Can we trust any bought peat-free compost?

[alan refail]

I put the question in the light of three bits of news I came across this morning.

1)

Failure of two tomato trials at RHS Wisley attributed to issues associated with growing media used for this year's tests.

Composted green waste lacking phosphate has caused the abandonment of a tomato trial at RHS Wisley.

from http://www.hortweek.com/Edibles/article ... to-trials/

Another RHS tomato trial was abandoned due to aminopyralid contaminated manure.

2) Vital Earth fined £75,000 over waste offences http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/142343.aspx

3) A probable case of aminopyralid and/or clopyralid contamination http://www.hartley-botanic.co.uk/garden ... -own-goal/

[Primrose]

Yes, you really wonder about what's in the compost you buy these days.

Our Council's Green Waste Recycling facility offers a free day once a year where you can go and help yourself to as much of their free compost as you can take away. It's a tempting offer but when I see some of the things that people put in their green waste to be composted down, even when it's heat treated, including all kinds of herbicides and weedkillers, I've always demurred. To use this stuff unknowingly and then find all your crops are ruined is a risk too far for me. It's bad enough having to do battle with the unpredictable weather.

[Arnie]

Hi Alan,

In a word No

Regards

Arnie

[Primrose]

This is an issue for all of us really because hardly any of us who grow our own have the capacity to generate sufficient home-produced compost for our needs.

I know people on here have from time to time posted their own recommendations and I've used New Horizons this year with reasonable success, but it seems to me that different batches that you buy seem to be of different quality so there's no long term guarantee that one brand will always produce a reasonable result. And I'm still intrigued how it is that I've been finding worms in my sealed compost bags when the material has supposedly been treated at high temperatures.

[alan refail]

2) Vital Earth fined £75,000 over waste offences http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/142343.aspx

An extract from the above:

In early 2011, Vital Earth supplied a local tenant farmer with compost to be used on rented land off Dark Lane, Hob Lane and at Grange Farm. The farmer was informed by the company that the compost fully complied with the relevant criteria and was not considered to be a waste product. Unfortunately, following delivery he noticed that the compost contained a high level of plastic contamination including items such as kitchen knives, bottle tops and cigarette lighters.

So much for moral high ground, not to mention honesty! I shall not be buying any brand of non-peat until further notice.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
This is really what you and I forecasted, some time back, when those who are against the use of peat were campaigning for a complete ban on peat use. The quality of the majority of Peat Free composts cannot be trusted. Unless we can trust the composters then we will be forever wondering if anything is safe to use.
Those who are fundamental conservationists have a lot to answer for!
It is all very well having high minded ideas and campaigning because it is not they who have the task of producing anything other that "hot air."
I will be very surprised if the complete ban on the use of peat will actually go ahead to time.
Those who licence the pesticides for the country are really responsible because they have had sufficient warning of the evils of Aminopyralid and its now offshoots.
The whole range of Pyralid weed controls should be banned right now.
We called for it to be banned back when the initial AP trouble was about and they assured us all that they had it under control and then go and licence new products to bring it even nearer the general public.
This is really a public scandal!
JB.

[glallotments]

We are using New Horizon too but we feed at every watering as it doesn't seem that the compost has sufficient nutrients.

[Kleftiwallah]

I shall definitely look for a ripped bag to inspect the compost next year. I bought three big bags and was very very disapointed due to the amount of twigs and bracken stalks it contained.

I'm quite pleased with the £1:99 bags of Aldi compost.

Cheers, Tony.

[solway cropper]

I'm fortunate in having a large garden and being able to produce the majority of my own growing media but I do still buy in stuff to 'bulk out' my own compost. The peat-free composts are definitely of very variable quality and quite probably a strong reason why so many new growers get poor results.

And on the subject of AP contamination the photo shows severely distorted growth on tomato plants grown with the addition of 'organic' FYM from one of the big suppliers. Everyone who's seen the plants agrees it's herbicide contamination but you tell me how 'organic' manure gets to contain aminopyralid or its derivatives.

[Primrose]

Gosh, that plant looks awful. Did it actually ever succeed in producing any fruit and if so, were they equally deformed? And would you dare risk eating them anyway?

[Johnboy]

Hi Solway cropper,

My quote from previous posting;

Unless we can trust the composters then we will be forever wondering if anything is safe to use.

This is what I was meaning because how could that possibly happen if the producer was being honest with the public.
It is getting to a point where anybody with a modicum of sense will revert to the use of peat for growing however untasteful it may be to them.
I feel that incidents like the photo you display should be sent to Dr Knight and his team to sort out giving them all the relavant information.
Naming and shaming would do for starters.
JB.

[snooky]

Further to my moan to the Manager at my local Wickes where I bought their new formula MCP,I sent an e-mail to them infoming them that I (and others) were not very happy with this product.Their answer is follows:-


"We have endeavoured to produce a product that is superior to the original formulation, which unfortunately in today's climate is not seen as being a "sustainable high peat content" product. In fact the government have a target to stop the use of peat completely in retail growing media by 2020, we have therefore started this process by gradually reducing our peat content with alternative product. The new Wickes formulae is a step in this direction and contains a unique wood fibre that improves on the performance of peat and produces a superior growing media."

[solway cropper]

And to add to Snooky's post, a local peat works here in north Cumbria is to close with the loss of 80 jobs because 'Natural England' has slapped a compulsory purchase order on them and will not renew their extraction licence. At the very least you can all expect more plastic, glass and toxins in your future compost!!

[Ricard with an H]

At the very least you can all expect more plastic, glass and toxins in your future compost!!

Shame-full isn't it. I thought I had sorted the problem with the New Horizon product by mixing 50/50 with peat and some grit, always using clay pots, however, I moved some sage from the beds into clay pots containing this mixture and one plant out of four just keeled-over.

Is it possible there was a concentration of something nasty even though I had pre-mixed for all the pots, hmmm, maybe not. For me there isn't any point in using compost with a risk of failure when there's enough risk from my inexperience.

[alan refail]

An article by Peter Seabrook via http://www.stockbridgeonline.co.uk/

http://www.stockbridgeonline.co.uk/wp-c ... rticle.pdf

This is pdf file which you can read if you enlarge it.

I haven't seen any anti-peat campaigners writing in support of peat-free composts recently.