I use it for everything. If I'm planting seeds I mix it with a little good quality soil and a bit of vermiculite if I have any to hand. My thinking is that plants grow in nature in spite of the conditions that they find themselves in, so anything I do can hardly be worse.
I don't claim to have fantastic results with my seed sowing, but I'm happy with what I manage to produce. At the moment, I have just potted up about 100 big blue scabious seedlings into their own little pots. They came from a couple of plants that are already in the garden. If, at the end of a wet and mouldy winter, I have fifteen or sixteen that I can grow on to become full sized plants, I shall have more than enough to see me through the next year.
No, you are right, there is never enough compost. There is never enough soil, even though the garden is full of it!
It's a sad fact that we are being kept in the dark about compost. I have no axe to grind with anyone. I just want to know what I am using is safe, and getting that answer is impossible. The government has invested a lot of money in these composting sites. They are trying like mad to not only to make a return on investment, but to get rid of the dam stuff.Many of the tests carried out are by government funded institutes..which says it all. Take a look at this link. It's against pesticides and it shows thir findings on clopyralid, the weed killer that is used on every lawn in the UK and carted off to be composted. You will notice that for cancer, liver disease and many life threatening illnesses there are no results. A failure by government to carry them out? I am not a green activist, but in my lifetime ( I'm and old git now!) have seen so many government projects that have been launched, that they have swarn are safe and unrelated to health issues, that over time have proved incorrect and people have suffered. Are these products with their residual chemicals really safe to grow food in? And we havent even touched on the heavymetal content which the government knows is a problem with mass composting.
Right, I'm really p'd off now. Twice have tried to send long answer back to Blisters , when tried to send, has been deleted. 2hrs wasted as not good typist! I wouldn't mind if moderated first, but they just disappeared into the ether. Someone tell me they are here somewhere. And for a change they were relevant and serious. (I'm not as thick as you all think!) And the bugger is, I haven't even checked on Tea yet!
gardenjeannie (OT) write your responses in notepad, wordpad or in a word processor first. Then you can prune, hack, spell-check add subtract etc. Then you can cut and paste your immaculate and beautiful prose in to the web forum, (loike whot i have just done) without worries that you might lose it.
After experiences with multi purpose compost containing uncomposted garden cane, bulbs, chipboard etc , I vowed to only use John Innes loam based seed compost. Over past few years, despite it being seed compost, I have found that I have to sieve it , producing large percentage of large lumps - twigs, coir etc etc. For past few years I have regularly written to the long established company that makes this. I send a sample, they send a voucher with a letter saying , there was a problem with the sieving process in that batch. This year I just couldn't be bothered. I didn't raise seedlings, I bought from my local independent nursery. He uses some compost that is only available o the trade - no problems. It is great to recycle and be green I have been doing it for years but I feel us public are sold a lot of trash under the pretence of recycling / organic / green! I did used to compost my own kitchen waste but it encouraged rats, in a small garden it was not very acceptable.
Neighbouring allotments have had the problem of manure contaminated with weedkiller The seeds of New Zealand "spinach", a popular cattle feed pass through the cow undigested. My allotment is covered with this weed!
.....and possibly sieving it is more likely to make an aerosol containing pathogens?
Motherbear, ask your nursery if he will sell you some pro compost.I have been using Levington M3. It was a revelation after all the other stuff I have been using for the past two years, including the levington multipurpose in red bags sold by garden centres.I know someone who buys it by the palletload, and sells me some.
Allotment associations can buy this by the palletlload too.
Interesting read, i am too new to gardening to have formed an opinion, but from talking to my dad, he is adament that peat free is poor and his local allotment association only stock peat free, this is down to "save the world dogooders" who run the allotment shop.
I recall reading in one of the garden mags recently that the head honcho at T&M will not use peat free due to results in their testing, just had a quick google and not been able to find the article.
I don't know if anyone picked up on this, but a few weeks ago on Beechgrove, Jim was quite comfortable with stating that he uses a peat mix for some of his plants (cuttings possibly) and will continue to do so.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Yes Fairygirl i noticed that, he almost apologised for using it, shows what a mad world we live in where people feel the need to apologise for not comforming with others views.
