I've used a couple of bags of Miracle Grow compost this year and both had what appear to be pieces of branch or root 3 or 4 inches long and as thick as my finger in them. The rest of the content was OK but it makes you wonder about the sieving screens they use.
I use Erin Malloy for seed and cuttings, added with some vermiculite. for baskets and tubs, Erin and Levingtons professional with John innes. Never had anything in either that shouldn’t be there.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
And in case anyone is interested I'm guessing this multiple seed-type trial is heading to a similar result. Left side is cheapo competitor multi-purpose, right side is Aldi Peat-Free. Top to bottom, Trizia rocket, mixed loose leaf lettuce, boltardy beetroot, coriander. Hopeless stuff.
I have raised the issue with Aldi via their social media (seems to be the way to get a response these days). That's only in the hope that they'll be more careful about selling stuff that is cheap and nasty rather than cheap and cheerful. It's also kind of concerning that it may give the impression that this is down to it being peat-free. I don't think we want people avoiding that alternative.
Oh, and latest germination trial pic:
I'm honestly amazed at how bad the result is. If you'd said to me that a compost could effectively stop so many seeds from germinating properly I wouldn't have believed you.
This is truly shocking. It looks like a black dye has been used to make it look healthy.
Many people who decide to try plants for the first time would think this is their fault and give up on gardening!
I use JI seed compost with vermiculite for seeds, and this year Levington Original mixed with JI2 or 3 for pots. I also added a little water retaining gel as although the Levingtons is good, I have noticed a tendency for it to dry out.
I know this is an old post but I just searched because I've used some aldi compost recently, I'm new to gardening. I mixed 4 bags of aldi with 1 of some peat compost I bought before I knew how bad it is for the environment.
I've used my mix in a load of 30 litre potato buckets, just filled halfway so far, planted about a week ago.
The aldi compost was very dense black stuff with quite a few twigs too. Do you think I should try and mix in some of the homemade multipurpose we have? That looks like it's much more airy. From the previous tests it seems I might get terrible growth from this stuff.
Or maybe I'll just make it worse if I disturb the pots as they just start growing 🙄
I've used Jack's Magic for some years, and found it OK, but this year it isn't! Full of lumps and odd bits of rubbish, and seeds not germinating well (or at all). I was looking for some reviews and, like tomhumf stumbled on this by accident. I shall start using something different from now on. I suppose, like so many other things in life, you get what you pay for!
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for baskets and tubs, Erin and Levingtons professional with John innes. Never had anything in either that shouldn’t be there.
Oh, and latest germination trial pic:
I'm honestly amazed at how bad the result is. If you'd said to me that a compost could effectively stop so many seeds from germinating properly I wouldn't have believed you.
Many people who decide to try plants for the first time would think this is their fault and give up on gardening!
I use JI seed compost with vermiculite for seeds, and this year Levington Original mixed with JI2 or 3 for pots. I also added a little water retaining gel as although the Levingtons is good, I have noticed a tendency for it to dry out.
I've used my mix in a load of 30 litre potato buckets, just filled halfway so far, planted about a week ago.
The aldi compost was very dense black stuff with quite a few twigs too. Do you think I should try and mix in some of the homemade multipurpose we have? That looks like it's much more airy. From the previous tests it seems I might get terrible growth from this stuff.
Or maybe I'll just make it worse if I disturb the pots as they just start growing 🙄