Bought compost quality difference

[Earthgirl Jen]

I nowadays always purchase the professional compost which is a lot dearer than the stuff in most garden centres. It also contains emptor which kills off a lot of the bugs. The potatoes last year [grown in pots] were 3-4 times better than when grown with the garden centre stuff. I also now grow several thousand bedding plants for friends and the local hospice and I want them to be as good as any nursery.
Using seed compost no2 and the bedding compost the results are far better than any garden centre stuff.
Growing is a hobby so why not buy the best. You do not go to a pub to drink tap water.
Bob.

Goosander may I ask which you use and I'm assuming you buy by the pallet full? may I ask how much per litre you pay?

[Derbydal]

I always buy B & Q's 125ltrs for £6.93.

Always does the trick for me.

I have used the peat based verve mpc for the last 5yrs but this year for some unknown reason I bought the peat free verve ! well it seems to be more wood than compost ,but I have had fair results with larger seeds but not that good with finer seeds eg lettuce & brassicas , but I found poundland compost best for getting small seeds away for potting on !disapointed with wilkos mpc what I thought were seeds coming through turned out to be weeds !
the compost I was most disapointed with was Lidl mpc its was full of fress sawdust and I finished up mixing it with my home made compost, the one I noticed that may have been a good deal for the beds in the greenhouse was £10 for 4x50liters from Asda but didn't get any just added some growmore and bfb +rockdust to refress the old stuff ! atb Dal.

[Derbydal]

I always buy B & Q's 125ltrs for £6.93.

Always does the trick for me.

I have double posted. soz Dal

[rary]

Growing is a hobby so why not buy the best. You do not go to a pub to drink tap water.
Bob.

This may surprize some folks, but I buy the cheapest compost I can find, I usually add sand and/or soil to whatever I am using, along with slow release fertilizer when I am making up my flower baskets, the same mix for veg but use sixX or worm compost instead of slow release fertilizer.
But each to their own,

and yes if I went to a pub, I would drink tap water. its cheaper

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm not so sold on B&Q's gp compost as I once was because there is a lot of rubbish in it nowadays. For me its too rough for seed sowing unless put through a riddle first or put through my shredder which ends up with a super product. we shouldn't have to riddle or shred it though

[Kirk]

The B&Q peat free is poor and as mentioned by others seems mainly twigs. Cannot work out why they just do not shred it finer and so get something closer to the expected compost make up. Would have thought it would have been simple enough.

Their non-peat free stuff seems good, and like the initial post the big bags are fairly good value. Except for getting them into and then out of the car - sack trolly helps. It is likely the best value for run of the mill compost.

[robbra]

The two I referred to are B&Q Verve peat free as said by Scoot but I found so many twigs, bark and lumps of wood. Some seeds just wouldn't grow in it, fewer did. Wouldn't chance it again.
The Wickes is 70% peat and have re seeded some Red Robin toms for the window cills four days ago so nothing yet. Limited around here, one garden centre, a Range and B&Q or Wickes 20 miles away.
I'll look out for peat one a Kirk says and some of the more expensive ones recommended.
A lot of interesting input and how our experiences differ on the same products.
Rob

[ESBkevin]

For several years I've found the morrisons compost to be pretty consistent in quality without being too woody or lumpy. It would need to go through a riddle first for small seeds but I usually buy one bag of actual seed compost to get away the very early house started seeds.

[robbra]

For several years I've found the morrisons compost to be pretty consistent in quality without being too woody or lumpy. It would need to go through a riddle first for small seeds but I usually buy one bag of actual seed compost to get away the very early house started seeds.

This really makes sense so proper seed compost is added to my list, fed up with the failures. That's the trouble with me being thrifty(cheapskate).
Rob

[rary]

Does anyone else think that we are getting to hung up on having fine compost, when I take the compost out the bag if it's in a big lump I thump it with my trowel to break it up I don't riddle any compost I simply remove any large bits of wood to recycle in my compost bin, I just think that we are made to think that we need fine compost all the time, the soil in the ground that I sow veg seed into would never get through a fine riddle yet the seeds come up, compost is, to me just a convenient and lighter way of holding the moisture and nutrients that my seeds and plants need, hence the cheapest, (which does not mean the poorest) I can purchase, and last year I found Morrison's the best buy but they don't have their compost this year so I now go for Asda's, good price, good compost

[goosander]

Post 16. E.J.
About 6 p per litre but never worked it out. I get my stuff from the Clydeside Trading Company because the advice I get from there staff has been of great help to me.
My only connection to the company is that of a very satisfied customer.
Bob.

[muck lover]

I’ve had such variable material in verve ranging from fine stuff good for sowing to a bag of sticks.
This year I’m doing a wee experiment with miracle grow compost( looks ok) Marshall’s veg compost ( nice stuff) and a cheap supermarket compost.
I’m growing a totem tomato in each compost with the same fertilizer added. So far all are much the same. But we will see.
I grew early potatoes in pots of sieved leafmould with some of the previous years compost on top and they are fab. I added blood fish and bone and no other fertilizer. Sieving the leafmould was tiresome. Next year I might use verve cheapest compost and BFB.

[HoneyChild]

As far as I'm concerned I'm not entering my cmpost into a beauty contest so I don't really care what it looks like. As long as the plants are happy I'm happy. I've used green waste compost, MG peat-free and Lidl peat-free. I mix in FBB as fertiliser and the plants appear to be happy.

I haven't done any side by side comparisons for seed sowing although most of my seeds this year were sown into spent MG peat-free that I grew chillis in last year and I've been perfectly happy with the results.

My only real complaint regarding the Lidl stuff is that I found fat hen seedlings pop up in it. That being said, I still went ahead and bought a couple of bags today so I can finish potting up a few things in the greenhouse.