What good is home made compost for

[tumbling tom]

As I grow a lot in pots I was looking at ways of reducing my annual compost spend so I was considering making my own.

Now I know that most people use home made compost as top dressing on their beds but I havent really read of anyone using it in containers. Would it be viable?

[Kleftiwallah]

As it seems most comercial compost looks like 50% twigs and 50% balsa wood shavings, anything added that will retain moisture will be an improvement.

Sieve your compost and mix with the 'stuff' you put into your containers. The stuff that doesn't go through the sieve will be a good starter for your next batch.

Cheers, Tony.

[jacob]

I use containers in my greenhouse and use my own home made compost -- seems to work pretty well. I only buy compost for seed sowing.

[alldigging]

Mr Flowerdew uses it to make compost tea by soaking dangling a stocking full in a tub of water and using immediately.

[rustylady]

Your own compost will probably be as good as most MCPs

[Potstubsdustbins]

I find my home made compost very rich. I therefore riddle it and mix it with used compost 50/50. This mix can pretty much be used for anything.

Colin

[roitelet]

So far this year I have spent about 8 euros on compost. 1 bag of seed compost and 2 bags of Lidl's rubbish compost because I have run out of leaf mould. I have about 2500 sq meters of garden, 13 x 6 metre veg patch and a poly tunnel. For the first potting I use a 50/50 mix of sifted soil and leaf mould for the next equal parts of soil, leaf mould and sifted compost. Unless one pays a huge amount for compost here on the whole it is rubbish and like Snadger I prefer John Innes.

Just out of interest last year I made a small raised flower bed and filled it with the contents of what I call the rubbish compost bin. Anything that I don't want on the proper compost bins goes in there. The result is amazing and the plants in it are growing better than the ones I planted in the other conventional beds.

[zazen999]

I use it in the greenhouse when I can - as I grow in pots there. For the toms and peppers, mixed with some MPC and comfrey leaves which rot down as the plant grows. Yummy compost mix that holds water much better than MPC on its own. And in potting up any trees or rootstocks. And for any general pots.

[Two_Sheds]

For seed sowing, leafmould is best (low in nutrients)

Garden compost tends to be high in nitrogen, as well as lumpy ... I use it as top dressing/mulch in beds

[solway cropper]

I currently have around 150 assorted containers with veg growing in them and couldn't possibly afford to buy compost to fill them (and wouldn't want to). My potting mix starts off as 2 parts compost, 1 part leaf mould and 1 part sieved soil with slow release nutrients added as required. When I say starts off I usually run out of leaf mould and have to substitute whatever i can find, which might be spent compost or cheap grow-bag stuff. Never had a problem although I do get annual weeds popping up but they're easily dealt with.

[Florence Fennel]

I'm going to try and get some of my compost out of the bottom of the daleks to put in the growbeds (bags) I've just bought, mixed with bought compost. I plan to put courgettes in them. I had a poor courgette harvest last year (along with most other things).

[Two_Sheds]

I'm going to try and get some of my compost out of the bottom of the daleks

Good luck! It's much easier just to lift the whole thing up and off

Like this

[taff]

you can revitalise your own as well. If you make your own you can mix that with used compost hlaf and half, or whatever mix you think best, or add some bfb/fertiliser to the old compost.

[tumbling tom]

Ok well it is obviously worth me doing then. Its good to know that it is fine for pots, even if I got to add a bit of bfb to it its definitly worth it.

My only problem is that I need to do it in a compact way as my garden is small and I have no room for permanent features like a dalek. Was considering a couple of these Rollmix Composter - Dobies of Devon The keen Gardener's Choice. Seeds, flowers and plants. Flower seeds, vegetable seeds, vegetable plants, garden plants, garden bulbs - Dobies of Devon as then I could roll them down the side of the shed and get them out as I need them.

Anyone seen them before?

Also the old soil from my pots, can re-compost that?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Tom I store 6 dustbins full of used compost every year this year it will be 10 bins. I riddle it before it goes in the bins and compost the roots etc. I add BFB or Growmore to the compost as I put it the bins, give it a good watering and then pop the lid on for winter.

The next season I use this mixed 50/50 with my home made compost and use this as a growing medium.

The only exception is on the rare occasion I have a diseased plant then the compost is sent of to the council.

Colin