"Phil Gurr" wrote ...


"Bob Hobden" wrote

I took a large compost bag full of diseased plant material, blighted
potatoes and stems, and onions with white rot and brown neck rot down the
local recycling centre two days ago. I asked the chap there where it
should go, he said "in the Green Waste", I said "but it's diseased", he
said "where else are you going to put green waste?" so I tipped it in the
green waste bin for making into compost and soil improver.
I have asked our Council in the past if they can supply soil improver to
our allotment site but I don't think I'll bother now.

Bob, I contacted Westland this year after finding that their compost was
full of weed seeds.
I asked them if they could tell me what treatment they gave their compost
to kill
weed seeds and pathogens (such as eelworm). They have not replied. As I use
about 700
litres of new compost a year for my late flowering chrysanths, I have gone
back
to using pure peat compost.


If they, and I mean the Government and the "Green" lobby too, want us to use
this recycled waste instead of peat then they have to sterilise it
thoroughly before sale. You have been put off as have I and I'm sure many
more gardeners feel the same. If they keep on just composting without
treatment eventually it will filter down to the general public how dangerous
it is and they won't be able give it away let alone sell it.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK