what to do with used compost

[Ken the Chef]

I have a lot of once used peat free general compost that was used to grow potatoes in containers
and a tomato grow bag that I grew two pepper plants in.
My question is:
a. Is there another crop that I can plant in the old peat free compost used for the potatoes?
b. What else could I grow in the tomato compost?
I do have some very good horse manure [two years old] that I could enrich either compost.
I do have three raised beds 9 feet by 3.5 feet that I could spread it over.
The potato crop was not very good. I am not sure if it was down to the peat free element of the compost or that it began to compost a second time while growing the potatoes
Any suggestions will be helpful.

[splatcat]

may be worth just diggin it in to your beds?

im sure someone more knowledgable will be able to tell you more

[dave_norm_smith]

Mine tends to get thrown onto the beds and mixed in, on thrown into the compost bin and passed through the system. Did you put potato fertilizer into your bags? I have tried a few bags in the past and been disappointed but having looked at how the potato fella starts his at JBA, I had not been putting in the feed to get a good crop, I used potatoes from the supermarket and too many per bag. Basically everything wrong!

However between the posts on here, JBA and actually bothering to read some of the wealth of books I have, hopefully I will have better results this time.

Dave

[Aberdeenplotter]

may be worth just diggin it in to your beds?

im sure someone more knowledgable will be able to tell you more

Yes, using it as a soil conditioner is a good idea or simply add it to your compost heap. The compost will be reusable for most purposes but you may need to add some base fertilisers to "recharge" it.

[Jono]

I put half of mine back on to the beds, and the rest through the compost bins. Have found it helps to dry out the soggy kitchen scraps when I'm not cutting the grass.

[ginger ninger]

What ever you decide to do keep away from the tomato/potato family (in potato compost) just in case of disease. You could enrich it with the manure you have and grow squash/courgette in it. Take as many of the roots out of the compost and make sure you've not left and tinny potatoes in...or you'll be cropping them again . I also agree with above comments to dig it into your beds/compost bin.

[taff]

or put spinach/chard/herbs/lettuce etc in it.

[snakeshack]

I always run mine through the compost heap

[Fred Perry]

Try mixing with sand, leafmold and use for Carrots.

[Florence Fennel]

I spread mine on the beds and recycle into the daleks as others have said.

[Flummery]

Carrots prefer soil with very little nutrient.
You can fill a tub or raised bed and bang a few carrot seeds in. I would/will.

[perkin]

Mine go either straight on the compost heap or dug into the raised beds to improve structure of the the very clay soil I have.

[Shadylane]

Like Flummery, I'm going to use mine to grow carrots in. I've got a leaky bin/ex-water butt that I'm planning on cutting down and filling, then I might actually get some straight carrots instead of the monstrosities I got this year.

[Ken the Chef]

Last year I grew quite a few Carrot both in the raised bed and in containers. This year I am going to try a competition by growing in tubes of compost driven into sharp sand. I managed to find a limited bit of info but if anyone has the latest idear I would like to hear from you.
I grew Paramax for the kitchen in fairly shallow tubs last year along with a stumpy variety. I used a small dibber at two inches and put two seeds per staion and that worked ok

[Jono]

I've grown Parmex, they're great little things. Can grown them in really shallow containers too. Really tasty, and they look really impressive when you show them off