miraclegro compost

I just buy the cheapest compost I can find and add sand to it. I tried the peat free compost once. Never again. Dreadful stuff

 

Have been unable to get any bags of pure peat since last summer.
That was in B&Q, but as they are saving the planet they no longer supply it now!

The last compost, from Focus was as others have said, almost all chippings.

Finally where do you manage to get your peat from ?

Cheers for now!

 

I haven't seen those big bags of peat for ages. I used to put them round my Rhodis and azaleas as I have clay soil

 

"anybody bought the above compost, and what are your views on it
thanks"

Picking up this thread where it left off over two years ago this is to say I recently bought some miracle grow compost and some John Innes No.3 for re-potting cuttings. As a controlled trial I steam sterilized 8 inch pots full of either MGP or JI3 then re-potted into them Salvia cuttings that were growing well in the 3" pots in which I bought them at a garden centre. After two months the cuttings in the MGP are about 1/3rd as big again as those in the JI3. So although I agree about the coarse appearance of the MGP it certainly outperforms the JI3 for foliage production. Whether the same will apply to flowering remains to be seen.

 

I bought a few bags of John Innes #3 a few weeks ago when I was planting a few shrubs in a garden

mixed it with topsoil from the garden and a bit of farmyard manure (approx 50% john innes #3, ... 25% farmyard manure and 25% topsoil) ....

when I watered the 1st shrub after planting, I found the #3 to be like wet mud and seems to retain the water like wet cement? .... i.e. it took a long time for the surface water to sink in

used a lot less for the other shrubs ....

I also added a few handfuls of the moisture control stuff (think it was miracle gro aswell?) .... looks like shredded chipboard

 

Hello Edward
we have had lots of posts on compost types and varying quality. The post below from earlier this year gives quite a few views on various compost types.

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...ion/30889-multi-purpose-compost-good-bad.html

When I was searching for this thread , there were 298 threads with the word compost in the titles ! Thats why now I just buy Wickes 4 for £12 ,and use B n Q for back up , seems to work OK

 

What a lot of different opinions! JI3 seems to be very variable in quality according to which manufacturer followed the recipe; it gets little praise on this or other sites. Odd- since it has been about for 50 years. Miraclegro also gets mixed ratings. My experience of comparing them relates to one lot of Miraclegro, one lot of JI3 and one lot of Salvia cuttings. However everything else was strictly standardized under automatically controlled conditions of temperature, light and humidity with both lots of compost steam sterilized. So I think it was a fair comparison. Anyone want to collect a free part used bag of John Innes No.3 in the North London Area?
(It's grim up North London)

 

this seems a bit like the "what oil do you use" threads on the motorbike forum I am on.....

In the end I think it is down to personal preference. I tend to use whatever multipurpose I can find for my cuttings, in fact at the moment I have been potting things on with the left over ericaceous compost I have from repotting my camelia. Seems to be working out ok.

I am like a previous poster in that I tend to give my plants little more than a fighting chance. I remember back in the nursery a lady saying "it's got 2 chances" and that is how I grow.... when it gets put in the garden it will have to fend for itself after the first week or so, so may as well start on the tough love early!!!

Heather the evil gardener!!!!!

Note... this is why all my bonsai's are under my mother's care... I just kill them!!!