Best Supplier Of Compost 2021

The Wickes MPC was like that a few years ago, looked similar to an old mattress stuffing. I am happy with my Jacks Magic

 

You only have to read some of the recent reviews on B&Q that consumers are not happy. I had my last 2 loads of peat delivered to me 3 weeks ago, 30 years of dealing with Bord na Mona came to an end. Some manufactures still have valid licences to extract peat, some don't and Bord na Mona along with ICL have been refused planning.

Below is an article from the BBC regarding GC failing to stop peat sales. If you read the whole article another manufacturer on the Somerset levels echo's what I have been saying, our alternatives are being burnt for biomass, pricing us out of the market as they are receiving subsidies.

Garden centres 'failing to stop peat sales' - BBC News

I have not been able to supply any of my trade customers with Poultry pellets this year and I am now unable to get hold of manure to make our organic soil conditioner, spent mushroom compost is also in short supply. Very embarrassing when we are supposed to going peat free. Some manufacturers like me are struggling to get hold of the raw materials to go peat free to meet the current market demand, let alone a peat free one.

I have been making compost for 39 years now, every mix that is made has been by me. People like Blackmore & Langdon's, JRG Dahilas etc etc have been using my compost for years. I just basically provide the tools so anyone can grow. We are not just having peat taken away from us, but the alternatives too.

 

I still think we are used to having this stuff that you put in a pot ,shove in a plant and it grows, it's all to simple really.
I've buying different labelled products and I find the texture varies,but of the ones I've tried they have all grown plants ok.
I think you have to vary the watering and feeding to suit.
I've not tried verve or wickes and I didn't even know travis perkins sold it.
I think in the end we are just going to have to pay more for compost which in some ways might stop us wasting it and perhaps trying more to reuse it.
Maybe there is a market for a base fertiliser to add to spent compost?
Perhaps there could be more soil based composts available ?

 

I've found verve very good for sowing. I've got most popular veg growing this year from seeds sown in it.
Only fails were hybrid beans that can't cope when too moist as I've covered in thread 'runner bean trials'
But all other plants have been great in verve. Lots of the hardy stuff is in the ground now... Sprouts, cabbage, p' sprouting, kale etc.
Verve is relatively cheap so maybe batches vary but for me I'll stick to what works

 

I buy a commercial grade compost. I get through a fair bit, so buy a Pallet at a time. I have both "multipurpose" and "nursery grade", which is a coarse product and I find potting 2L-ish and above does better with that. All the modules and 9CM pot "annual stuff" gets the multipurpose.

I've been using it for years, and I don't reckon, in all that time, I could tell you that there has been any variation. At all. No lumps, no twigs, nothing but just consistency.

I sieve it through a coarse sieve (1/2 inch-ish) just to find the compacted bits, but rubbing them between my hands crumbles them. I am left with a few hard-bullets of peat, I could crush them but they are so few I don't bother, I tip them into a large container and when I pot on I put a handful at the bottom for better drainage

I do buy peat. I'd be happy not to ... if I have my facts right 1% of Ireland's peat extraction goes to horticulture and the other 99% to power stations and open fires. Dunno how that compares to Coal, but I presume "equally horrific" and "just STOP", as there are no excuses.

So horticulture's meagre use ought to be able to be provided for from sustainable sources

My Peat usage is almost exclusively for Ericaceous use only.

@Local garden centre

Me: "Have you got any peat"
Them:" Certainly not Sir, we don't sell that any more"
Me: "What have your got for top-dressing and planting Ericaceous plants?"
Them: "Absolutely nothing Sir"

<sigh>

Reading in the Garden rag (the RHS Magazine) ... hang on, let me go and get it so I get my quote right ... Blast! either can't find it, didn't exist or, more likely either mis-remembered or Magazine was older than I remember.

My recollection is something like "RHS has stopped using peat except for Ericaceous, and we are starting trials this year" ... maybe "this year" was actually some time ago.

What I found, just now, on RHS site was

• from the beginning of 2020 we stopped selling peat-based compost completely
• by 2025 we want to, with confidence, say that the plants we sell are peat-free.
• RHS Gardens are currently 98% peat-free with the exception of some rare and exotic plants

On Ericaceous the RHS says:

• The choice for ericaceous plants is more limited, but gardeners should look for SylvaGrow Ericaceous.

My wholesaler doesn't stock that product. They have a specific Ericaceous product (other than Peat ) but no indication if it is Peat-free.

That product is 12p / L and my normal commercial-grade Multi-purpose is 11p / L

best price I found for SylvaGrow Ericaceous was 15p / L but I didn't look very hard.

(all inc VAT)

So, now that I have Googled that, it looks OK to me and I would be happy to pay that extra for the few plants that need it - so long as it does OK as a peat-replacement top dressing / planting medium for my Ericaceous

 

I agree with @pete about reusing compost, particularly from potted plants. Every fall I bake the soil that I have removed from my pots after their annuals are spent. Then I add whatever is on hand. Egg shells, worm castings, whatever. I pretty much look at the stuff as something to hold the plants upright, keep the roots moist and receptacles for fertilizer. The baked and amended soil is put back in the pots, ready for the new year's seedlings. I deliver fertilizer to my gardens and pots through a fertilizer injecter (liquid) about once a month throughout the growing season.

I can't recover all of the compost/soil each year so I do add new to top up my supply.

I used to dump all the compost from the spent pots into the raised beds and buy all new. It was a silly mistake as the beds look like their bursting. And as Pete said - it is wasteful!

 

Anbody else find it ironic that some of the best RSPB reserves are ex-peat workings?

Ham Wall Nature Reserve, Somerset - The RSPB

"Ham Wall is a wetland teeming with wildlife - from rare species like water voles and otters to magnificent birds like bitterns and kingfishers ......

Previously owned and worked by the peat industry Ham Wall was born in 1994 when the land was passed to the RSPB"

(Their nearest 2 reserves to me were formed by clay and gravel extraction, and one of the best local Wildlife Trust reserves was formed by chalk extraction )

 

I always find the wild life people a bit confusing, going slightly off topic.
But they always seem to think we must "manage" the land in order to support the kind of wild life "they" like.
Usually at the expense of the wildlife that was there before they started "managing" it.