On 8/3/05 6:20, in article , "Alan
Gould" wrote:

In article , Sacha
writes
This got me wondering what the Irish use instead of peat in their power
stations. Somewhat tongue in cheek, I offer you this:
http://www.hempfood.com/fuel.html

Interesting. Food for thought? :-)

The stuff that dreams are made of, anyway. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Alan Gould wrote in message
...
In article , Rod rodcraddoc
writes

Do you know what JI contains? I can't remember the exact proportions -
it's a long time since I made any, but I can tell you that it contains
a significant amount of peat. That's if it's made to the original JI
specification - if not it shouldn't really be called JI compost,
though trade usage seems to be to call any soil based compost JI
compost. Again the JI spec calls for loam produced in a specified
manner but most so called JI composts I've seen seem to contain any
old soil they could get hold of.

A.G.L.Hellyer gives the following John Innes mixtures in the 1981
edition of Sanders Encyclopedia:

Basic formula for potting:
Medium loam 7 parts by bulk
Peat 3 parts by bulk
Coarse sand 2 parts by bulk

-- (very snipped)
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Thanks for enlightening me, but OOOPS! I had no idea JI contained peat.
Drat. I'll have to go back to the drawing board.

Spider

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , Rod
rodcraddoc
writes

Do you know what JI contains? I can't remember the exact
proportions -
it's a long time since I made any, but I can tell you that it
contains
a significant amount of peat. That's if it's made to the original
JI
specification - if not it shouldn't really be called JI compost,
though trade usage seems to be to call any soil based compost JI
compost. Again the JI spec calls for loam produced in a specified
manner but most so called JI composts I've seen seem to contain any
old soil they could get hold of.

A.G.L.Hellyer gives the following John Innes mixtures in the 1981
edition of Sanders Encyclopedia:

Basic formula for potting:
Medium loam 7 parts by bulk
Peat 3 parts by bulk
Coarse sand 2 parts by bulk

A basic fertiliser is prepared separately consisting of:
Hoof and Horn meal 2 parts by weight
Superphosphate of lime 2 parts by weight
Sulphate of potash 1 part by weight

For most greenhouse plants add 4ozs of basic fertiliser plus 3/4oz
ground chalk or limestone to a bushel of basic potting mixture,
increasing the amount of fertiliser for strong growing plants.
For lime hating plants the chalk or limestone can be left out.

Basic mixture for seed germination:
Mdium loam 2parts
Peat 1part
Coarse sand 1part

To each bushel of this mixture add:
1.5ozs superphosphate of lime and
3/4oz ground chalk or limestone.

John Innes mixtures were first demonstrated and standardised at the
John
Innes Horticultural Institution by W.J.C.Lawrence in the 1930s,
which
explains the antiquated nature of the measures given.

All through my adult life I have thought of making my own JI compost,
but I never found out what loam *actually* was, and where to obtain it

Franz

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 17:19:38 +0000, tom
wrote:

Hi All,

I have just bought a plant & it says that it likes peat soil. I
havnt
seen PEAT for sale lately & guess its nolonger available to
gardeners.

Where can one buy composted bracken as used by Carol Klein on GW.
I guess it would be fairly acidic. It looked wonderful stuff but
I've
not seen it for sale. Would it be a peat substitute?

Well, that's what Carol as recommending it as! ;-)

She said she got hers by mail order. Google is remarkably silent on
possible sources, but did throw up the following interesting summary
of
research into peat alternatives:


http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/grou...ents/page/odpm
_plan_606234.pdf

Here is the one I mentioned to Pam a little while ago.

http://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/

Franz




--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the
river"

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 17:19:38 +0000, tom
wrote:

Hi All,

I have just bought a plant & it says that it likes peat soil. I
havnt
seen PEAT for sale lately & guess its nolonger available to
gardeners.

Where can one buy composted bracken as used by Carol Klein on GW.
I guess it would be fairly acidic. It looked wonderful stuff but
I've
not seen it for sale. Would it be a peat substitute?

I once found a source by googling.
Try

http://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/

The price was utterly outrageous, so it is a non-starter.

Franz

In article , Franz Heymann
writes

All through my adult life I have thought of making my own JI compost,
but I never found out what loam *actually* was, and where to obtain it

RHS Enc. defines loam thus:
Highly fertile, well drained but moisture retentive soil, usually fibre-
and humus-rich, and containing more or less equal parts of clay, sand
and silt.
Chambers English Dictionary defines loam thus:
A soil consisting of a natural mixture of clay and sand, with animal and
vegetable matter: a composition basically used in making bricks.

The expressions loam, earth, dirt, soil, ground and compost are
frequently used (or misused) in urg discussions and elsewhere to
describe growing various mediums for plants.

We use our own made organic compost mixed with a little coarse sand and
a light dusting of well matured fire ash, thus we have no need for J.I.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.