home because of the lockdown and only allowed to shop for essentials like food and medicine, visit Doctors surgeries etc. and take local exercise which doesn't extend to a drive first. I passed B&Q a diy store and suppliers of Verve when I shopped on Thursday and it looked like it was open but shouldn't be. So I'll ring and find out what is going on. If it's open then I will pick up the mpc when I shop next week before it all disappears.

 

I had seen that on the site @shiney but things are functioning a bit differently here to England. Nothing should be open except essential shops, but a few are still flouting the regulations and opening. When I passed B&Q on Thursday, lights were on, doors open and a good number of vehicles in the car park. So if it's not opening for perusal inside then perhaps they are just running click and collect.

I'll ring them tomorrow and let you know what I find out.

 

Taken from my post #23 Shiney.

Scottish lockdown is stricter than England's. Our nurseries and garden centres are closed too but I'm not sure if that applies to England.

 

B&Q is fully open here with the usual restrictions of course. Mr S and I called in there to buy three 125 litre bags of Verve multi-purpose. After a cold night at -17C/1F we not only had to clear the bags of snow but they were solid bricks, totally frozen and difficult to handle.