Nearly all my seedlings have died this year when potting on into peat free compost. The ones that have taken are thin and yellowy. What am I doing wrong?
My tomatoes are a bit yellowy too, in peat-free. A friend has some much bigger and bushier and she says she used a peat based compost. Oh dear, the manufacturers really must try harder.
Yes, they must..and I suppose they are doing but in the meantime the poor old punter is indirectly paying the manufacturer to develop decent stuff whilst passing off crap. Especially when they've had decades to produce a decent product. It doesn't help that people like MD pontificate on a regular basis that he's been using peat free for years...what he doesn't tell you is he pays over the odds for a premium product, adulterates it with various other stuff and is fortunate that any failures can easily be replaced or he grows that much that losses are insignificant.
Peat based compost will be on sale until 2024 for amatuers (2028 for pros!)..until then I'll carry on buying it - especially if it's good enough for pros for the next 6 years! When its in a bag at the GC the damage is done.
Not that I'm unsupportive when it comes to preserving peatlands - quite the opposite - but I'm a realist. Sacrificing my plants/time/money unnecessarily for some kind of environmental moral code just doesn't make sense to me - I'm not beholding to anybody - and I have no guilt whatsoever. When it's banned I'll adapt.
I suppose the makes me the devil incarnate but I'm just being honest...and if you watch people at the GC or DIY shop a large proportion still buy compost based on value for money not whether it's peat based or not...moreso in the current economic climate.
On another thread I complained bitterly about the New Horizon peat free stuff which was total rubbish ... and not cheap. A number of posters recommended Melcourt Sylvagrow, but it doesn't seem to be available here in Scotland. So I asked a friend who was visiting us from England to bring me some of their seed compost. It's very good. She also brought up a very large tomato planter from Happy Compost, also 100% peat free. It's also very good. Worth trying if you can get it.
I'm going to pick some more up when we go to the cricket in Durham later this week.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I used Sylvagrow this year and it has not impressed me. The structure of the compost is fine so I think the principal problem is my ineptitude. I think possibly I over watered as though the compost looks dry on the surface lower down there is more moisture. The seeds did germinate but seemed slow to get under way. My tomatoes are about three weeks behind where I hoped they’d be.
I also bought lots of plug plants from Brookside. Again, the plugs looked just fine but, petunias and bacopas in particular, they simply have not thrived in the potting compost. Many plants are still yellow and spindly.
I expect this year’s failures are down to my failings and adverse weather but I am reluctant to use Brookside and Sylvagrow next year.
I find really hard to tell if the seedlings/plants in peat-free need watering. Sometimes, it looks soaked but it's actually dry. And sometimes, it looks dry but it's actually quite wet lower down.
Sowing directly doesn’t work for me. I have heavy clay soil and the seeds just don’t take, you certainly would be able to rake any soil over the top. And anything that might be lucky enough to take hold gets eaten by slugs before it gets going. So I need compost to grow seeds and plug plants until they are big enough to plant out.
My sylvagrow experience has been very positive. I add some grit for seeds and some homemade compost or a little bit of well rotted manure for potting on. But I have always modified my compost a bit depending what it looks like when I open the bag - even two bags bought at the same time aren’t always the same.
@BenCotto - I cannot comment on your experience re plugs and growing on in sylvagrow, but re their seed compost -- At the place I volunteer , our first batch of seeds sown in this failed to germinate. This is ( we think) because we compressed the compost too much ( as you say , it is fine , so became compacted/ waterlogged underneath the surface). In tiny writing on the (giant) sack of seed compost it did say to let it stay fluffy, not tamp down and just lightly water in - the next lot germinated fine. Might not be the same issue as you had, but thought I would mention it.
I’ve always used peat free so have nothing to compare it with (three decades plus). Quality does vary but I’ve usually had no problems with Horizon and Jacks Magic.
