Beware !!! Garden compost that kills your seedlings in a day

Felt that I needed to post a warning, we bought from focus garden centers their special offer compost at 4 for £10. It is called Vitalearth peat free organic garden compost.

It smells a bit ripe, but, that aside, it kills your seedlings dead in a day. I potted on a lot of strong seedlings with strong roots yesterday, this morning I have my usual nose around the polytunnel and notice they are looking a bit limp and brown. On furhther investigation I gentling pulled one and it came out of the compost with no root at all, every one of the seedlings roots had been burnt off leaving only the central root which was brown and obviously useless to the plant. I have not been able to save any of the seedlings I had potted into this compost and that was around 200.
Ok so maybe it was half my fault for not using a multi purpose compost but the effects were so quick and fatal I am dubious as to whether established plants would survive it either. It states on that pack it is excellent for flowers veg trees and shrubs, well it wasn't excellent for mine at all !!!!!

Mrs Chopper (sad at her lost plants)

 

Oh what a terrible shame . I would be so mad.
But thank you for the warning. I think we all have to be careful what we put our seedlings into.

 

I've had 'peat free' compost quickly go mouldy on top and kill my seedlings before and will now only use it if bought reduced price and only then mixed with something else for potting up plants in at least 150mm dia. pots.

Wickes compost every time for me (but sometimes mixed with JI #1 soil based.

 

Odd, I have been using Vitalearth compost for a few years now with no adverse effects at all. you do need to change your watering system a bit as it does not hold moisture like a peat based one does. But, the stuff we bought early on this year has caused no problems.

 

Shiney, do you mean Aminopyralid?

Perhaps Chopper could retain some of this compost to use in a germination test.

 

Really sorry to hear that Chopper :(

Here's the Aminopyralid test:

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/composting-recycling/875-how-test-compost.html#post391494

 

It's supposed to be organic, to me organic means no chemicals and is tested stringently to be allowed to call it organic !! Or am I missing the point here... Whatever, I have never seen a whole batch of plants die so quickly, I gues it was just way too rich for my young plants I am just hoping against hope that the 40 asparagus plants I have just planted in the field using this stuff as a soil enricher domt suffer the same fate.
Mrs Chopper

 

Hi Palustris
Does it always smell really bad ???

 

Thats too bad Mrs, sucks actually.... i would be going back and telling the garden center exactly what happened (take proof if need be) and demanding my money back!!!!!

 

At least money back and some.. should it really smell ripe..?

 

No, I must admit that there is usually very little scent with it, other than one similar to well made compost heap compost. I will open another bag with a different batch number tomorrow and see what that is like.

 

I have sent Vitalearth an email, I still have two bags of the stuff to show them if they need samples, the rest is surrounding my asparagus crowns ...

Will wait and see if I get a response from them.

Mrs Chopper