It's a long time since I was last on this forum but I thought I would just give an update on results this year. I went to Evesham to Vale Garden Centre before lockdown happened and bought my usual Clover brand of composts plus some Clover Grow-bags. The results have been astounding this year. I grew 3 'Sweet Aperitif' plants in one grow-bag and 2 Aubergine 'Bonica' in another: I put Chilli plants in a 3rd grow-bag (2 x 'Padron' + 1 'Apache').
The tomatoes have produced more than I could possibly have expected with trusses 'up to the roof and in excess of 50 toms on each truss. The Padron chillies are loaded to the point I've had to tie supports to the plants and the Aubergines whilst not so prolific have produced some really excellent fruits. In the raised beds the runner beans have been prolific (mostly 'Moonlight' + 'Blue Lake' French climbers) but the blackly have been particularly troublesome this year. To try and combat them I blitzed down some chillies in water with a Bamix blender, strained & filtered the liquid and sprayed the plants with that. It does seem to have made a significant difference but now I notice there are a lot of ladybird lava feeding on the aphids so maybe a 'joint effort' there. I tried the chilli spray on Eileen's Dahlias that were infested and it really did work as they are now clear.
Thanks for the compost update. It would be really interesting to hear how others have got on with the various compost brands recently (I know there have been a few comments on other posts). I have been impressed by Westland's products, especially their Gro-Sure horse manure and MPC/JI products. However, very unimpressed by Godwin's Horse Manure - literally just a load of dry shavings with light dusting of organic matter! Anyone else had this issue with said brand?
We've typically used Clover multipurpose "100% Irish moss peat" in the 75l bags from our local plant centre. Fine, crumbly, not dry but not soggy, feels 'good' in the hand. Good price, easy to get to for us. Not the easiest size bag to manage, granted.
Last year, due to not wanting to make any additional interactions with people than absolutely necessary, I picked up some Westland "The Gardeners" multipurpose compost in 20l bags from the local supermarket with the once weekly food shop. It felt horrid in the hand, like shredded newspaper and not-so-well ground bark chippings. I made do with it, and the plants haven't died, but I wouldn't buy it again. It claims to be a blend with Irish peat, but I don't know.
This year I see about 4 or 5 different brands of MP compost in the supermarket. Off the top of my head, Levington, MiracleGrow, Westland, own-brand ... I'm reluctant to bother trying any of it. I took a carefully timed trip to the local plant centre and picked up the Clover compost as I've always had, and it seems just like it always has to me. I'll stick to this for multipurpose use I think.
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The tomatoes have produced more than I could possibly have expected with trusses 'up to the roof and in excess of 50 toms on each truss. The Padron chillies are loaded to the point I've had to tie supports to the plants and the Aubergines whilst not so prolific have produced some really excellent fruits. In the raised beds the runner beans have been prolific (mostly 'Moonlight' + 'Blue Lake' French climbers) but the blackly have been particularly troublesome this year. To try and combat them I blitzed down some chillies in water with a Bamix blender, strained & filtered the liquid and sprayed the plants with that. It does seem to have made a significant difference but now I notice there are a lot of ladybird lava feeding on the aphids so maybe a 'joint effort' there. I tried the chilli spray on Eileen's Dahlias that were infested and it really did work as they are now clear.
Last year, due to not wanting to make any additional interactions with people than absolutely necessary, I picked up some Westland "The Gardeners" multipurpose compost in 20l bags from the local supermarket with the once weekly food shop. It felt horrid in the hand, like shredded newspaper and not-so-well ground bark chippings. I made do with it, and the plants haven't died, but I wouldn't buy it again. It claims to be a blend with Irish peat, but I don't know.
This year I see about 4 or 5 different brands of MP compost in the supermarket. Off the top of my head, Levington, MiracleGrow, Westland, own-brand ... I'm reluctant to bother trying any of it. I took a carefully timed trip to the local plant centre and picked up the Clover compost as I've always had, and it seems just like it always has to me. I'll stick to this for multipurpose use I think.