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This is a heads up, and a call for feedback.
I have been using J Arthur Bowers New Horizon compost range since it first appeared. It is organic and peat free, based largely on composted wood waste. I have managed to grow everything I need in it fairly successfully and it is my first choice having tried, as far as I know, all available peat-free organic composts. No, there aren't very many
So, this season, J Arthur Bowers have altered and expanded the range. Until this year we were offered garden compost, a growing bag and a general purpose compost (the latter was the one I used). There was also a brief appearance of a coir-based product which has not been continued.
New for 2008 is a vegetable planter and a vegetable compost which appear to be a mixture of wood and coir, as far as I can tell. The growing bag has been re-named, I think, as a tomato growing bag.
So, I've been trying out the vegetable compost to see what it's like. It's not clear, but I presumed that it is a bit heavier on the nutrients than the other products.
It's nice and clean, and has a manure-like smell which the New Horizon growing bags used to have. It immediately felt lighter to me - because of the coir, I guess. I've been using it in the same way as before, neat for small pots and mixed with garden compost for larger ones. (I sow seeds in a proprietary seed compost from Nature's Own).
Three months on and I am harvesting my first produce - spring onions, cabbage and lettuce so far. No difference in the quality crop that I can tell.
My thoughts so far are that it is lighter in weight, and, I suspect doesn't hold the water quite as well. It is apparently drying out a bit quicker than I am used to. This is a tendency of coir that I have observed in the past. This has probably been an advantage in the early part of the year as it is obviously very free draining, but I wonder how things will go in the summer.
I am well aware that I could easily be watering less, and the weather is different, so do take that into account - I can't provide a controlled experiment!
I will soon be planting up one of the vegetable planters with cucumbers, so I'll see how that goes too.
If anyone has any feedback about the new products I'd be interested to know.
Ideally, we could perhaps send our observations to J Arthur Bowers - since this range is the only commonly available one in garden centres, we should try and make it as good as it can be!
I have been using J Arthur Bowers New Horizon compost range since it first appeared. It is organic and peat free, based largely on composted wood waste. I have managed to grow everything I need in it fairly successfully and it is my first choice having tried, as far as I know, all available peat-free organic composts. No, there aren't very many
So, this season, J Arthur Bowers have altered and expanded the range. Until this year we were offered garden compost, a growing bag and a general purpose compost (the latter was the one I used). There was also a brief appearance of a coir-based product which has not been continued.
New for 2008 is a vegetable planter and a vegetable compost which appear to be a mixture of wood and coir, as far as I can tell. The growing bag has been re-named, I think, as a tomato growing bag.
So, I've been trying out the vegetable compost to see what it's like. It's not clear, but I presumed that it is a bit heavier on the nutrients than the other products.
It's nice and clean, and has a manure-like smell which the New Horizon growing bags used to have. It immediately felt lighter to me - because of the coir, I guess. I've been using it in the same way as before, neat for small pots and mixed with garden compost for larger ones. (I sow seeds in a proprietary seed compost from Nature's Own).
Three months on and I am harvesting my first produce - spring onions, cabbage and lettuce so far. No difference in the quality crop that I can tell.
My thoughts so far are that it is lighter in weight, and, I suspect doesn't hold the water quite as well. It is apparently drying out a bit quicker than I am used to. This is a tendency of coir that I have observed in the past. This has probably been an advantage in the early part of the year as it is obviously very free draining, but I wonder how things will go in the summer.
I am well aware that I could easily be watering less, and the weather is different, so do take that into account - I can't provide a controlled experiment!
I will soon be planting up one of the vegetable planters with cucumbers, so I'll see how that goes too.
If anyone has any feedback about the new products I'd be interested to know.
Ideally, we could perhaps send our observations to J Arthur Bowers - since this range is the only commonly available one in garden centres, we should try and make it as good as it can be!
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