Which is the best value multipurpose compost this year? (2013) Which to avoid?

[snakeshack]

b&q verve for me too,had bad results with levington and the homebase own brand had more plastic in the compost than was used to make the bag itself.both these two were responsible for failure to launch with peas,beans,chillis and even lettuces,quickly developing white mould and shortly after a stagnant smell ,even though I was carefull with the watering to prevent damping off.I used them to mix in with soil when I planted out some of my squashes & they seem to be doing less well than the ones that are in just soil planted at the same time when I ran out of compost.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I would have had no hesitation in recommending B&Q's Verve to anyone until this week. Bought a couple of bags for the planters at the front of the house. When opened it was stinking badly of recycled household waste. After planting up, within a couple of days, some geraniums(zonal pelargoniums) bought from B&Q and some home grown french marigolds looked as though they had been gone over with a blow torch. The recycled compost within the mix clearly hadn't stopped cooking and was far too rich. I'll be sticking to Mother Earth compost from my local garden centre at Parkhill in future.

[Martin H]

I think the trouble is that composts from all the big volume suppliers are far too variable. One batch is pretty good, the next is awful. I suppose the manufacturers are still coming to terms with the fact that, while peat was uniform in its consistency and (lack of) nutrients, all of the peat substitutes they use nowadays are anything but. So whereas in the old days they could mix ingredients using a fixed recipe and be sure of a reasonably consistent product, now they can't.

They need to get their respective acts together: the first supplier to produce a trustworthy product at a reasonable price will surely clean up.

[veggiechicken]

It amazes me that we are expected/prepared to pay say £5 for a bag of rubbish - and very variable quality rubbish at that. I cannot think of any comparable product that is bought in great quantity without any real control over its quality or consistency.

[dim]

I popped into our local garden centre this morning, as one of my clients wanted 2 acers planted in pots

our garden centre has a bag of each compost open so that you can see before you buy .... I normally buy imported compost from a hydroponic store so it is rare that I buy compost from a garden centre

I was shocked to see some of the composts .... it looked like dried lawn clippings ....

there was one make that however looked good and which I bought .... I'ts called Murphys and was £4.99 for a 50 litre bag .... the rest of the compost looked bad