Gardening without buying compost

[goosander]

I usually buy 10 bags 70. litre for growing potato's in. Once the spuds are lifted it goes in an old greenhouse [neighbours trees have stopped me using it] for the winter which dries it out. Thrown in the mixer and new fertilizer added it does for things like courgettes.
Only buy peat based compost as the other stuff seams to have so much wood in it and gives off a lot of little black flies.
Do not regrudge any money spent on compost as it is only a fraction of what my men would spend on drink.
Bob.

[rary]

^Is this the mixture you're using in your soil blocker?

It quite close to the mix I used for the blockers, which worked well by the way, the seedlings got established into the soil quite quickly, but I will be using a bit more sand to keep the soil a bit more open as I still have a number of plastic insert trays to use (I won't be buying any more, but not going to throwing good ones away) I didn't find the blocker mix very good in the trays, possibly because there is only the one drainage point, where as the blocker is open to the air

[veggiechicken]

I found various recipes for Soil less compost online so I've made my own version out of stuff I had lying around.
The basic recipe seemed to be equal parts of
Peat moss or coir
Perlite or vermiculite
Sand
and some bonemeal or lime.

My version was
Half a block of coir which made 5 litres (50p)
5 litres of vermiculite (£1)
5 litres of builders sand (in the garage)
a mushroom punnet of woodash from the stove.

The finished product!!

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I filled 2 sets of modules, one with this mix and the other with the Levingtons that I've been using this year. Sowed 2 saved Borlotti beans in each module. These beans had almost 100% germination when sown a few weeks ago.


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Gave each tray a plastic pot of water and we'll see what happens next!

What happened? Bet you haven't been able to sleep wondering.

A few of the compost sown beans have germinated but not the sand mix ones. I emptied a couple of modules today and the beans have rotted. Both lots had the same amount of water. but the sand must hold it better (or worse!).
I'll increase the coir in the next batch I make.

[Mark_Riga]

A site is selling compost from sheeps wool and bracken fern which there should be plenty of in Wales I would think.
I'll try some of theirs, and if it is OK, I'll try making my own. I've a patch of bracken that needs controlling and there is plenty in the verges round here. I know a few sheep keepers so should be able to get some wool for very little I hope. Bracken seems the main ingredient anyway and now would be a good time to cut it.

https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/our-products.aspx

and this thread discusses bracken ferns. https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...rns_79049.html

[nickdub]

Hi Mark - you are probably already aware of this, but go a bit steady if there is a chance of breathing in any quantity of bracken spores - I'm not big worrier about health and safety, but that doesn't include taking things too lightly either.

[veggiechicken]

2020

Just revisiting this thread whilst I decide whether to grow without buying any MPC this year.
I have a half bag of Levingtons MPC leftover from last year, 3 blocks of coir and a chicken run I've been using as a compost bin.
Over the last few weeks I've been "sowing" seeds on damp kitchen roll and "planting" the seedlings in sieved chicken run soil. So far, so good but the big test will be growing tomatoes in it. I can't decide whether to risk using it for them or not.

Whose buying and have you bought any yet?

[ameno]

I wouldn't risk it for delicate or expensive seeds, personally.
You need sterile compost with the right nutrient levels (not too much, not too little), or the seedlings will just rot or stall.
Even you last year's bag won't be much good anymore. Compost is still active when you buy it, and nutrient levels drop and salt levels change over the course of several months to a year, even when kept out of the rain and sun (Gardening Which have done multiple tests on this). It'll be fine for large pots or as soil conditioner, but I wouldn't use it for sowing or for raising young plants.

One large bag of a good compost for seeds and young plants is maybe £6, and should be all you need all year. That's better than having to rebuy a load of expensive seeds because the seedings rotted. And that's not even taking into account the time you would lose, having to resow.

[veggiechicken]

I use a lot more than one bag for all the tomatoes I grow in the GHs.
So much of the compost on sale these days is rubbish - I've found plastic, stones, glass and twigs - aside from the contamination from herbicides that was found last year. Can't help feeling that bought MPC is just as risky as homegrown.

