On 12/05/2012 17:15, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"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


We use New Horizon (Formerly JA Bowers)for most things. Looks a bit
funny but things grow well (v.small petunia seedlings looked a bit
unhappy on transplanting in). Westland Surestart for fine seeds and
cuttings.