The Lemon Fool

Grrrr, just had to dig 200 litres of chainstore compost into my veg patch, because it'll do more good as a soil structure improver than it ever will for my young plants. Total rubbish. Lumps of brick, some glass, large bits of black plastic bags.

And by the look of it, about 30% wool by volume. Wool is worth very little to farmers these days, according to Countryfile, so a lot of it is going into compost because it's hardly worth selling. It'll release a bit of slow-release nitrogen over five to ten years, but it won't do anything for this year's plants. Back to the depot, then, for a better quality product. It's tough being peat-free (or even reduced peat) when manufacturers are filling up with whatever comes out of the local authority bins on the day.

I won't identify the offending brand, but it comes in big square bales which are normally 120 litres, but which have been reduced to 100 litres this year, presumably because the new blend is so incredibly heavy compared with last year's formulation. As soon as I opened the first bale, the smell of wet wool was overpowering. As I've said, it has a use as a soil conditioner but it won't help most of my plants a bit.

What about branded blends, then? Which? does comparative tests every couple of years, and not all of the reports are restricted to members only. A couple of years ago, its chemical analysis showed that some top-branded bales had grotesque amounts of added nutrients while other bales from the same product lines had virtually no nutrients at all. (Suggesting that somebody was adding chemicals to the bulk with a JCB and not stirring them in? Perish the thought.)

DYOR, anyway. Googling for "worst compost UK" sheds further light on these and similar reports. With the important proviso that most manufacturers are changing their blends regularly. Not always for the better, it would seem?

Finally (because somebody will surely ask?), yes, we do make our own compost - maybe a tonne and a half a year. But we still use shop-bought for some purposes because it's finer. Er, supposedly......

BJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKn5otfZHxE


Just because...
(They all look so young)

bungeejumper wrote:Grrrr, just had to dig 200 litres of chainstore compost into my veg patch, because it'll do more good as a soil structure improver than it ever will for my young plants. Total rubbish. Lumps of brick, some glass, large bits of black plastic bags.

And by the look of it, about 30% wool by volume. Wool is worth very little to farmers these days, according to Countryfile, so a lot of it is going into compost because it's hardly worth selling. It'll release a bit of slow-release nitrogen over five to ten years, but it won't do anything for this year's plants. Back to the depot, then, for a better quality product. It's tough being peat-free (or even reduced peat) when manufacturers are filling up with whatever comes out of the local authority bins on the day.

I won't identify the offending brand, but it comes in big square bales which are normally 120 litres, but which have been reduced to 100 litres this year, presumably because the new blend is so incredibly heavy compared with last year's formulation. As soon as I opened the first bale, the smell of wet wool was overpowering. As I've said, it has a use as a soil conditioner but it won't help most of my plants a bit.

What about branded blends, then? Which? does comparative tests every couple of years, and not all of the reports are restricted to members only. A couple of years ago, its chemical analysis showed that some top-branded bales had grotesque amounts of added nutrients while other bales from the same product lines had virtually no nutrients at all. (Suggesting that somebody was adding chemicals to the bulk with a JCB and not stirring them in? Perish the thought.)

DYOR, anyway. Googling for "worst compost UK" sheds further light on these and similar reports. With the important proviso that most manufacturers are changing their blends regularly. Not always for the better, it would seem?

Finally (because somebody will surely ask?), yes, we do make our own compost - maybe a tonne and a half a year. But we still use shop-bought for some purposes because it's finer. Er, supposedly......

BJ

I would have returned it to the store, but OTOH, if you buy chainstore compost what can you expect? Certainly not good quality that's for sure. I buy about 6 bags a year of stuff which comes in mostly yellow bags whose name begins with M and find it quite good. I have mostly grass cuttings composted because being I do not have room for much and I leaven that with as much other compostable material as I can. I use that as a general fertilser, and the bought stuff mostly for pots. I sometimes get stuff free at our skips, which is recycling in the true sense of the term considering I fill my green bin every fortnight and take other stuff to the skip.

Dod

Dod

Name and shame. I get Wyevale, now Dobbies Tree and Shrub compost, because its the cheapest they sell, and its OK, just a bit fibrous, certainly no foreign matter.

bungeejumper wrote:Grrrr, just had to dig 200 litres of chainstore compost into my veg patch, because it'll do more good as a soil structure improver than it ever will for my young plants. Total rubbish. Lumps of brick, some glass, large bits of black plastic bags.