This year I’m using my own home made compost mixed with a bit of garden soil, no sieving so lumpy and bumpy. I’m making the change not because of problems with peat free but because I want to minimise plastic and bought in resources. So far I’m quite pleased with the results, maybe a few less seedlings and the odd weed appearing (mostly wildflowers and violas so happily pricking them out as well).
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Peat based compost will be on sale until 2024 for amatuers (2028 for pros!)..until then I'll carry on buying it - especially if it's good enough for pros for the next 6 years! When its in a bag at the GC the damage is done.
Interesting to know that @Chris-P-Bacon When they say "pros" do they mean compost manufacturers, professional nurseries or professional gardeners ? Or all 3 ? If the powers that be are trying to educate people re the peatland issues, I think it would be better to have an across the board deadline for everyone. Most of the compost available these days does seem to be poor quality - peat based or peat free. At least that is what I have found - and plenty of others too by the sound of it.
Sowing directly doesn’t work for me. I have heavy clay soil and the seeds just don’t take, you certainly would be able to rake any soil over the top. And anything that might be lucky enough to take hold gets eaten by slugs before it gets going. So I need compost to grow seeds and plug plants until they are big enough to plant out.
I wouldn’t sow anything direct for the same reason, never see them again.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
Yes, they must..and I suppose they are doing but in the meantime the poor old punter is indirectly paying the manufacturer to develop decent stuff whilst passing off crap.
Especially when they've had decades to produce a decent product.
It doesn't help that people like MD pontificate on a regular basis that he's been using peat free for years...what he doesn't tell you is he pays over the odds for a premium product, adulterates it with various other stuff and is fortunate that any failures can easily be replaced or he grows that much that losses are insignificant.
Peat based compost will be on sale until 2024 for amatuers (2028 for pros!)..until then I'll carry on buying it - especially if it's good enough for pros for the next 6 years!
When its in a bag at the GC the damage is done.
Not that I'm unsupportive when it comes to preserving peatlands - quite the opposite - but I'm a realist. Sacrificing my plants/time/money unnecessarily for some kind of environmental moral code just doesn't make sense to me - I'm not beholding to anybody - and I have no guilt whatsoever. When it's banned I'll adapt.
I suppose the makes me the devil incarnate but I'm just being honest...and if you watch people at the GC or DIY shop a large proportion still buy compost based on value for money not whether it's peat based or not...moreso in the current economic climate.
A number of posters recommended Melcourt Sylvagrow, but it doesn't seem to be available here in Scotland. So I asked a friend who was visiting us from England to bring me some of their seed compost. It's very good.
She also brought up a very large tomato planter from Happy Compost, also 100% peat free.
It's also very good. Worth trying if you can get it.
I'm going to pick some more up when we go to the cricket in Durham later this week.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I also bought lots of plug plants from Brookside. Again, the plugs looked just fine but, petunias and bacopas in particular, they simply have not thrived in the potting compost. Many plants are still yellow and spindly.
I expect this year’s failures are down to my failings and adverse weather but I am reluctant to use Brookside and Sylvagrow next year.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
At the place I volunteer , our first batch of seeds sown in this failed to germinate. This is ( we think) because we compressed the compost too much ( as you say , it is fine , so became compacted/ waterlogged underneath the surface). In tiny writing on the (giant) sack of seed compost it did say to let it stay fluffy, not tamp down and just lightly water in - the next lot germinated fine. Might not be the same issue as you had, but thought I would mention it.
This year I’m using my own home made compost mixed with a bit of garden soil, no sieving so lumpy and bumpy. I’m making the change not because of problems with peat free but because I want to minimise plastic and bought in resources. So far I’m quite pleased with the results, maybe a few less seedlings and the odd weed appearing (mostly wildflowers and violas so happily pricking them out as well).
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
If the powers that be are trying to educate people re the peatland issues, I think it would be better to have an across the board deadline for everyone.
Most of the compost available these days does seem to be poor quality - peat based or peat free. At least that is what I have found - and plenty of others too by the sound of it.