I am just about to write to the makers of a multi purpose compost that I have used for seedlings. I have always used multi purpose compost for seedlings but this year they have not grown. They are still tiny but I have had to put them in to different compost and they have then grown very quickly. This leads me to think that the compost has no nutritional value. There have also been some very ugly silvery black fungi. I have only seen these when I used to grow my runner beans in toilet roll holders and so I am assuming that this compost has come from household waste. Never again!
I have three bags of verve this year - all have been great so far. I like to buy coir bricks to blend it with but this year's seems fluffy even by itself.
Last year I swore I'd never buy it again because it was so woody and coarse.
This year, Verve Multipurpose Peat-Free compost was very disappointing. My tomato seedlings were chlorotic and stunted and failed to grow at the usual rate. I then planted up half in Verve and half in Gardenline Peat-Free compost. After just 1 week there was a huge difference with those in Gardenline looking much healthier and growing as expected. All but one are now in Gardenline and that one is still not growing properly.
Teegee you make an interesting point at the beginning of the thread when you point out that the compost might be old and the roots seem to burn.Bearing in mind that some products are treated to high heat to eliminate weeds I wonder if the length of time the bags are hanging around in all weathers outside is relevant here?
Also and maybe a bit late for most seed sowing this year I have just had the best results ever with a bag of "Jack's Magic" compost bought at Homebase
Was searching about J Arthur Bowers compost and found this so thought I'd add my view on it.
Got 3 bags for a tenner after running out of my other stuff and being a total novice differences in compost didn't really flag much up, but I'm feeling now this stuff might not be much good. It's very fibrous compared to the John Innes fruit & veg compost I used originally and has more...junk, mixed in with it. It smells very strongly of manure, I assumed this wasnt a bad thing, but maybe it is? It seems to dry and form a very solid mass, so concerned about water permeating albeit it does seem to still, and not sure my plants are doing so that, they're not dying off, but for example I had a cucumber plant with a couple of flowers, transferred it to the final pot with this stuff, two days later now the flowers have shriveled up, now it could be the shock of changing pots/soils but....I'm suspicious.
Not sure if there would be any use giving the plants in this compost a bit of supplementary liquid feed in case this stuff has a poor nutrient content..
Hi Joe, rotten luck here.Suspect that the manure content has scorched the roots and the strength of the compost has been a bit too much for your young plants to cope with.Maybe liquid feed would only add to the problem.Are the plants too far on to put into decent compost or even soil? and while water might dilute the problem don't over do it. Best of luck and hopefully you will soon be reporting a full recovery
Ah suppose that could be it, the Westlands stuff I have now is darker and has a more Earthy smell and seems less fibrous..I've got a few flowers to move into troughs/pots so I'm going to test half with Bowers and half with Westland and see if there is any difference.
I could re-plant the cuc, but the others have been in final pots for over a week at least and in fairness they don't look as if they're now wilting/are unhealthy, so I think I'll just leave things as is and if for some reason I don't get much of a crop I'll take that possibility into account for next year and might stick with some Westland John Innes stuff.
Last year, as I have done in the past, I bought six bags of J Arthur Bowers compost. Total disaster as both veg and flower plants hardly grew. Even the bought bedding geraniums never got beyond 6" high and trailing plants gave up trailing after 4". This year I have bought 70ltr bags of Squires compost and all fruit and flowers are growing as they should be.
I have banged on about mis-managed compost sites on this forum before. However, how is the poor gardener suposed to know where the compost has come from? Maybe the compost site of origin should be printed on the bag so if there is a failure we know not to buy anything which has come from that mis-managed site again.
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I am just about to write to the makers of a multi purpose compost that I have used for seedlings. I have always used multi purpose compost for seedlings but this year they have not grown. They are still tiny but I have had to put them in to different compost and they have then grown very quickly. This leads me to think that the compost has no nutritional value. There have also been some very ugly silvery black fungi. I have only seen these when I used to grow my runner beans in toilet roll holders and so I am assuming that this compost has come from household waste. Never again!
I have three bags of verve this year - all have been great so far. I like to buy coir bricks to blend it with but this year's seems fluffy even by itself.
Last year I swore I'd never buy it again because it was so woody and coarse.
Seems like luck of the draw?
This year, Verve Multipurpose Peat-Free compost was very disappointing. My tomato seedlings were chlorotic and stunted and failed to grow at the usual rate. I then planted up half in Verve and half in Gardenline Peat-Free compost. After just 1 week there was a huge difference with those in Gardenline looking much healthier and growing as expected. All but one are now in Gardenline and that one is still not growing properly.
Teegee you make an interesting point at the beginning of the thread when you point out that the compost might be old and the roots seem to burn.Bearing in mind that some products are treated to high heat to eliminate weeds I wonder if the length of time the bags are hanging around in all weathers outside is relevant here?
Also and maybe a bit late for most seed sowing this year I have just had the best results ever with a bag of "Jack's Magic" compost bought at Homebase
Was searching about J Arthur Bowers compost and found this so thought I'd add my view on it.
Got 3 bags for a tenner after running out of my other stuff and being a total novice differences in compost didn't really flag much up, but I'm feeling now this stuff might not be much good. It's very fibrous compared to the John Innes fruit & veg compost I used originally and has more...junk, mixed in with it. It smells very strongly of manure, I assumed this wasnt a bad thing, but maybe it is? It seems to dry and form a very solid mass, so concerned about water permeating albeit it does seem to still, and not sure my plants are doing so that, they're not dying off, but for example I had a cucumber plant with a couple of flowers, transferred it to the final pot with this stuff, two days later now the flowers have shriveled up, now it could be the shock of changing pots/soils but....I'm suspicious.
Not sure if there would be any use giving the plants in this compost a bit of supplementary liquid feed in case this stuff has a poor nutrient content..
Hi Joe, rotten luck here.Suspect that the manure content has scorched the roots and the strength of the compost has been a bit too much for your young plants to cope with.Maybe liquid feed would only add to the problem.Are the plants too far on to put into decent compost or even soil? and while water might dilute the problem don't over do it. Best of luck and hopefully you will soon be reporting a full recovery
Ah suppose that could be it, the Westlands stuff I have now is darker and has a more Earthy smell and seems less fibrous..I've got a few flowers to move into troughs/pots so I'm going to test half with Bowers and half with Westland and see if there is any difference.
I could re-plant the cuc, but the others have been in final pots for over a week at least and in fairness they don't look as if they're now wilting/are unhealthy, so I think I'll just leave things as is and if for some reason I don't get much of a crop I'll take that possibility into account for next year and might stick with some Westland John Innes stuff.
Last year, as I have done in the past, I bought six bags of J Arthur Bowers compost. Total disaster as both veg and flower plants hardly grew. Even the bought bedding geraniums never got beyond 6" high and trailing plants gave up trailing after 4". This year I have bought 70ltr bags of Squires compost and all fruit and flowers are growing as they should be.
I have banged on about mis-managed compost sites on this forum before. However, how is the poor gardener suposed to know where the compost has come from? Maybe the compost site of origin should be printed on the bag so if there is a failure we know not to buy anything which has come from that mis-managed site again.