If anything like that happens again or happens to anyone else, I'd recommend a look at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... lty-goods/. The quote "You’ll have legal rights if the item you bought is: ... * unusable (‘not fit for purpose’)" seems to me to be entirely applicable!

Also, do large bits of black plastic bags really improve soil structure???

Gengulphus

I think the offending compost was "peat free". For those of us willing to follow this peat free route, does anyone have experience of "good" peat free compost? I have been underwhelmed by peat free compost from well known, and usually reliable providers of standard peat based composts. In particular, has anyone discovered a peat free compost suitable for sowing seed? The wool and chopped up wood composts don't seem suitable. Also how can I get peat free ericaceous compost for my rhododendrons?

I make my own. It takes two years and two (homemade) bins, the first being for the current year's compost and the second is where that compost sits for a further year. It is then dug out and bagged up and passed to my neighbour who uses it on her allotment. I used to use it on my vegetable patch, but gave up when the slugs reduced my runner beans to 2 inch sticks and the potatoes starting being eaten by wireworms. Leeks I could manage but there are limits to what you can do with leeks.

My bigger homemade bin collapsed and I have replaced it with a Garantia Eko-King 600, which seems to be functioning well, but I have not looked at the product yet. Really I could do with the next size up, as I have a job putting all my grass cuttings in, depending on how much the contents have shrunk since the last addition of weeds and/or grass. Kitchen vegetable waste all goes in there. A lot of flies arise. The second bin is also collapsing, but contains last year's compost. I may get a second Garantia bin if the current year's compost looks like it needs longer to mature.

If you have a lawn of any size, why not make your own?

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:If you have a lawn of any size, why not make your own?

TJH

I used to make my own - for scattering around the growing plants in the garden, but its availability in an appropriately composted state never seemed to match in time my requirements for potting-on plants and bulbs, and it really wasn't suitable for seedlings. So I have become lazy - purchasing sacks of general purpose compost, and John Innes compost for seed and seedlings. This year was my first purchase of peat free general purpose compost - but I still stuck to John Innes for seed and seedlings. If the wool and wood is the best peat free compost I can find, I may have to re-think composting my garden waste. Currently I can't see a seed and seedling substitute for John Innes.

ALDI peat free at £2.79 a 50ltr bag is good...well it works for me
and I know very little
but I keep trying

but they often are sold out!

I've bought some pretty poor compost in the past, ingredients have included wire, chewing gum (?) and black plastic. As a substitute, Coir is available in blocks which is competitive by price and without any hidden extras. It comes in blocks and expands when water is added, it's convenient to store and handle:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/coir-blocks/s?k=coir+blocks

RC

tjh290633 wrote:I make my own. It takes two years and two (homemade) bins, the first being for the current year's compost and the second is where that compost sits for a further year. It is then dug out and bagged up and passed to my neighbour who uses it on her allotment. I used to use it on my vegetable patch, but gave up when the slugs reduced my runner beans to 2 inch sticks and the potatoes starting being eaten by wireworms. Leeks I could manage but there are limits to what you can do with leeks.

My bigger homemade bin collapsed and I have replaced it with a Garantia Eko-King 600, which seems to be functioning well, but I have not looked at the product yet. Really I could do with the next size up, as I have a job putting all my grass cuttings in, depending on how much the contents have shrunk since the last addition of weeds and/or grass. Kitchen vegetable waste all goes in there. A lot of flies arise. The second bin is also collapsing, but contains last year's compost. I may get a second Garantia bin if the current year's compost looks like it needs longer to mature.

If you have a lawn of any size, why not make your own?

TJH

I have an enormous quantity of grass cuttings and in itself does not make ideal compost. Better to mix it with leaves and kitchen waste and the trouble with kitchen waste is that it can attract vermin.

Dod

Like tjh, we run two adjacent bins, this year and last year.
In our previous house we had three bins plus a separate container for leaves as we had a lot of trees and leaves take longer to compost.

In spring, our last-year bin is emptied and the this-year bin is shovelled into it. The bins are made of steel roofing profile supported by 4" posts in Metposts, and each is about 6x6x4ft high with one side of removable wood slats. I made them around eight years ago.

Grass cuttings, soft prunings, kitchen waste, all go in there and some wood shreddings on the few occasions that I can be bothered to get out the shredder and lug it up to the compost area.
Mix in some Garrota-type additive at intervals, and periodic thorough wetting with a hose. Dry compost means no compost.

The last-year bin is covered with black plastic so it heats up.

