Grow Your Own Magazine

This is a heads up, and a call for feedback.

I have been using J Arthur Bowers New Horizon compost range since it first appeared. It is organic and peat free, based largely on composted wood waste. I have managed to grow everything I need in it fairly successfully and it is my first choice having tried, as far as I know, all available peat-free organic composts. No, there aren't very many

So, this season, J Arthur Bowers have altered and expanded the range. Until this year we were offered garden compost, a growing bag and a general purpose compost (the latter was the one I used). There was also a brief appearance of a coir-based product which has not been continued.

New for 2008 is a vegetable planter and a vegetable compost which appear to be a mixture of wood and coir, as far as I can tell. The growing bag has been re-named, I think, as a tomato growing bag.

So, I've been trying out the vegetable compost to see what it's like. It's not clear, but I presumed that it is a bit heavier on the nutrients than the other products.

It's nice and clean, and has a manure-like smell which the New Horizon growing bags used to have. It immediately felt lighter to me - because of the coir, I guess. I've been using it in the same way as before, neat for small pots and mixed with garden compost for larger ones. (I sow seeds in a proprietary seed compost from Nature's Own).

Three months on and I am harvesting my first produce - spring onions, cabbage and lettuce so far. No difference in the quality crop that I can tell.

My thoughts so far are that it is lighter in weight, and, I suspect doesn't hold the water quite as well. It is apparently drying out a bit quicker than I am used to. This is a tendency of coir that I have observed in the past. This has probably been an advantage in the early part of the year as it is obviously very free draining, but I wonder how things will go in the summer.

I am well aware that I could easily be watering less, and the weather is different, so do take that into account - I can't provide a controlled experiment!

I will soon be planting up one of the vegetable planters with cucumbers, so I'll see how that goes too.

If anyone has any feedback about the new products I'd be interested to know.

Ideally, we could perhaps send our observations to J Arthur Bowers - since this range is the only commonly available one in garden centres, we should try and make it as good as it can be!

We started stuff off in New Horizons peat free this year (and have used it before) and it was rubbish - okay we shouldn't really have used multi-purpose for seeds, but it should be okay for potting on? Not. :mad Everything had to be repotted, lots of stuff couldn't grow, NH compost formed a solid pan on top of the surface that few small seedlings could get their roots thru.

So we bought some Focus peat free multi-purpose, its a much finer size compost less like wood chippings that NH was! We've used it 'neat' and mixed with coir, its much better then NH, even when that had been mixed with coir.

It will take a lot of convincing for me to buy New Horizons again.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Fair enough.

I have not had any problems with it myself but I can see it wouldn't suit everyone. It does have some large wood chunks in it, yes. I don't use it for sowing, but I find it ok mixed with other stuff - coir or seived garden compost - for growing to maturity.

The new types are much lighter and certainly wouldn't form a hard cap - they have coir mixed in which is a lot better for seeds in my experience. It's a pity they don't make small taster packs, though.

Is the Focus stuff organic too?

Well the NH multi-purpose did form a solid cap, and there was no coir in the stuff we bought this year. Seed compost is best for seeds in my experience - the mix really makes a difference.

Depends what you mean by organic. Is the NH Soil Association certified organic now then, or just composed of organic ingredients?

Here's a link to the Focus peat free. They also do Eco Sense peat free.

I'm sure there are other peat free stuff, but we're limited to Focus and GC's round where I live.

__________________
Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Have been using the general purpose stuff for a few years, for seeds, potting on etc and find it fab. Not seen the new products in the shops so can't comment but have certainly never had ANY problems with it forming a hard cap so can't understand why you have had this problem. When I'm sowing seeds I tend to filter out the wood bits (wouldn't call them large or multiple) and use them in bigger pots.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Where you using the NH peat free? I thought it maybe had something to do with the quality of the compost as I've not had it as a problem before either.

__________________
Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I started off all my seedlings in it, in either newspaper pots, small plastic pots or root trainers. Also filled window boxes, pots etc with it. Currently the greenhouse has cucumbers, melon, aubergines, peppers and chillies in pots all using this, although I do tend to mix in some chicken pellets or wet rotten manure into the more permanent pots. The latest stuff I had from B&Q the other week and it seemed exactly the same as normal. Maybe you had a bad batch, could be worth contacting them.

__________________

Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

More likely an old batch, given that CC reckon NH now has coir added and there definately wasn't any in this lot of NH multi.

__________________
Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Yes, there are additions to the range, and they have repackaged the existing products.

You can still get the multi-purpose woody one - it seems exactly the same - but now there is also a "vegetable" compost which is the one with coir added.

I only have Wyevale garden centres in the area so I am stuck with New Horizon or mail-order. There is a homebase which doesn't have any peat-free organic at all.

You might be interested to know that New Horizons are producing the Tesco Organic 60 litre bags which sell for a very low price (under £4). I've been using it for potting up and salad and it seems OK - a bit course and I wouldn't use it for seeds but can't complain at the price.
BTW the smaller Tescos organic bags (20 litre I think) are a finer compost and are HDRA certified so probably better stuff, though more expensive per litre of course.
In my experience good organic compost is hard to find but the key is whether it is fresh - I had loads of plants fail last year due to being sold old organic compost by a local garden centre.

Thanks for that, Jeremy.

Unfortunately, like many people, I am restricted to a Wyevale and Homebase where I live - the Tesco is food only.

I agree that it is very hard to find good organic compost - I am really disappointed with some I tried this year (not New Horizon) and have had to re-pot some plants.