"Pete C" wrote in message
...

"Judith" wrote in message
...


Previous years I had bought B&Q compost - and this choice was
reinforced by
Which?'s best buy result.

This year they have changed the compost - and it is appalling. The bag I
bought was full of bits of wood - some bits of polythene and also white
mould
on some of the wood.

I have just tried an Aldi bag - and it is much the same (but cheaper).
It even
had a section of an old green plastic plant tie in it. There was an
awful lot
of unrotted small wood chippings in it.


I guess this all comes about by local authorities making "compost" from
the
recyclable rubbish. I know that my own does; I have never bought any
directly
from them as I was just not happy at not knowing what was in it. What if
someone had put some old plant material which had been treated with
weed-killer
in their recyclable refuse?

Moan over.

What do other people use for general purpose compost (growing tomatoes
in) and
also compost for seeds and seedlings?


Recently bought from B&Q.......
topsoil with 10mm stones in it.
potting compost with large grit in it.
I suspect the potting compost held the spores that killed my sweetcorn.
I went to a garden centre and got some JI peat free for the next lot.
Pete C


J Arthur Bowers Peat free is the most consistent of the Peat Free composts
but we get good results on the nursery using a mix of Peat free and soil,
both from Wicks! 1 bag of each mixed together. Never tried B&Q but all these
sheds (Wicks included do not make compost so are reliant on who they get it
from whereas the branded named composts at least have some quality control
but are usually much more expensive, I still use Levingtons for seeds
because I want to be sure its ok as some of the seed is not replaceable, but
once the plants are growing well I am happy to use the cheaper composts

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk