Mike Lyle wrote:

On Sat, 28 May 2011 17:32:36 +0100, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

On Sat, 28 May 2011 11:25:51 -0500, "JIP"
wrote:

Jake wrote:

On Sat, 28 May 2011 01:25:10 -0700 (PDT), Dave Hill
wrote:

On May 28, 8:07*am, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"mrcpea" *wrote ...

Can anyone recommend a good quality Multi Purpose Compost
other than J. Arthur Bowers. We've found this to be rather
inferior & not as good as it used to be.

I think that is a problem we are all having, always used
Levingtons but the last lot of that I bought had mouldy bits in
it, non-sterilised composted waste I suspect.
Used a "John Innes" this year and it's worked better although I
have mixed it with other stuff depending on what I'm potting
up.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

I find that B & Q Multi pourpous Compost, (with peat) is good

If I remember right, Which? published a review in January 2010
which said that B&Q multipurpose (with peat) was the best and
also the cheapest of those that it tested.

I don't use multipurpose any more but in the past my own
experience was that Westland was generally the best.

Cheers
Jake

You are dead right - I subscribe to Which? and they reported lots
of tests and founbd B&Q multipurpose best for all sorts.

JIP

I've heard that Which? are running (or have run) another test on
compost this year, with twice as many brands/types as in the 2009/10
one. Is this true, do you know? Might be worth the £1 temp
subscription to the web site to get hold of a copy of the results.

The library will have Which? -- And they probably need as many bodies
through the doors as possible.

I bet the various brands vary quite a bit from year to year. For
specialists and connoisseurs the difference may matter, but I think
that for most of us the cheapest will do perfectly well.

Morrisons, last time I looked, were knocking out 40-litre bags of
multi-purpose at two for five pounds. That's six and a quarter pence
per litre, which is growbag price. It's very peaty, though: presumably
"30% peat free" is dishonest commercialese for "70% peat". In a moment
of inattention I bought four, and feel a bit guilty about it...my
tomatoes, however, don't.

I don't use enough of it to be able to do my own comaprisons, but in
the Which trials there were some that they advised AGAINST buying -
virtually half the germination rate of the best buy. One example was
the B&Q peat free multipurpose, whereas their other general purpose one
was best buy for planting seeds and for growing on.

I don't know if they are doing further tests - they only announce what
they are going to report on about a month in advance.