Absolute best compost please. Lots of complaint last year on gardeners world forum about poor compost

[Summerwhereareyou]

As above can anyone recommend amazing compost please.

My son did a science project on composts (I know, what a thriller). Planted seeds and plug plants and measured growth over a month. No surprise that anything peat-free was crap.

And bottom of the list was our homemade compost from the grass/leaf pile.

I'm with the others, I know the effects of over consuming peat but the peat-free stuff is pretty useless (and really expensive this year).

Melcourt’s Sylvagrow is generally considered to be the best, and more expensive than the rest. I bought a bag of their multi-purpose last week for outside pots, and it has a very nice texture, time will tell how it performs.

Clover is good if you can find a stockist. Their “Pat’s Blend” does contain peat. I’ve just bought three 50 litre bags for just under £20 on a multi buy offer, nearest stockist to me was about 20 miles away.

I’ve just mixed a bit with my precious little home-made compost and planted some pot- grown raspberries. Watch this space!

All my veg plants are really small and weak this year, compost everywhere is so crap now . I have always grown my own veg but wondering if it will be possible now with such bad compost ?. I agree I would happily use peat based again as growing veg is so important to me . Sorry planet

I’m fed up with using peat-free although I totally understand the need to avoid peat based compost.
Few of my seeds have germinated this year using Levingtons, my potted on lantana plugs haven’t grown at all, they’re the same size as when I received them 6 weeks ago!
Any suggestions very much appreciated 😊

I've only had a garden for a few years so the peat free message was already out there when I started. I've always used peat free so, after reading the GW forums, I can reassure myself that the plants that have died were the compost, not the gardener. I find them all a bit of a muchness when mulching in autumn. I leave the worms to work it into the soil and my hard baked clay is now easy to dig even in the height of summer.

Spring and pots are more of a challenge. I struggle with the bedding plants I use to plug gaps because the compost dries out so quickly. I have to water them everyday when it's sunny. It's tricky to find the balance between over watered and under watered for newer plants in pots. Levingtons has always been ok for me but the cheap Aldi compost was terrible. I found bits of plastic pots and plant labels, rusty metal nails and rubber in all three bags. I wondered if they get it from council green bin waste.

We're all used to peat compost. We need to learn to garden without it. Peat holds water, is fine and consistent, practically perfect for most plants.
I'm not looking for something that replicates that but rather learning to mix my own to suit the plants and ways in which I can use water better. Lining my hanging baskets for example and putting the dip in the middle to pour the water in so it drains from the middle out slowly.
The RHS manure stuff is brilliant but strong. Does have some wood chip in it but it doesn't cause any issues.
I used Mr Muck for a pallet of rotted manure that was really good mulch and soil improver.
My hot bin has produced great soil as well. It's not like the peat compost I'm used to more like soil but the plants seem to like it. It has bits of wood and some identifiable bits of egg shell for example but it works for the plants.
The straw mulch (stawlch???) is good for topping and retaining moisture.

If there's anyone who simply can't cope without peat Mr Muck do recycled mushroom farm compost that is peat based. Reusing it I suppose it better than new peat compost. Maybe could use it for house plants or containers until other brands improve.

The dalefoot compost is good.

I have to admit, I’ve been using peat free for a while and not had many issues. I just buy the cheapest, so aldis / lidl etc.
i did find glass in one. I just check before watering.
I think it’s the inconsistency that’s the issue, even pack to pack so you never know what you’re getting and if it’s suitable for that plant and the subsequent watering needed.

I’ve been gardening for almost all my life, since a small child (70 now), I have never had such a disappointing growing season as this year. The only thing different is potting compost 😢

(not in UK)
but I find coir (those blocks that you add water to) mixed with organic dried manure works well for my veg.
holds moisture well. and is light enough for balcony planting.

Mine looks like this and is rubbish. My plug plants haven't integrated at all when I've potted them on. What's with all the straw stuff?

I repotted my houseplants (including a beloved
monstera and a rubber plant) in peat-free compost…. The result? Dead plants 😭 and fungus gnat infestation. Utterly gutted.

I have fungus growing in my petunia plugs that I've potted on. I've never had that before. Is it really due to being pest free?

I mix up a batch of compost, which is a bag of the shop-bought, plus my own home-rotted leaf and regular compost from our heap to bolster it up and make it go further.

This peat-free stuff isn't going away, so we have to somehow adjust the 'recipe' to improve the texture and content. A PITA unfortunately but until they discover a better substitute to the wonderful bags of old, which gave consistently good growing conditions, that's what we're stuck with.

I make my own and mix with melcourt sylvagrow when I'm potting on or filling beds. If planting seeds then I use the sylvagrow on it's own. Also a fan of Moorland Gold which I buy from our local Incredible Edible group. They buy in bulk so can pass on the savings.

I am in a few gardening groups on Facebook.It seems that this year has been challenging for many growers mainly due to the strange spring weather. Many of the people on these groups are using peat- free with variable success. I tend to use it as a base and add other things depending on what I am using it for. I have also started feeding my seedlings with dilute liquid seaweed and they seem to like that. Some growers add worm casts.

Peat is used commercially and on the continent for plug and pot plants. It is used as fuel. The few bags of compost I buy each year are a minuscule drop in the ocean and I’m not going to avoid using it if I can source half a dozen peat based bags.

Clover composts are Irish and available nationwide but from a few independent nurseries, not the big chains.

Just been to aldi. Their peat free has added seaweed

The Aldi compost I got last week was loose, no unwanted materials and easy to handle, quite woody though and I’d sieve it for anything delicate.

Melcourt Sylvagrow all the way!
I have tried several
others including one that a local nursery centre say they use for all their plants and they are all dire! Too much wood, straw and rubbish and they dry out so quickly.
Now only using Sylvagrow after spotting that it’s what a respected gardening friend uses.

I get a delivery if mushroom compost every year for the veg beds.

The best compost is the stuff you make yourself. I have a heap in a corner of my back garden, next to a flourishing rhubarb patch, which provides beautiful crumbly dark loam. I chuck everything on top of it - grass cuttings, veg peelings, shrub prunings - and dig out the well rotted loam from the bottom. It’s been there for forty years, and works a treat, though in dry weather I sometimes need to water it and add a bit of Garotta to keep it going.

Dalefoot is the best I’ve found.

My Mum who used to.be a very keen gardener with wonderful flowers and veg always used John Innes and blood and bone added to her soil too.