with or without PEAT

[Ken the Chef]

I have this year been swayed to try peat free compost!
I am using B&Q brand. When I opened the pack I thought the compost was rather coarse with some quite hard pieces throughout.
In practice I am disappointed with the results so far, about 75% of seed has failed to germinate and my Courgette plants have not grown on as I would have expected, being slow with some leaf dieback. I think I will need to plant another batch of courgettes in different compost.
I planted out my Tomatoes plants a few days ago in a mixture of peat free and peat compost plus a good helping of horse manure, so far they have not been checked and seem to be ok.
My chitted Charlotte potatoes [in containers]are also doing ok on a mixture of peat free and horse manure, there are about three leaves showing so I should be topping up the levels in the bags after the weekend. My Pentland Javelins have not shown through yet so the jury is still out on this one.
I am growing a variety of lettuce and leaves equally in peat free or peat filled troughs and both seem to be doing well.
I plant the sieve some of the compost to see if there is a difference in the germination of a few selected seeds
Conclusions! A little disappointing in one way but still encouraging in others.
Has anybody else any idea or comments on this subject especially as it has been aired in the GYO Mag’ several times now

[Flummery]

For a couple of years now, I've been using a peat-free multipurpose which is a recycled product, by YHS which is Yorkshire Horticultural Supplies if memory serves. I find this extremely satisfactory - good germination, good re-wetting properties and best of all, cheaper than most. 5 x 70L bags for £12.

I avoid peat - destruction of habitat reasons.

[Two_Sheds]

I plant the sieve some of the compost to see if there is a difference in the germination of a few selected seeds

nuh-uh, you lost me


I couldn't get B&Q peat free (sold out) so had to make do with their usual. Then I got some New Horizon peat free from Wilko, so I've sown sweetcorn as a trial, one tray of each.
I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks

[zazen999]

I use new horizon or vital earth peat free. Great stuff!

[womble]

I've use new horizon this year, with no known problems.
I did have problems with one trays worth of compost, whatever seeds I put in it didn't germinate, no idea why.

[Alison]

When I first tried peat free it didn't seem very good so I switched back to peat based. Shortly after that I read a Which report which recommended New Horizon and so tried that. Have been using it ever since (about 7 years, I think) and love the stuff, wouldn't use anything else and certainly wouldn't use peat.

[binley100]

We're using Westlands peat free , tried homebase peat free and didn't think it was very good. We've now got some peat free growbags from Lidls for the GH Toms....Seems ok so far.