A good moan about multi-purpose compost.

[Ricard with an H]

Maybe its time I started buying compost designed for sowing seeds though multipurpose ranges from the sublime to 'Are they taking the mickey'.

I have used peat-free and didn't like it, then when I mixed peat-free with peat I was happier and eventually went back to peat. This year I went for the big-names, J.Arthur Bowers with added John Innes. I think I've been suckered.

This mixture is very lumpy and again has bits of plastic together with twigs but I can't yet complain about its performance, the claims on the bag are for four weeks of nutrient.

Seeing as wee haven't had a session on composts and our given responsibilities towards peat, what are you-lot doing for compost I wonder ?

I did do a mix of my own from soil, sand, rotted wood chipping's and some of my 'Black-gold' but it just doesn't feel right for seeds. It's still too lumpy even though the lumps are tiny,

[Sandyback]

I've been very disappointed some in particular Mr Bowers, just the smell of it makes the mind boggle.

I've been buying 60ltr bags of Erin multi purpose 3 bags for a tenner.

If it dries out its a beggar to re hydrate. I now add grit and perlite and vermiculite as a matter of course, so far results are promising.

[alan refail]

I am continuing to use this, as I have for the past 15 years, with never a complaint about quality. Good peat compost, no recycled crap!

[Ricard with an H]

I'm with you Alan. My first year was using the Clover-multi-purpose, then I had the unfortunate experience of peat-free, then I went back to Clover. Clover has always been regular and reliable so why I swayed towards Bowers we'll have to put down to a senior-moment. Also, our close garden centre that I try to support must have got a special deal on the Bowers because it was all over the place.

Today I'm picking out the lumps and sieving with my fingers as my only sieve doesn't let much through.

If I'm looking for an excuse for my moment of stupidity I'll go for this quote from the German designer of the V2 rocket who up to the point Hitler needed a weapon to hit London he asked Von-whatsisname, "How many more failures before we get a usable rocket ?" Von-whatsisname replied, "Maybe another 20 or-so". Now comes the quote,

The biggest risk is often not taking a risk.

[Sandyback]

Totally off topic but didn't the developer of the V2 do a runner after the war and help develop gas recycling on the Suzuki 2 strokes

[Ricard with an H]

Oh-probably.

I read lots of stories about this bloke and as I pressed the submit button I realised I should have included a disclaimer about the details because sometimes I add a bit of art just to fill out the possible missing bits.

I heard he was co-opted into the USA so he could fullfil his ambitions though I also heard the Russians had him for a while. Was is Edgar-Von-Braun ? Maybe he was the bloke who did mens shavers.

Don't we-all need to be careful about the stuff we read in newspapers and books and on the packet of a bag of potting compost.

Stand-by, I'm inventing a way of dealing with lumpy multi-purpose compost.

[Monika]

I like Erin composts, Sandyback. They seem to be very consistent over the years.
I also bought some (Westlands?) Gro-sure multipurpose compost recently and found that very pleasant to use.

[peter]

Wernher von Braun and the yanks took him and every V2, plus parts, manufacturing equipment, drawing, etc that they could lay their hands on straight to White Sands military proving grounds in the states.
There was a technology sharing agreement in place with the UK and it was ignored. We got a couple of V2s that we fired into the North Sea.

Von Braun was the chief designer for NASA's Apollo programme. His quote about aiming for the stars was amended by more cynical British to end with, ", but sometimes I hit London.". http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... -von-Braun

It was seized and adapted german Giant Warzburg radars that were the real start of radio astronomy, one used in the UK discovered the Hydrogen line.

[Ricard with an H]

Thanks for the update on facts Peter, I knew I was close enough. Not quite sure how the name, "Edgar" entered into it though.

Now I have three bags of this stuff I'll give it a good run and keep you-all informed on my progress or otherwise in the hope that you'll spot something-else I did wrong rather than blame the compost which had been the case with my peat-free experiences in the past. It dries out quickly at the top but remains sodden in the middle in plastic pots. Moving to clay pots helped the situation but I didn't stick with the peat-free long enough to get a result. Probably because I got fed-up with lumps and bits of biro or other plastic bits. Even glass shards.

[Sandyback]

so were Suzuki 2strokes powered by compost?

[Ricard with an H]

No one has answered my question, "Is it worth paying the extra for seed compost"

Maybe I forgot to ask, Eh.

[John]

Probably not.
I think that SS compost is just a finer version of MP sold in small bags at inflated prices.
For sowing I just riddle some MP to get rid of the coarser stuff and it works OK.
I'm still using B&Q MP. It was the best of a bad bunch last year and the new bags I have just got seem fine.

John

[Ricard with an H]

We don't have a B&Q, nearest is an hour drive away so I can't take your recommendation. Last year I tried a couple of bags from Wicks, I think it was coconut husk fibres. Horrible stuff and I think this Bowers mix has some in it.

I suppose this J Arthur Bowers stuff is just spoilt by the lumps and twigs plus the odd bit of plastic which wouldn't really bother after the seedling stage. After rubbing it through a sieve it feels nice, I put a container of the lumps through my garden-crucher that I use for tree branches and twigs that give me walk-way cover but 50% of the lumps persist even through the cruncher.

When the marketing guys say, "With extra John Innes". What does that mean ?

[peter]

I'm using either Homebase seed compost, which seems to be soil and sand based, very fine texture, or, Humax mp from the allotment shop, again a finely textured compost.

Extra John Innes should mean the balanced mix of artificial additives for feeding and minerals. I clearly remember my Dad in the potting shed, a substantial brick huilding the size of a nose to tail two car garage, shovelling the loam, peat and silver sand from the fireplace like bins under the concrete potting benches each side onto the smooth concrete floor, mixing them up and then opening a biscuit tin with the magic white powder and carefully measuring the dose.

All the bulk stuff was in bushels, mixes for JI 1, 2 & 3 written on the brickwork in chalk.

[Geoff]

I have used some of the peat based Erin this year, mainly for Brassicas so I know they don't contact club root infected soil in their early life, I agree with the comment it is a sod to wet once it dries out but otherwise it is very nice. Almost everything else has been raised in home made mixtures of soil, sand and leafmould mixed and graded using a rotasieve. The only thing I have had trouble with this year is Kelvedon Wonder Peas; Feltham First and Delikett have germinated perfectly, there might be a clue in the Thompson and Morgan label (I was given them, I never buy T&M).
I think most of these lumpy abominations could be resurrected by mixing 5:1 with sharp sand in the rotasieve (don't get mixed up with rather more expensive rotosieve).