Multi purpose compost

[Bill HH]

I always used the own brand compost from my garden centre, but now they have moved I am left with using the stuff from B plus Q. in fact its been a revelation, its really good stuff, not half so many lumps or twigs and plastic bits in it. So well done them.
Of course I try to make my own but never seem to have enough for my hungry ground.

[Potstubsdustbins]

This year I tried Jacks Magic original formula and have to say it has been very good indeed.

[Penellype]

I tried the B&Q MPC which was fine and crumbly and seemed really nice to handle. However, I found it incredibly difficult to water if it dried out, which it tended to do in the very hot weather. I also didn't realize it contained peat until I got it home. I went back to my old MPC - Westland, which is ok, if a little variable.

[ButternutSquash]

Horizon seems good, compost free, organic, inexpensive.

[dim]

Jacks magic has been my best choice this year .... not cheap though (costs nearly £7 for a bag)

[Small pumpkin]

My choices for multi purpose compost are very limited, unless I want to pay some ridiculously high delivery charge. Which I don't. So I use Mother Earth multi purpose. Its good stuff, very few sticks & lumps in it. I did try some other compost at the start of the season,that a friend picked up for me from the other end of the island. Don't remember the name, but it was dread full. There were branches 5" or 6" long in it, along with glass, metal and bits of wood chip that blatantly used to be kitchen units as it still had the Formica stuff still on it. Went back to the Mother Earth stuff very quickly.

[Nannysally99]

We use BQ, it's been perfectly ok, and we have had great crops with it

[dim]

if I plant an expensive shrub or tree, (such as a trachycarpus fortunei palm, or a maurelli banana etc), I go to my local hydroponic store and buy 'House and garden Bat Mix Special' .... it costs £13 for a 50 litre bag

it is imported, and has different black and white peats, bat guano, perlite, worm humis etc .... it has a pH of 6.4 and an EC of 1.2-1.5

really good stuff! .... they stock other imported composts aswell

what I find strange, is that in the UK, they do not disclose the PH and EC of the composts .... most of the compost at garden centres seems to be grass clippings and hedge clippings. Perhaps they source it from the recycle centres that compost the green/brown bins, then just bag it up and sell it on .... we can get as much of that as we want for free in Cambridge (they call it 'soil conditioner')

[Two_Sheds]

Of course I try to make my own but never seem to have enough for my hungry ground.

I do less & less composting every year now. It's too much work: filling it, levelling it, watering it, turning it, humping it round the plot...

Instead, I "chop n drop". All the dead plants, the green manures, grass clippings, prunings: it all gets chopped up roughly with secateurs or shears, then is left on the soil surface as a mulch.
It has improved my (sandy, light) soil better than anything else I've ever done. Under the mulch the soil is more moist, more crumbly, and full of worms (the odd slug, but not as many as you'd expect).


(Seed sowing is entirely different, for that you really need good quality fine compost, which is weed free).

[Bren In Pots]

I use B&Q Verve MC for small seeds then things like beans are sown in a mix of leaf mould, soil and compost from my dalek, seems to work for me.

[Kirk]

I have New Horizons Peat Free Compost and it is terrible.
Seems to consist of half, or less, composted pine needles. Certainly needs a fair bit more composting time.

It does however make an excellent very fine mulch - which is what I am using it for.

[arpoet]

I like Jacks Magic original formula too. 2 bags £10 at our local GC. Great for seedlings and potting on, but for filling tubs, etc, I mix cheapo from aldi with rotted hos muck, and that works well.

[bearded bloke]

For potting it's another vote for Jack's Magic here,plus as T_S says mulch the ground with whatever you have to hand,weeds,clippings,etc it all rots down & really does help with moisture retention