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Peat free compost ....

gazwilson194gazwilson194 Posts: 34
in Problem solving
Bought several bags of New Horizon peat free over the last few months (it seems to be everywhere now), all for use in pots and containers. After a lot of plants doing really poorly I've come to realise by using a moisture meter it's because it's permanently saturated ..... I always thought that retaining moisture was the main problem with peat free? 

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Peat free compost is very variable but so is the stuff containing peat nowadays as none of it seems to be consistent from year to year. I used New Horizon when it was a new product some years ago and it was brilliant but one year it changed completely and was like the  product you are suffering from.....sodden plants struggling in an oxygen starved medium.
  • gazwilson194gazwilson194 Posts: 34
    When you get compost from say aldi or Lidl you don't expect finest quality because of the price, but I've been quite surprised how bad this stuff is from a big player in the industry ..... although as I type this I realise how naive I sound!
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Ceres said:
    Peat free compost is very variable but so is the stuff containing peat nowadays as none of it seems to be consistent from year to year.
    I would be happy if it was consistent throughout a batch purchased at the same time.  I generally buy 3 or 4 bags each year and the difference between bags off the same pallet is ridiculous.

  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 1,500
    I tend to mix my compost from different bags to average out the quality.
  • gazwilson194gazwilson194 Posts: 34
    I just haven't got the room to keep various bags hanging around, same reason i cant buy 100l bags etc. Think I may have to try mixing with coir/perlite which wont take up much room although may be a bit rich for my blood ......
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I think a lot of compost has been variable for years, and the sudden rise in gardening due to the pandemic meant that there was a shortage, probably leading to stuff being sold before it was properly ready. Reading the huge amount of comments over the last couple of years, that seems to be the consensus anyway!
    Many people are now experimenting with their own mixes, depending on what they want it for, but it often comes down to the space you have available for storage, as you say @gazwilson194.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • tigerburnietigerburnie Posts: 131
    A lot of the peat free is made from council household waste compost from your bins, so the quality can vary from day to day and there's no real control over the temperature that it is composted at, hence a lot of my pots inside the greenhouse are full of weeds. I bought some made from coir with added clay, threw the bag away, now wish I had made a note of what it was, been very good when topped up with a liquid tomato feed each week for growing tender strawberries like Mara des bois.
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