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Gardening

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Original poster

At last! Peat sales to be banned.

46 replies

MereDintofPandiculation · 18/12/2021 09:31

The government has published plans today to ban the sale of peat to gardeners by 2024 and to the horticultural trade by 2028.

Not only is peat a threatened habitat, it is also better than trees at carbon capture.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/18/peat-sales-to-gardeners-in-england-and-wales-to-be-banned-by-2024

OP posts:
Harrysmummy246 · 18/12/2021 13:02

We've had this before though. Plans don't follow through.
Disclosure: I work in a garden centre but use, and have always used Peat free personally but manager who used to work formulating peat free compost doesn't think it will happen, nor will we stop other countries, e.g. NL where much stock comes from, from using it....

There are a huge number of die hard we've always used peat and so it's the only thing that will do, all peat free compost is rubbish people of a certain age. To be fair, garden centre peat free is largely rubbish, you need to pay rather more and look around for stuff like sylvagrow which isn't stocked everywhere sadly.

MrsBertBibby · 18/12/2021 17:14

That's good news!

I got some Sylvagrow from my garden centre a few weeks back. It's lovely stuff. The peat free message is definitely catching on, last summer the local centres were selling out of peat free and couldn't shift the peat.

Even my old dad is using it, and I never thought he'd switch.

Tessellation · 18/12/2021 17:47

Hopefully they will follow through. I agree many many people will need to be forced to make the change. The market choice is still limited but it's more than it was even a few years ago, and there's a lot more information around about what to look for in potting compost and how you can make your own.

balancingfigure · 18/12/2021 17:57

Let’s hope this happens. I always buy peat free if I can but it’s not always available l

Bideshi · 18/12/2021 18:03

Got a nursery that specialises in Himalayan plants - meconopsis, arisaemas, cardiocrinum and so on. Peat-free is rubbish, especially for those; they love peat. Some peat frees are less rubbish than others but people are going to have today a lot more for plants because, inevitably, they're the more expensive ones and increase the unit cost. The loss rate is higher now and the plants just don't do as well. Wish it were otherwise.

user1471530109 · 18/12/2021 18:04

I have 4 fairly local big garden centres and I have never found pest free. I always look and end up settling for whichever one has the least peat in.

Can anyone recommend a usually stocked brand? I'm assuming the packaging advertises proudly that it is peat free?

DismantledKing · 18/12/2021 18:05

I always use garden centre peat free, and I’ve never had problems growing any crops in it.

ErrolTheDragon · 18/12/2021 20:14

Our local nursery has only sold peat-free for years. Mostly Bord na Mona.

Tessellation · 18/12/2021 20:28

@user1471530109

I have 4 fairly local big garden centres and I have never found pest free. I always look and end up settling for whichever one has the least peat in.

Can anyone recommend a usually stocked brand? I'm assuming the packaging advertises proudly that it is peat free?

Melcourt SylvaGrow is the one that's stocked most widely in our area. I also like Miracle Grow Peat Free and yes that's labelled very clearly (as there are lots of peat containing Miracle Grow products too)! A couple of garden centres near us make their own peat free compost which I've been really happy with too. There are also a couple of compost centres slightly further away which will deliver - worth a look if you need a larger amount.
Original poster
MereDintofPandiculation · 19/12/2021 10:27

Peat free has improved immensely from when it was first stocked. New Horizon in the early days was quite an adventure. You never knew what bog plant or mushroom you would get

OP posts:
ErrolTheDragon · 19/12/2021 11:13

@MereDintofPandiculation

Peat free has improved immensely from when it was first stocked. New Horizon in the early days was quite an adventure. You never knew what bog plant or mushroom you would get
Yes, and some of the early coir-based ones weren't great. They're much better now.
Shedmistress · 19/12/2021 11:17

I remember Titchmarsh going on about how rubbish peat free was. And how he needed to use peat

And there was a Facebook group I was a member of at the time that asked Titchmarsh for advice on poorly plants that were being grown in peat free compost.

The group posted pictures of course of all our perfectly healthy plants, all being grown in peat free, all fine.

