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#17
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Problem with commercial compost
G Harman wrote
Janet wrote: Provided you don't mind the mess drop the bag on its end from about two feet up and the shock will break the stuff up pretty well. I decant the whole sack into an old dustbin (for storage) and use a garden fork to break it up. When I take compost from the bin to a potting tray I use a handfork if it needs to be broken up even finer; and add grit to lighten it. We fortunate enough last year to find a branch of Lidl selling off some electric cement/plaster /paint stirrers for £5 like this one. http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/...619319&title=M So far it has stirred and mixed compost soil etc fine in a dustbin, plus some jobs doing what it was designed for. At £5 if it only lasts a couple of seasons it will be a bargain, don't know what the pre clearance price was . If cheap enough when it comes around again it might be an idea for some. That is so cheap, the ones in Screwfix are £100. You can buy the "blade" as a tool for an electric drill for about £5. but would that be powerful enough for compost. -- Regards. Bob Hobden. Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK |
#18
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Problem with commercial compost
On Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:24:11 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote: G Harman wrote Janet wrote: Provided you don't mind the mess drop the bag on its end from about two feet up and the shock will break the stuff up pretty well. I decant the whole sack into an old dustbin (for storage) and use a I use a handfork if it needs to be broken up even finer; and add grit to lighten it. We fortunate enough last year to find a branch of Lidl selling off some electric cement/plaster /paint stirrers for £5 That is so cheap, the ones in Screwfix are £100. You can buy the "blade" as a tool for an electric drill for about £5. but would that be powerful enough for compost. The stirrer is 1400 watts and has a speed control so you can run it at a slowish speed. I have used an electric drill in the past with a similar tool but it was too fast and the compost got thrown out of the bin. The drill was about 600 watt and struggled a bit so I stopped before the electric smoke escaped.. I was quite flabbergasted when I saw the asking price and checked they were actually labelled correctly before reaching the till, sometimes think I should have got two. The branch was the Ferndown ,Dorset one and I think it is one of those where they agglomerate the unsold items from other branches and have a final clearance, possibly with some repackaging as some customers of both Aldi and Lidl are disrespectable in the way they examine prospective purchases. G.Harman |
#19
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Problem with commercial compost
On 30/03/2015 13:40, David wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 10:23:15 +0100, Broadback wrote: I use a lot of compost every year, 4-5 large bags. the last 2 years of so it has been a PITA. It is so compressed that I am spending more time and energy loosening it it using it. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a commonly available make that is not usually compressed, of have you some easy way to loosen it? TIA I had a family friend of my parents (a pseudo-Uncle, if you like) who was a keen gardener. He used to make bulk compost using a small electric cement mixer. Remembering this, it occurred to me that if you really wanted to break up commercial compost, and especially if you wished to mix your own by adding to the compost, then if you have storage then buying all your compost at the start of the season, then hiring a mixer for half a day might be feasible. In the past I have hand mixed (on a spot board with a shovel) commercial peat/peat free potting compost, JI No. 3, farmyard manure, GroMore and chicken manure. It would be much easier to do this with a mixer if I had a large storage box to keep this in. Cheers Dave R Using a cement mixer wont break up the lumps, if anything it will make more. I make my own compost using a mixer but all the ingredients go through a 1 cm mesh sieve that I made to fit a barrow. If you are worried about having your compost solid in the bags then if you go and buy your compost pick bags from the top of the pallet that haven't been compressed. Machine Mart sell a rotary sieve which I find worse than useless. |
#20
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Problem with commercial compost
On 30/03/2015 23:51, David Hill wrote:
On 30/03/2015 13:40, David wrote: On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 10:23:15 +0100, Broadback wrote: I use a lot of compost every year, 4-5 large bags. the last 2 years of so it has been a PITA. It is so compressed that I am spending more time and energy loosening it it using it. