cineman writes

"Steve Harris" wrote in message
...
Every year, I sow various seeds into pots of multipurpose compost and
keep them indoors until ready to plant out. I've never had any weed
seedlings in the pots.

This year is different - I do have weeds. The only difference I can see
is that this year I'm using a well-known name instead of something from
a DIY shed.

Should I expect multipurpose compost to be sterile? Was I just lucky in
the past?

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/


Probably you have one of the newer peat-free or lower peat products, these
comntain composted material and in the past have been quite dirty .
No doubt this is the product of your green bin emptying programme.

Oveer the last few years I have tried low peat or peat free compost's and
the results have been dissappointing, in so far as more weed grwoth and
slower growth of plants.

I use a peat free compost with no weed problems. I'm surprised if
they're using green-bin compost. Most of them seem to based on either
coir or bark
--
Kay