One never has enough compost. The (large) veggie patch, some fruit to mulch, the hydrangeas and a few other shrubs, and it's pretty well gone.

This year we bought two brands of this new-fangled compost to make up a pair of 24" barrel planters. After four weeks one is supposed to start feeding it. We never fed the old soil-peat mix and that must have been 15 years old or more, the oak barrels were well rotted.
And the new stuff dries out in no time.
Huh.

Peat, yes, we should cut out. But the soilless substitutes, no, not impressed really.

Dod101 wrote:...the trouble with kitchen waste is that it can attract vermin.

Perhaps Scottish vermin. But darn sarf, they're purely carnivorous. So, no meat, no vermin.

V8

Dod101 wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:I make my own. It takes two years and two (homemade) bins, the first being for the current year's compost and the second is where that compost sits for a further year. It is then dug out and bagged up and passed to my neighbour who uses it on her allotment. I used to use it on my vegetable patch, but gave up when the slugs reduced my runner beans to 2 inch sticks and the potatoes starting being eaten by wireworms. Leeks I could manage but there are limits to what you can do with leeks.

My bigger homemade bin collapsed and I have replaced it with a Garantia Eko-King 600, which seems to be functioning well, but I have not looked at the product yet. Really I could do with the next size up, as I have a job putting all my grass cuttings in, depending on how much the contents have shrunk since the last addition of weeds and/or grass. Kitchen vegetable waste all goes in there. A lot of flies arise. The second bin is also collapsing, but contains last year's compost. I may get a second Garantia bin if the current year's compost looks like it needs longer to mature.

If you have a lawn of any size, why not make your own?

TJH

I have an enormous quantity of grass cuttings and in itself does not make ideal compost. Better to mix it with leaves and kitchen waste and the trouble with kitchen waste is that it can attract vermin.

Dod

Torn up cardboard or scrunched up newspapers, wetted, added to grass cuttings, along with any vegetable or floral waste, improves the compost greatly. Kitchen waste is fine if it is uncooked peelings, teabags, coffee grounds etc.

Don't teabags contain plastic?

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/a ... r-tea-bags

monabri wrote:Don't teabags contain plastic?

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/a ... r-tea-bags

Some do, but there quite a lot that have gone plastic free.

RC

All my shredded correspondence is saved and sprinkled in my two darleks along with kitchen waste, weeds (except oxalis and a couple of other varieties) garden waste and some non-sieved home made compost saved for the purpose. I used to add manure from a local farm to my raised beds but since I no longer drive I have to rely on my own compost to which I add chicken manure pellets before spreading each spring (or more truthfully, my garden helper now does this for me! ). He also brings me a couple of sacks of all purpose compost from the local garden centre where he buys what he needs for his own garden. I use it mixed with sand and Perlite for starting seeds.

Tricia

ReformedCharacter wrote:

monabri wrote:Don't teabags contain plastic?

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/a ... r-tea-bags

Some do, but there quite a lot that have gone plastic free.

RC

I can confirm that Yorkshire teabags contain a plastic framework which I have to pick out of the compost

The scientific view on composting is the higher the temperature of decomposition the better - so large bins with a lower surface area to volume ratio, some aeration (ie turning it over or decanting into another bin), and a mixture of different types of material. You can buy compost accelerators which I guess are full of nitrogen and bacteria.

I thought traditionally, seed compost was made by rotting down turfs, rather than with wet soggy decayed vegetable compost?

And I no longer had trouble with rats after I stopped peeing on the compost, as some old gardeners advise.

I never see any signs of teabags in my rotted down compost. I do use an accelerator and I have 2 separate large cages for my leaves but still have to take loads to the dump . I don't put weeds in it apart from any bits I can be sure don't contain rubbish. I agree that the new compost is no good. Water goes straight through it.

Plastic-free tea bag brands:

Abel & Cole own brand
Clipper
PG Tips
Pukka Herbs
Teapigs
Twinings pyramid range
Waitrose Duchy range

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-drink/news/a3291/plastic-tea-bags-environment/

RC

Just to mention that recently we were advised (allotment association private facebook) that a particular supermarket compost (not their own brand) has been reported as recently possibly containing NZ flatworms, these over time apparently can kill our native worms.

Catch is I cannot find on google any articles about the particular brand of compost having an issue and accordingly am not currently happy stating which supermarket or branded compost was mentioned, however it is certainly a warning to be wary of what you buy and check it before incorporating it into your land.

https://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/worms-y ... t-0b92akc/