I know I should but I'm thinking of using peat based compost

[Houseplanter]

* shouldnt*

Because the peat free stuff is so rubbish!

I'm a big houseplant fan (who'd have guessed) and I've repotted several and found it full of hard lumps, fibrous stuff that won't hold any water and worse of all I think fungus gnat larvae.

Now it's outdoor pots time I'm finding it just as horrible.

What's everyone else doing?

Amazon sell Fertile Fibre, as well

I bought some of these last year in Poundstretcher and once hydrated, I mixed them in with new, reused and a bit of garden soil to finish off some containers I had plants for.

Plants did well in the mixture, I fed everything as usual, mainly Tomorite and some seaweed feed. I'll probably do something similar this summer.

Can the nutrients be added by mixing with something else like a growing medium? (Total beginner gardener here so no idea about anything)

Interesting, thank you... so if you're potting up, say, a bare-root plant you've bought by mail order, what would be the best mix to use? Some topsoil and some Sylvagrow or similar? What else would help?

(Asking since my bare root plants from Father Gracy have not all survived....)

What’s the benefit of microwaving compost?

Are you feeding them?

Advice n peat free is to water little and often, and to start feeding immediately

to kill off seeds of weeds and fungi and eggs of fungus gnats other pathogens.

I guess for indoor plants, to kill the fungus gnat larvae.

you can also pour boiling water over it, cover it in foil, and leave to cool.

I use Soil Ninja mixes for my houseplants.
Tiny garden, so no real regime out there. I did get some ericaceous compost for some pots of acid-loving plants last year.

Although before the fashion for raised beds, we managed perfectly well sowing peas, carrots, parsnips etc directly into the ground

Put moist compost in the oven in a closed container? 100deg should be enough to kill all organisms, good and bad.

Ah, OK. I use sticky yellow traps which work very well.

But the soil would very often get a dressing of home made compost in the winter, to improve the fertility of the soil.
And crops need to be rotated

If you don't improve the soil, eventually the germination rate decreases, as soil fertility is reduced.

When I've used coir before it was bagged, but I've just been looking at the blocks online. Amazon charges £7 for approx 9L (once hydrated), that seems shockingly expensive, what sort of prices is it if you are lucky enough to buy it off the shelf?
I live in a difficult delivery area, so my choices are limited

But the soil would very often get a dressing of home made compost in the winter, to improve the fertility of the soil.
And crops need to be rotated

Isn't that exactly what farmers/market gardeners were doing for 100s of years? It's possible to grow hungry plants like annual vegetables in normal gardens without the use of peat if you follow those two basic principles.

Yes. Absolutely. And in small gardens also.

More to improve the texture, which of course would impact fertility. It was usual to add fertiliser of some sort, originally manure or blood fish and bone or similar. But since non-peat compost is regarded as low in fertility, and we are told that garden compost should be used as a soil conditioner rather than a fertiliser (though I can't believe that garden compost is without nutrients), then I can't see the point of growing veg in compost, as opposed to growing them in soil and keeping your soil in good heart. Unless you're gardening in containers.

Crops are rotated both for pest avoidance and so that you can grow nitrogen greedy crops after nitrogen fixing legumes. There is opinion that there's not a lot of advantage in crop rotation on a suburban veg plot scale because whatever disease you're seeking to avoid will pretty quickly find its way across the whole plot.

If you don't improve the soil, eventually the germination rate decreases I don't see why this would be the case, given that you can germinate seeds perfectly well on damp kitchen paper. Yes, fertility of soil will affect growth rate thereafter, but germination rate shouldn't be affected.

I was using germination as shorthand for "visible plant growth above the soil" not actual "sprouting of the seed in the soil"

since I suspect most people reading this are neither soil scientists (you, I think?) or researchers who are expert compost makers and organic growers ( me)

So they probably wouldn't appreciate the technical difference.

Basically, if you don't add organic matter with some extra nutrients to your soil (and home made compost does this well, although a small application of well trotted manure from a reputable source, or blood fish and bonemeal can be helpful)

eventually, over time, you will have fewer crops growing.

Absolutely on maintaining/improving/enriching the soil. All I would add, for the benefit of new gardeners reading this, is that if you use blood, fish and bone (as I used to) you might find the foxes dig everything up! This may be more of an issue for urban gardeners, of course.

If I use pest free compost I decant a load into a big tub and use a fork to break up clumps and then I mix in this

amzn.eu/d/hqGECt5

Miracle-Gro Continuous Release All Purpose Plant Food,

Then it can be used in pots for new plants.

Buy peat based - it is very recyclable and it’s only people with very fussy plants that buy it

It’s expensive- Peat- free is awful

Full of wood and recycled plastic bits .

What an incredibly selfish attitude

Are you adding pearlite?

If you're anywhere near a horse, find the owner and ask if they have rotted manure. It's fantastic stuff and most horsey people are glad to be rid of it!

For people who are making their own compost but don't make enough try contacting a local stable for manure.

Ideally you want droppings mixed with straw bedding, but wood based bedding is fine, or just manure with no bedding. It needs time to rot before you put it on plants but is brilliant for improving your compost bin.

Many stables have to pay to get their muck heap removed so will gladly allow you to take as much as you like.

DH collects it in old compost bags and puts some in the compost bin and leaves some in the bag to rot down before spreading it on the top of the beds.