"Dave Poole" wrote in message
...
On Nov 12, 6:21 pm, "mark" wrote:

A.N.Other volunteered to get me some compost for my cuttings. They
couldn't
find any specifically for cuttings and came back with John Innes number 1
and a warning for me not to moan if it was the wrong one. As if! I
haven't
used this before and it was quite nice to do so. Carrying it about, not
so
nice.

A decent quality JI No 1 is ideal for rooted cuttings and seedlings.
It doesn't 'run out of steam' as quickly as soil-less mixes, which is
important when you are potting at this time of year, since you don't
want composts running out so soon as to force a too-early repot.

So my question is what are the relative merits of loam based and peat/peat
substitute composts?

It's raining cats 'n dogs and I've not looked in for a while so here
goes for a long one I think:

There are two main types of compost: soil-based (predominantly John
Innes) and soil-less, which encompass both peat-free and peat-based
composts.




Thank you for this comprehensive reply.

mark