Peat free compost trial

Thanks mrsbusy. It confirms my thoughts on the rubbish that is being sold today as "compost".

Good idea for a trial - just to be hyper-critical its probably too small a sample to draw conclusive results from - be interesting to see if anyone-else fancies doing something similar, and seeing how their plants go.

New Horizon isn't too bad, in my opinion. It used to be much more lumpy, woody and dense, but they don't put green waste in it anymore. It's now a blend of composted bark, wood fibre and coir. Pretty soft and fluffy. Looks like it has a bit of perlite or sharp sand in for drainage too. The bags I bought last year also had worm castings in but this year's don't have any.

Have you added extra fertiliser to the bags? Since New Horizon is quite low in nutrients, only containing the standard base fertiliser (fish/blood/bone?) that 'feeds for 6 weeks', hungry plants like tomatoes will require extra fertiliser. The Dalefoot stuff is made out of composted bracken and wool, so will be naturally higher in nutrients.

Hi - no I did not add anything to the New Horizon - as the plants were only just getting going.I agree the New Horizon is easy to use, and cheaper. And I have to drive 30 minutes to get the Wool Compost but I can get NH from the lottie shop 2 miles away. I will give some fertiliser now. The plants in New Horizon look better than they did, and have plenty of fruit on them. I guess the final reckoning will be on the fruit yield.

How many do you reckon for a better trial?

I'm no expert on this sort of statistical problem - maybe do a quick Google on trials done for other plants and see what sort of numbers they are based on ? Got to be quite few horticultural trials out there for different growing mediums for different plants.

Sorry! I like clover 100% peat to plant my babies. The peat free that I have tried have been 2nd rate (at best). Not going to waste money on rubbish.

All the peat free from well know names that I have bought has more twigs etc. in it than anything else. Will stick to my usual compost as by the time one finds out if it is any good a good part of the growing season is over.
Used to use Clovers Mothers earth but found it gave problems with hundreds of very small black flies.
Bob.

I have managed to get some Silva peat free - the Nat Trust sell it in their shops in silly little bags but I found 50 litre bags not too far from home Greenshoots nursery. It looks ok, and time will tell if the plants thrive.

Just thinking about how peat is now bad for the environment and we should use other things. It is not that many years ago that peat was the only fuel we had so why now should we not use it.
Bob.

Just because we have always used it doesn't mean that it never did any harm. Peat bogs are a natural habitat supporting their own ecosystem, which like everything else is part of the wider picture. The amount of peat used by gardeners makes a significant dent in a non-renewable resource. Peat takes millions of years to form, so there is a finite amount of it, and there are parallels with oil in that being a carbon based natural product it holds CO2 which is released if it is burnt or decomposes.

I agree it is very difficult to find a peat substitute, and in trying to do so the commercially available composts have deteriorated. I am as guilty as anyone of using ordinary MPC that contains peat, because it is widely available, relatively cheap and gives consistent results. Changing to a different product or system is always difficult and we are going to discover this increasingly in all sorts of ways that we don't expect if the government is going to enforce its zero carbon policy.

We get access to 'soil improver' for free or subsidised. it is made from the councils green waste collections plus other organic additions.
There are downsides:-
1, It contains some plastic pieces, broken plant pots, bags, labels etc. because people are lazy. But I have bought compost from the big supermarkets which also contain similar in the past.
2, There is a fair amount of chipped timber in there and I can't be sure on the status of treatment of some of it.
3, It's usually either still warm or at best freshly made. The nutrient content is poor.

On a positive:-
1, Used as a mulch it is very effective from day one, it also dissuades the neighbours cats for a week or so.
2, After a good rain most of the plastic is exposed easily and can be picked off.
3, After about 3 months or so it becomes much better as the mulch starts to break down and is actually composted.
4, Leaving it bagged for a few months allows it to compost nicely, throw in a couple of worms and you get something very nice. I've kept bags a whole year before use and it really is very nice by then, up to the standard of the better peat free composts.

So my conclusion is that much of the shop bought compost often just needs time to ensure it is actually composted as opposed to chopped/turned/bagged. Unfortunately not eveyone has the time or space to do this.
I shall be looking for end of season compost bargains at the local garden centres, I presume they don't want to store it too long either.