Gah! Just used the wrong compost by mistake...

[Servalan]

I was just planting up a bronze fennel plant that I bought this weekend into a container.

I thought I was using tub and container compost.

I was actually using seed and cutting compost.

Shame I didn't double check the packet when I bought it or when I started using it - even when I was thinking "ooh, they've got drainage already in the compost, I don't remember that from last time..." Oh no, I wait until I have finished planting it until I bother to look at the packet properly...

It's the Vital Earth organic one. Will it make any difference, or do I need to start all over again?

[Poledra]

Can't help - just chuckling at Servalan going from being a 'cold, calculating, ruthless sociopath' (Wiki) to being worried about her potting compost.

[catinthehat2]

And struggling with the gardening wearing those really high collars and snow white gowns

[catinthehat2]

OK.

I would fish it out, retrieve the nice seed compost for another time, and use normal compost. I'm sure other people would say nah leave it, but it would bother me for the rest of the summer. (TBH, I don't think it would harm it though if you can't bear re doing it.)

[Servalan]

Ah you see, the beauty of being Servalan is that I always look imaculate and unnaturally clean, whether fighting rather spurious looking alien lizards in underground tunnels or, ahem, potting up herbs...

Being bronze, it does actually look quite pretty in compost bespeckled with orange. My main concern is whether it will damage the plant/if we'll still have lots of fennel to go in salads this summer! (plus I'm lazy...)

[taffetacat]

Fennel grows like a weed here in the worst possible soil imaginable. I have recently planted a bronze one in a spot underneath next door's hideous conifer, a spot where there is zero moisture or nutrient, but planty of sun. Everything struggles there, but it seems to be doing very well.
< pats self on back, been looking for something for that nightmare spot for ages >

So, in terms of the seed compost, I wouldn't worry overly, its great for seeds as its very fine. It won't do the fennel any harm I wouldn't have thought, but it should probably be replaced after a few months once the plant has taken the nutrients from it.

[mankymummymoo]

Seed compost is low in nutrients. If you can't be bothered to repot add some slow release fertiliser.

[Servalan]

Thanks!