"Rod" wrote in message
news:17754620.61.1336931774104.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbxz8...
On Saturday, 12 May 2012 16:54:41 UTC+1, Judith wrote:
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?

I feel a gardener's revolt against 'reduced peat' composts coming on.
If you can find an unPC garden centre Erin still do their old peat based
general compost. Clover also do a peat based compost.

Rod

I have no objection using peat-free compost, providing it is as good as a
peat based compost. However, this year I have been using a recommended
peat-free compost and have been disturbed by the number of weed seedlings
(nettle, thistle, dandelion etc) coming up in the compost. Yesterday
(Tuesday) I e-mailed the manufacturer (Westland - see below)
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This year I have been using all Westland composts on the recommendation of
my local garden centre.
I have found the composts generally excellent especially the texture, but
one thing bothers me.
This is the number of weed seeds which germinate from the composts. On this
basis I have to assume
that much of the compost is composted garden refuse and the composting
process does not reach a
sufficiently high temperature to kill these seeds.

I am a specialist grower of Chrysanthemums at a antional level and my main
concern in a compost is
not in the weed seeds but in the presence of eelworm and the fungus
fusarium. Given that the
temperatures in your composting process are not high enough to eliminate
these two scourges,
can you tell me what additional process you use to eliminate these from your
compost.
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I have received an acknowledgement that the message has been read, but
nothing further. I will post any result that I receive.

Phil
Northern Highlands of Scotland