This may be a daft suggestion, but what the hey! It sounds like the compost
is not absorbing the water very well - it may have water repellant
properties. I wonder if a spot of washing up liquid in the water acting as a
wetting agent would work? I doubt it would cause any harm, but it just might
work. Perhaps worth doing an experiment with a watering can full of water +
a spot or two of detergent first to see if it gets absorbed any better than
pure rain water. I know manufacturers add detergents as wetting agents to
various products such as miracle grow as well as various sprays so they
settle on leaves without "rolling off".
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/