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a commonly available make that is not usually compressed, of have you some easy way to loosen it? TIA I had a family friend of my parents (a pseudo-Uncle, if you like) who was a keen gardener. He used to make bulk compost using a small electric cement mixer. Remembering this, it occurred to me that if you really wanted to break up commercial compost, and especially if you wished to mix your own by adding to the compost, then if you have storage then buying all your compost at the start of the season, then hiring a mixer for half a day might be feasible. In the past I have hand mixed (on a spot board with a shovel) commercial peat/peat free potting compost, JI No. 3, farmyard manure, GroMore and chicken manure. It would be much easier to do this with a mixer if I had a large storage box to keep this in. Cheers Dave R Using a cement mixer wont break up the lumps, if anything it will make more. I make my own compost using a mixer but all the ingredients go through a 1 cm mesh sieve that I made to fit a barrow. If you are worried about having your compost solid in the bags then if you go and buy your compost pick bags from the top of the pallet that haven't been compressed. Machine Mart sell a rotary sieve which I find worse than useless. I notice Monty incorporates vermiculite into his compost. I find it overcomes most texture related problems and is a bit of a magic bullet for me in a small garden. |
#21
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Problem with commercial compost
On 30/03/2015 13:40, David wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 10:23:15 +0100, Broadback wrote: I use a lot of compost every year, 4-5 large bags. the last 2 years of so it has been a PITA. It is so compressed that I am spending more time and energy loosening it it using it. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a commonly available make that is not usually compressed, of have you some easy way to loosen it? TIA I had a family friend of my parents (a pseudo-Uncle, if you like) who was a keen gardener. He used to make bulk compost using a small electric cement mixer. Remembering this, it occurred to me that if you really wanted to break up commercial compost, and especially if you wished to mix your own by adding to the compost, then if you have storage then buying all your compost at the start of the season, then hiring a mixer for half a day might be feasible. In the past I have hand mixed (on a spot board with a shovel) commercial peat/peat free potting compost, JI No. 3, farmyard manure, GroMore and chicken manure. It would be much easier to do this with a mixer if I had a large storage box to keep this in. Cheers Dave R Using a cement mixer wont break up the lumps, if anything it will make more. I make my own compost using a mixer but all the ingredients go through a 1 cm mesh sieve that I made to fit a barrow. If you are worried about having your compost solid in the bags then if you go and buy your compost pick bags from the top of the pallet that haven't been compressed. Machine Mart sell a rotary sieve which I find worse than useless. I use a cement mixer to mix my own leaf mould compost with soil. The compost has very solid lumps in it which break up in the mixer well if I add a couple of hefty rocks. Mike |
#22
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Problem with commercial compost
"David" wrote in message ... On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 10:23:15 +0100, Broadback wrote: I use a lot of compost every year, 4-5 large bags. the last 2 years of so it has been a PITA. It is so compressed that I am spending more time and energy loosening it it using it. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a commonly available make that is not usually compressed, of have you some easy way to loosen it? TIA I had a family friend of my parents (a pseudo-Uncle, if you like) who was a keen gardener. He used to make bulk compost using a small electric cement mixer. Remembering this, it occurred to me that if you really wanted to break up commercial compost, and especially if you wished to mix your own by adding to the compost, then if you have storage then buying all your compost at the start of the season, then hiring a mixer for half a day might be feasible. In the past I have hand mixed (on a spot board with a shovel) commercial peat/peat free potting compost, JI No. 3, farmyard manure, GroMore and chicken manure. It would be much easier to do this with a mixer if I had a large storage box to keep this in. Cheers Dave R We use an electric cement mixer as wellbut I didn't suggest that as I assumed most people wouldn't have one! -- Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella and Lapageria rosea cvs http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk -- Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box |
#23
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Problem with commercial compost
In article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote: Can you tell me please Charlie what is "slow release" fertiliser? I use Osmocote 18 month but as the bbc often say "other brands are available!" basically they are all similar and are little pellets of clay that contain the fertilizer it percolates out slowly over time (It is often mistaken for snail eggs by new gardeners!) Because peat free composts contain composted wood products or other composted green waste they are often unpredictable as the composting process is sometimes still on going which starves your plants of nutrients, you can tell pretty quickly as the plants just sit there. Predictability is what its all about and is the reason that the John Innes recipe was widely adopted for soil based composts (its good but I find sets like concrete on its own. would that some similar standard could be achieved for peat free composts but at the moment it varies bag to bag. Thanks very much Charlie -- very useful! John |
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