Seed compost

Hi all

Probably showing my ignorance here but.....

whenever I read articles etc in magazines regarding sowing seeds, they mostly all mention using 'seed compost' or John Innes number 1 or 2.

None of them say it is important to use only seed compost so I was wondering what difference it would make if you used a general multi-purpose peat free compost.

Would the seeds grow better in one or the other kind?

Any advice would be much appreciated

 

John Innes is a general formulation (rather than a Brand Name) and comes in "Seed" and "1, 2 and 3"

Seed has little / no fertilizer in it - which would be wasted on seeds and might make they grow too vigorously.

#1 ... #3 vary from pricking-out to #3 where you will be keeping a more mature plant in the same pot for many years.

If memory serves me the John Innes formulations happened before Multi Purpose Compost ever existed.

Personally:

I use John Innes Seed Compost. I find the multi-purpose too rough and getting the water content right I find easier with a soil-based formulation. I sprinkle a thin layer of vermiculite over the seeds (rather than covering them with compost)

I have tried peat-based seed compost (like Levingtons) but I find that works less well for me than John Innes Seed Compost.

I buy one little bag, fresh each year, and that sees me through the year. I reuse it during the year for other seeds (that is not the conventional advice for fear of transmitting disease, but my view is that after the initial batch early in the year, when hygiene is paramount as the plants are stressed growing in poor light and low temperatures, things that are sown from April onwards fly away and I'm not paying for fresh seed compost just to grow a few lettuce!)

At the end of the year my "spent" seed compost, along with all the other potting compost left over from failures, and things that have finished & gone, is all bagged up and I use it the following year for my Tubs and Urns (fortified with "hundreds & thousands" long-life fertilizer and some well rotted manure at the bottom too)

 

I must admit that for most things I just use general purpose compost, but I mix it with one third sharp sand. For seeds I usually sieve it to give a finer material.

Really seeds will grow anywhere - even out in the garden in the soil. But a major reason for using some sort of compost is that it should be sterile so you don't get other seeds germinating as well.