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What are the yellow things in my peat free compost

msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
in Problem solving
Hi all, I bought these peat free compost from Wickes (https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Peat-Free-Multi-Purpose-Compost---50L/p/236296) and used it to sow some salad lettuce and chilli peppers. It's been a week now and nothing is happening yet, apart from these suspicious tiny yellow things popping up everywhere. Does anyone know what it is please? Thanks!




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  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Probably slow release fertiliser balls. Are they crispy and crack open when you squish them?
  • BlueBirderBlueBirder Posts: 212
    Looks like fungus fruiting bodies to me. Won't harm the seedlings unless there gets so many of them to be smothering them, but when I get them it's a sign my compost is too wet or there's not enough air.
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    I agree with Fire, slow release fertiliser. 
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
    Neither me or my partner can pluck up the courage to squish them  :|

    But I googled slow release fertiliser and it doesn't look like them. And I only started seeing them today, not when I first sowed the seeds...

    And yes, the compost was quite wet when I opened the bag. So I guess I'll have to wait and see if anything evolves out of them....

    Thanks for all your comments!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Squish between two spoons or in a napkin. Nothing awful will happen. I promise. :D
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    That compost does not look great for seed sowing to be honest!
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I agree @Loxley. A bit of soil dug up from a border, with a bit of Perlite or grit for drainage,  would be more hospitable  :)
    They just look like fertiliser to me. Very common in commercial compost, especially a lot of the peat free ones which are often full of rubbish and have little nutritional content. 
    Seeds don't need much nutrition to germinate, but it's when you're growing them on that the problems often arise.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    Fire said:
    Squish between two spoons or in a napkin. Nothing awful will happen. I promise. :D
    Quite so. I was squishing a couple of weeks ago when I was repotting plants at the volunteer job that I do, just to be sure it was fertiliser.  Exactly the same as the ones pictured above. 
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Many of us have had a heart attack moment wondering what god awful thing we had found in the soil...  I surely did.
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    I bought some of the Wickes peat free compost a  few weeks ago intending to use it for sowing seeds but because the texture was so coarse I checked the packaging and it said it wasn't suitable for seed sowing.
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