This should have been sorted years ago. It never will be because there is a lot of money behind peat.

midlifecrash · 19/12/2021 11:18

Oh I hope this happens, it would be a bit of good news for a change

Bideshi · 19/12/2021 13:29

@Shedmistress

I remember Titchmarsh going on about how rubbish peat free was. And how he needed to use peat

And there was a Facebook group I was a member of at the time that asked Titchmarsh for advice on poorly plants that were being grown in peat free compost.

The group posted pictures of course of all our perfectly healthy plants, all being grown in peat free, all fine.

This should have been sorted years ago. It never will be because there is a lot of money behind peat.

On the whole peat-free is fine. All of our irises, peonies, general nursery stock does well enough. My point is that the specialist stuff that we grow like gentians and blue poppies don't do so well. We would expect nursery stock, for instance, to sit all season in the same compost and continue to look good and saleable until at least August. In peat-free we find there is a decline from the beginning of the season, and we have to take the plants off display around July and line them out. We lose more than we used to, and these are rare high value plants.

I have switched to peat-free and will continue to use it but for specialist growers there is a difference, much as I wish there wasn't.

I hope better products emerge as times goes by, but I'll always miss peat.

Tessellation · 20/12/2021 14:27

@Bideshi that's really interesting. I had read that there was a need to enhance peat free soil more regularly with slow-release fertiliser and organic matter and your post suggests that's still the case.

I think there's a very real discussion to be had between specialist plant growers and the compost industry. Your needs are quite specific and very real.

I think for the majority of us though - I just can't see how any of us are growing anything in our domestic gardens / allotments that are so important that it justifies the destruction of a natural resource to support.

Harrysmummy246 · 20/12/2021 22:13

@ErrolTheDragon

Our local nursery has only sold peat-free for years. Mostly Bord na Mona.
Funnily enough Bord Na Mona do lots and lots of peat based composts.....
ErrolTheDragon · 20/12/2021 22:18

Wow... I'd never thought to look them up, I'd no idea.

Shedmistress · 20/12/2021 22:30

@ErrolTheDragon

Wow... I'd never thought to look them up, I'd no idea.
They were originally formed to extract peat. But have stopped now.

I love silvagrow. Vital Earth used to be a good one but I think they stopped producing bags of it and sold it on to manufacturers to use in their mixes. Fertile Fibre is in my experience the holy frail, and the only one that is approved by the Soil Association so I used to have to use it when doing workshops in organic growing, loved growing with that.

Last year after lockdown 1.0, I could only get peat based compost and absolutely hated it. Never again.

Harrysmummy246 · 20/12/2021 22:30

I'd seen the brand around with 'we only extract peat from non SSSI sites ' plastered on it (work in progress with educating the owners of my work garden)

Peat free allows them, westland etc al to appear to be responsible/ making the change.

Harrysmummy246 · 20/12/2021 22:31

@Shedmistress I am not seeing any indication they've stopped extraction?

Harrysmummy246 · 20/12/2021 22:32

@Shedmistress

Ah, I stand corrected but perhaps their website could do with some update....

NeverDropYourMoonCup · 20/12/2021 22:41

I always use Dalefoot. Never had any issues with it (except the garden centres stopped selling it in favour of the large companies' peat based stuff - I was told by a disgruntled owner that the large ones had threatened to not supply anything at all if they continued to stock peat free - disgruntled because he was fed up of the number of people asking why they weren't selling peat free anymore as he was losing his organic/eco friendly customers because he couldn't afford to lose the larger number who would always want peat and as many herbicides and fertilisers as possible).

Anyhow, rant over. Dalefoot is great.

Shedmistress · 20/12/2021 22:46

I can't go near Dalefoot. They brought a sample to where I worked and even in the car park, I started sneezing from the lanolin from the wool. I've heard it is a fine compost though.

Shedmistress · 20/12/2021 22:47

[quote Harrysmummy246]@Shedmistress

Ah, I stand corrected but perhaps their website could do with some update....[/quote]
It is on the front page of their website...

NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/12/2021 23:45

@Shedmistress

I can't go near Dalefoot. They brought a sample to where I worked and even in the car park, I started sneezing from the lanolin from the wool. I've heard it is a fine compost though.
This is unfortunate. I really like the sheepy smell.

I'd recommend it to anybody who isn't allergic to sheep/lanolin/bracken.