[ameno]

I use a lot more than one bag for all the tomatoes I grow in the GHs.
So much of the compost on sale these days is rubbish - I've found plastic, stones, glass and twigs - aside from the contamination from herbicides that was found last year. Can't help feeling that bought MPC is just as risky as homegrown.

Buy a Which best buy. I can give you a list, if you like.

As for tomatoes, I wasn't advocating growing them to maturity in bought compost. Just sow them and grow them to the 9cm pot stage in bought compost. After that, they will be strong enough to be planted into your own mix. Unless you're saying you grow so many tomatoes that even that would get through a 60L bag of compost?

[veggiechicken]

The problem with "best buys" is that the quality changes every year - even the quality within a batch will. I really have no confidence in the stuff that's on sale.
There's an old thread on here somewhere - maybe we should restart it?

Found it Comparethecompost.com https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...com_83749.html

[ameno]

The problem with "best buys" is that the quality changes every year - even the quality within a batch will. I really have no confidence in the stuff that's on sale.
There's an old thread on here somewhere - maybe we should restart it?

That's why they review them anew every year, buy multiple bags from different parts of the country (to even out any batch differences), and exclude from the results any composts whose formulation has changed since they did the test.
How they are stored at the shop does make some difference, too. You want ones which haven't been out in the rain and which are this year's batch.

[veggiechicken]

Have they done a review for 2020 yet, ameno?

[rary]

as you know VC I changed the soil in my greenhouse tomato bed towards the end of September I then sowed some lettuce, radish and rocket directly into the soil and i have been using these veggies over the winter and they are still doing well, so I recon that if you have a good clean open soil you should be able to sow any veg seeds into it, I intend collecting some mole hills and some burn sand mixing them together and using this as my seed compost, I will pour boiling water over some of it to see if there is any difference with weed seed germination

[ameno]

Have they done a review for 2020 yet, ameno?

They have for seed sowing and raising young plants (container compost is done a bit later).

Best buys for seed sowing are:

Clover Multi-Purpose Compost (100% peat, so probably best avoided for environmental reasons)
Bathgate Champions Blend All Purpose compost
Thompson & Morgan Incredicompost
Humax original compost (same as above)

Verve Multipurpose Compost 50L (other bag sizes use different formulations) also performed very well, just missing out on Best Buy. And as an own-brand, it's cheap.

Best peat-free was Melcourt Sylvagrow (64% score, compared to 74% for the Verve stuff, and 87-96 for the Best Buys.)

Scores for seed sowing are based on sowing basil and petunia seeds (chosen because they are very small and don't germinate well in coarse or wet composts). It was weighted equally between the two, and based on: germination (50%), seedling size (20%), leaf colour (20%), health (10%).

Best buy compost for raising young plants was:

Melcourt Sylvagrow

The following all also did well, scoring 70%+:

Clover Multi-purpose Compost
Wilko Sowing and Cutting compost
Bord na Mona Growise Pro 5 All Purpose
Aldi Multipurpose Compost
Verve Multipurpose Compost 50L
(The Wilko and Aldi ones also did reasonably well on seed sowing, with 64% and 62% scores, respectively).

For raising young plants, they used antirrhinum and cabbage seedlings, as they thrive and grow quickly in good compost but often stall or look sickly in poorer compost. They were grown on in the compost, without additional feed, for 6 weeks. The score was weighted equally between them and based on: size and weight (80%), foliage colour (10%), health (10%) for cabbages, and size and weight (60%), number flowers and flower buds (20%), and health (20%) for antirrhinum.

Personally, I've been using Melcourt Sylvagrow for several years now, as it has been consistently the best peat-free on the market. It has excellent texture, and always seems to perform well for me

[bikermike]

I'll still be buying, but I'm brewing as much home-made as I can. This year, our green bin collection stopped early to allow them to do work to the depot, so I need to go round more neighbours to get more green waste. (Neighbour on each side expects me to take their green bins now - to the extent one of them asks if I'm slacking if I don't...). Also get a nice big box of coffee grounds from the local coffee shop too.