Posts
I use it for everything. If I'm planting seeds I mix it with a little good quality soil and a bit of vermiculite if I have any to hand. My thinking is that plants grow in nature in spite of the conditions that they find themselves in, so anything I do can hardly be worse.
I don't claim to have fantastic results with my seed sowing, but I'm happy with what I manage to produce. At the moment, I have just potted up about 100 big blue scabious seedlings into their own little pots. They came from a couple of plants that are already in the garden. If, at the end of a wet and mouldy winter, I have fifteen or sixteen that I can grow on to become full sized plants, I shall have more than enough to see me through the next year.
No, you are right, there is never enough compost. There is never enough soil, even though the garden is full of it!
It's a sad fact that we are being kept in the dark about compost. I have no axe to grind with anyone. I just want to know what I am using is safe, and getting that answer is impossible. The government has invested a lot of money in these composting sites. They are trying like mad to not only to make a return on investment, but to get rid of the dam stuff.Many of the tests carried out are by government funded institutes..which says it all. Take a look at this link. It's against pesticides and it shows thir findings on clopyralid, the weed killer that is used on every lawn in the UK and carted off to be composted. You will notice that for cancer, liver disease and many life threatening illnesses there are no results. A failure by government to carry them out? I am not a green activist, but in my lifetime ( I'm and old git now!) have seen so many government projects that have been launched, that they have swarn are safe and unrelated to health issues, that over time have proved incorrect and people have suffered. Are these products with their residual chemicals really safe to grow food in? And we havent even touched on the heavymetal content which the government knows is a problem with mass composting.
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/gateway/?pesticideid=19
Right, I'm really p'd off now. Twice have tried to send long answer back to Blisters , when tried to send, has been deleted. 2hrs wasted as not good typist! I wouldn't mind if moderated first, but they just disappeared into the ether. Someone tell me they are here somewhere. And for a change they were relevant and serious. (I'm not as thick as you all think!) And the bugger is, I haven't even checked on Tea yet!
gardenjeannie (OT) write your responses in notepad, wordpad or in a word processor first. Then you can prune, hack, spell-check add subtract etc. Then you can cut and paste your immaculate and beautiful prose in to the web forum, (loike whot i have just done) without worries that you might lose it.
Back to the original discussion .....
After experiences with multi purpose compost containing uncomposted garden cane, bulbs, chipboard etc , I vowed to only use John Innes loam based seed compost. Over past few years, despite it being seed compost, I have found that I have to sieve it , producing large percentage of large lumps - twigs, coir etc etc. For past few years I have regularly written to the long established company that makes this. I send a sample, they send a voucher with a letter saying , there was a problem with the sieving process in that batch. This year I just couldn't be bothered. I didn't raise seedlings, I bought from my local independent nursery. He uses some compost that is only available o the trade - no problems. It is great to recycle and be green I have been doing it for years but I feel us public are sold a lot of trash under the pretence of recycling / organic / green! I did used to compost my own kitchen waste but it encouraged rats, in a small garden it was not very acceptable.
Neighbouring allotments have had the problem of manure contaminated with weedkiller The seeds of New Zealand "spinach", a popular cattle feed pass through the cow undigested. My allotment is covered with this weed!
.....and possibly sieving it is more likely to make an aerosol containing pathogens?
Motherbear, ask your nursery if he will sell you some pro compost.I have been using Levington M3. It was a revelation after all the other stuff I have been using for the past two years, including the levington multipurpose in red bags sold by garden centres.I know someone who buys it by the palletload, and sells me some.
Allotment associations can buy this by the palletlload too.
Interesting read, i am too new to gardening to have formed an opinion, but from talking to my dad, he is adament that peat free is poor and his local allotment association only stock peat free, this is down to "save the world dogooders" who run the allotment shop.
I recall reading in one of the garden mags recently that the head honcho at T&M will not use peat free due to results in their testing, just had a quick google and not been able to find the article.
I don't know if anyone picked up on this, but a few weeks ago on Beechgrove, Jim was quite comfortable with stating that he uses a peat mix for some of his plants (cuttings possibly) and will continue to do so.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have recently discovered Beechgrove, very interesting and informative program. Dare I say it easier to watch then GW!
Yes Fairygirl i noticed that, he almost apologised for using it, shows what a mad world we live in where people feel the need to apologise for not comforming with others views.