Wondering about the soil I bought..

Hello everybody,

Normally I buy potting soil in 80 liter bags from my local gardening center. At £8.50 a bag is perhaps not super cheap, but it is very good for seeds too. It contains peat, compost and very fine vermiculite. The gardening center use it for floral displays in pubs and companies.

Because of the lockdown my local GC is closed, so I bough online in bulk instead.
900 liters of something called Veggie Gold Compost, at nearly £100 delivered, the price was equivalent. The description is quite enticing:
"Our Veggie Gold Compost boasts a number of benefits, including:

Ready for use
Ideal for filling vegetable patches or raised beds
Contains high organic matter content with naturally slow-releasing nutrients
Peat-free
Well-structured to allow aeration, drainage and root development
High levels of organic matter containing a natural nitrogen source
Saves digging time as pre-blended with compost
Will continue to improve over time
Weed-free
British sustainably sourced materials with no added chemicals
A formulated blend of compost, well rotted manure and top soil, producing a rich fertile soil with a high organic matter content. Ideal for creating vegetable patches and raised beds. For maximum results, use with a natural plant feed such as Chicken Poo or Growmore
"

The photo was similarly alluring, some moist and rich soil, nearly as nice looking as what I get in bags.

What I received looks quite a bit different. I can see the dry cow dung there, the compost, but the soil itself is pretty dry and dusty.
A bunch of small stones and the occasional piece of plastic seems to be part of the formulated blend too.

I mixed it up in the raised bed with some old compost and vermiculite, hoping to improve aeration and drainage somewhat.
But when I gave it a good watering, water pools on it forever and does not seem to get absorbed beyond a few millimeters from the top.
I tried poking lots of holes with a fork before watering, to help soaking it, with limited success.
In short, it seems to be extremely compact, too fine, certainly not very "well structured". I think roots will have a hard time. Surely my beans have not shown up yet and I start getting worried.

I have very little experience with soil not from, well, a bag. Last few years I dug some from under the woodchips in the bottom of the garden. It is very rich and moist, but also full of stones and roots, so quite back breaking to prepare.
But perhaps I should have stuck to that..

Anyway, I was wondering..
Is it possible that with time and constant irrigation the soil I received will get better?

For the next raised bed, and some pots I need filling, I will be mixing it with more old potting soil and vermiculite from last year. But of course it is a bit of risk, some disease or pest might have wintered in there.

 

Take a photo and contact the supplier regarding your concerns. I suspect they like to keep it pretty dry for ease of handling and a bulk bag of wet compost weighs a lot more than a dry bag.
Dry compost and soil can take a while to wet, you could try a watering can with a squirt of a biodegradable detergent in it to encourage wetting.

 

@NigelJ

Thanks, I will try with the biodegradable detergent (horticultural soap I guess?).
As for now, I made a new, smaller bed, and mix it up with last year potting soil which contains vermiculite. I also planted some potatoes in bags using the same mix, fingers crossed.
The result is much better, in terms of absorbing water.
With the other bed I put the old soil on the bottom and the new one on top, thinking it would prevent wild animals and cats from digging in, like they do with my softer potting soil.
But then I realized that water would not get absorbed. Given the beans I planted are not coming out, I might just turn it and mix it before planting more..