Focus - Payless compost

I am all for a bargain, and usually buy the cheapest compost there is. But I may have gone a step too far with Focus payless compost (the very cheapest they had). I always mix my compost with sharp sand, but even this combination wouldn't drain properly, and when it did finally drain it gave a very smooth flat solid looking surface. I suspect that it really is the floor sweepings and far too fine. That's absolutely no good for seeds and seedlings.

Anyone else experienced this?

 

Buy a bag of better stuff and mix it withthe cheap.

 

I buy grow bags and mix with the better stuff.

 

Hi All
When i went to Focus on Friday the first thing on entering was a huge pile of this "payless" my O.H. said look thats cheap lets have that ,i then explained what i had read on here and he said surely its all the same ,which then evolved into a "discussion" in "Focus" ,but i use their "peat free " and thats buy 2 get one free so thats not too bad

 

Hi PeterS, as you know I really inexperienced in this field but....I read today (the Sun's Peter S...only paper I get) about this, how wierd is that? He was saying to work out the price per litre (I think) on these bags, I don't know what it meant in a way but he was saying the cheapest aren't always the best (when are they?) and also to think about what you were using them for ie seeds, potting on etc.

I use a compost bag mixed with a growing bag in my pots, no success this year yet, & I say yet but I do have some 'perrenials (sp?) up which I was really suprised about. I think if you mix it it will be ok. but then like i say i'm a newbie. the info you get on here is brilliant.

I've also read that in this 'credit crunch' the flowers/seeds/allotmentsn are doing brilliantly - about the only retailer that's doing well.

cheers

 

Please excuse my spelling mistakes! Cor blimey, think I had an excuse for it but I don't!,

cheers

 

Thanks for all your comments. I have had a lot of seeds germinate and grow in it (50% compost and 50% sand for better drainage). But the more I look at it the less I like it. I think it's even a bit smelly (stagnant water smell). Today I have been pricking my seedlings out into another compost mix - my normal mix of 67% of a better compost with 33% sand. As you have suggested I have mixed a little bit of the bad in with the good, but its so bad I can't afford to put much in.

Its difficult to know whether it is just a bad batch or a universally bad product. The silly thing is that I have always gone for the cheapest compost for several years, and never had any trouble until this time. I think I will spread it on my clay soil - it won't go completely to waste.

As a scientist turned accountant I am aware of the cost of things, and that expensive is not always better. I posted a thread quite a long time ago about the cost of fertiliser. Essentially they all have similar chemicals in them, just in different ratios. But you could pay anything from about £4 to £200 per kilo of the same active ingredients. The liquid ones are invariably more expensive than the solids and the sprays are incrediably expensive.