"kay" wrote ...

Bob Hobden;901955 Wrote:


Composts which at the moment are worse than useless IME. How good for
the
planet is me planting all my veg seeds, only a few weeks later to throw
it
all away and start again with new seed and new compost. Zero germination
or
very weak plants is all I got.



I'm really puzzled with your experience. I've been using non-peat
compost for over 10 years, for vegetables, ornamentals and cacti. The
quality is now excellent and I certainly can't recognise your
description of "zero germination or very weak plants".


Either you have been lucky or I've been unlucky.
It's put me off ever using that stuff again, a whole seasons veg seed had to
be re-bought and re-planted also putting me behind at the start of the
season. I know (hope) they will be improving it each year but "once bitten
twice shy".
Left the remainder in the shed as usual and there were lumps of rot/fungus
in the compost after a couple of months, I just emptied it into our compost
bins which was another waste of money. Obviously it was still rotting.
I have used New Horizons in the past, back to back with my normal stuff as a
trial, with not quite such bad results, just stunted and yellowish plants
and germination was only delayed by a few days compared to the normal but
still enough of a difference for me not to want to repeat the trial. If it
does that to seeds would I want my plants in it? No.

Used as soil improver it would do a good job but for seeds etc I am yet to
be convinced it can come anywhere near a peat based compost. Certainly it
needs to be fully sterilised before sale which would make it not so "green"
..

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK