CompareTheCompost.com

[Potstubsdustbins]

# 86. £5 plus 20% = £6 or 600 pennies for 200ltrs. 600 divided x 200 = 3 or 3p per litre.

Just saying. but you can do the addition when I am next owed a tax rebate

[WendyC]

I bought some westland black magic compost yesterday, 2x60l for £10.

Jack's Magic? Or voodoo compost?

I went on a wild goose chase for NH multipurpose. The two nearest garden centres where I usually buy it have stopped stocking it. Managed to track some down at a third GC. IT has been rebranded under the Arthur Bowers label and is now in a gren and white bag as opposed to the familiar purple and green bags. Was £12 for 150 litres (3x50litre) 8p a litre. Was assured it's the same but haven't opened a bag yet so can't tell, but it did smell the same in the back of the car.

[Jungle Jane]

IT has been rebranded under the Arthur Bowers label and is now in a gren and white bag as opposed to the familiar purple and green bags.

The Arthur Bowers mpc I got from tesc0 is in a red bag so they must be a bit different,yours is probably better if it costs a bit more.

[WendyC]

It's a peat free compost which is always dearer the peat based ones.

[TrysHard]

This year I have tried:

JAB MPC from Wyevale - last years stock the best of all I have tried easy to sieve crumbly etc

Wyevale MPC quite fibrous and difficult to sieve - OK for potting on not so good for seeds

Asda Professional MPC very very fibrous almost impossible to sieve you have to almost grate it.

The Wyevale and Asda are around 50% peat and seem to be lots of tree product.

I might have to pay more just for seed sowing.

[Jungle Jane]

The co co coir from h0mebargains is very good for seed germination,with peas for example,the soil doesn't stay soaked like seed compost. Excellent germination success,not so good with John innes seed compost! Surprising but true. Potting on I just used normal mpc.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I needed a bag today, my local place had run out of Jacks Magic so I bought a bag of Miracle Grow enriched, low peat content.

What rubbish fibrous lumps as big as house bricks that had to be chopped up with vigorous blows from the trowel. If they call that a premium compost they must set their sights very low indeed.

[greenishfing]

I have tried 4 sorts this year so far. Westland MPC, Wickes own brand MPC, a no name one from the garden centre and lastly Clover MPC which I bought from the local allotment shop, on the advice of the guys that run it.

The Clover MPC is by far the best.

It was £14 for 3 bags (75 litres each) just over 6p per litre.

It was the last one I bought. Seeds are germinating well in it and the tomatoes I have potted on into it which germinated in the Westland are suddenly very, very happy. It fluffs up easily and I have found no lumps, chunks or foreign matter.

[Urban]

B&q verve compost has been alright this year. Bought some Wilkos seed compost and all sorts of weeds came up in it, nettles etc, also got a bag of levintons with added added John innes which was the worst compost I've ever had, huge bits of concrete and wood etc etc

[Madasafish]

I but Verve MPC c £6.75 for 120 liters, The three bags this year are fine . As they were last year. And the year before..

[ugley_matt]

Can you basically put anything into a black bag and call it compost? are there standards or anything that have to be met as it seems very poor that you can't just buy something of decent quality.

[whatsupdavy]

Draining characteristics of B&M Easigrow growbags

Hi! Firstly, can i offer my thanks for all the work the various contributors have done on this.

My question relates to the draining of these materials - specifically the growing material in the B&M easigrow growbags that we bought this year, which seems to have come out quite well in contributor's opinions in this thread.
I made sure that the material was thoroughly 'uncompacted' before planting, and they SEEMED to drain OK initially, but recently this has stopped, and, not realising it immediately, i have overwatered them. I've tried punching more holes into the very bottom of the sides of the bags, with very limited effect, and about 10 hours ago i scooped the, beginning to get smelly, material at each end of the growbags out, to provide a 'sump', but even this doesn't seem to have helped much - i still have the tomato plants in saturated material, and precious little in the sumps. Obviously, things might improve over the coming days, but ........
The strange thing is that i have one B&M Easigrow growbag from 2014, as well as these ones bought earlier this year, and THAT one doesn't seem to have the same problem.

Has anyone else noticed this effect with these 'post-peat' materials? Is it even something that the suppliers consider - following on from the previous contributor's question about whether there is any real control over what is sold?

[vixylix]

Love this thread - so just a little bump.

I buy Verve, purely because its the nearest place to my house so I can drag the OH there to carry things for me

Good to know that its actually ' vine approved'

[the plumber]

compost

just been to our allotment shop.i use humax £5 for 60 litres. it/s perfect for seeds and i/ve used it for years.you get what you pay for. happy growing. plumber.

[Scoot]

I've been looking at some compost and i;m looking at getting either -

B&M: > Gro-Sure All Purpose Compost Bale - 4 Month Feed 75L - 295041

or

Verve Multi-Purpose Compost 125L | Departments | DIY at B&Q

I got the verve compost last season and it was absolutely fine but the one for B and M works out slightly cheaper per litre.