Peat free newbie

[peanut]

All the plants that are in the Wickes 'compost' that I got this year seem to be suffering from chlorosis. I'll do a soil test on some of it tomorrow to see it it's nitrogen or nitrogen and potassium deficient. They've definitely lost a customer...

Sorry to Florence Fennel but I'm just starting to notice the same problem as you Mark. It all seemed to start off so well...

[Snoop Puss]

Sympathy like there from me, Peanut.

[mrsbusy]

Hi. Just reading this thread with interest. We are signed up to peat free. This year I'm trying coir MPC which is very nice to use - I mix it with a bit of JI and vermiculite. I also got a block of just coir - I've only used it to repot orchids - warm water to hydrate it worked a treat
I heard gardeners question time panellists being very negative about coir - their solution was to use leaf mould compost. Not a great solution for everyone.
Otherwise my go to is Silva MPC from Melcourt - not cheap but my local sells 2 bags for £15.

[Florence Fennel]

Yesterday on GQT they suggested mixing the peat free with garden soil, grit and a handful of chicken pellets, so I might try that.

[rary]

Flo i always add course sand to my compost and that includes peat based, this helps open the compost up a bit plus increases the volume of the compost, if its for seed sowing i add the equivalent of two bags of sand and one on one for pots when using for pots i also add some B.F.B

[peanut]

I decided to feed my yellow lettuce planted in the Wickes pet free, with miracle grow a week ago and they are looking lush and green now and growing well again. I'm still going to use my remaining 4 bags but will remember to add some slow release food of some sort.
All my other veg in pots etc are in miracle grow peat free and are all doing well so far, they were potted into it on 2nd June. So I'll keep an eye, but given they'll be fed regularly I think they'll be fine.

I was wondering if lower nitrogen compost would be good for roots?

[Mark Rand]

I've re-potted the chillis and one of the cucumbers into home made compost and they're picking up now. Top dressed another cucumber with 3" of home compost in the hope that the stem will root into it.

I think I've found a possible use for the stuff. Having noticed a few weeks ago that it seemed to grow toadstools all by itself, I sterilised some today in the oven and have stirred in all the stems I saved from a 250g pack of mushrooms. If they eventually grow, then that'll be a success.

[Andraste]

I was gifted a soil moisture meter recently & it's been very useful. I understand you can get ones that check ph too but mine just registers on a 1-10 scale divided into dry - moist - wet.

There have been several times when I would have watered something but on checking with the meter first I found the compost was actually wet - & not just borderline with moist either but definitely wet.

I don't think it was particularly expensive (I've seen one similar on a popular tropical rainforest retailer - others are available - for £6.99). I understand you can get ones that check ph too if you fancy splashing a little more cash but the economy version is working fine for me.

[smallblueplanet]

Interesting. Do you fancy testing some other composts? We bought some peat-free multipurpose from Lidl a few weeks ago, it look pretty good. But looks can be deceiving...

Looks are indeed deceiving. Whilst the compost is less 'woody' and has less 'non-compostable bits' in it. It is odd stuff.

We've planted all sorts in it and some don't mind, but most plants don't get on with the way it 'deals' with moisture. That sounds strange but basically it gets dry on top and is still wet below. But also and we've found this with seeds in rootrainers and seeds in self-watering propagators it doesn't seem to have much capillary action. So, althought the rootrainers (for beans and such) can sit in a gravel tray of water or the self-watering prop is on capillary matting, neither of them stay wet at the top of the container. We've never had this happen before with any compost. Anyway we've mixed the remaining Lidl compost with coir and perlite and the increased drainange definitely helps potted plants, so probably would 'capillerate' (lol made that up) better.

But it still gets drier on top but wet at the bottom, gonna have to get me one of Andraste's water meter stick things!