Contents of commercial composts

[alan refail]

There has been much discussion about quality of bought composts and the lack of any trade standards.

You might be in interested in the following from William Sinclair (currently under fire for harvesting peat from their site on Chat Moss - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-13237389)

http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/garde ... ts/compost

If you click on "Safety data sheet below each product" you can see a list of contents. Admirable!

For those who don't know what vinasse is here's the answer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinasse

[John]

Good luck to them!
Nice to see someone standing up to the environmental barmpots and bully boys and slow-footed council planning departments.

John

PS After reading the link, why do these types bang on about the enormous amount of carbon dioxide that is released by peat extraction. Where does vast quantity of gas come from? The only way I can see of creating all this gas is to set fire to the peat!

[peter]

"Accidental release measures"

[MikA]

John

are you really supporting a company that just ignores the law?
You aren't a banker are you?

BTW I don't think I'm one of "these Types" but I do try to be law abiding.
It's attitudes like yours that could quite easily make me one.

I have read the compost safety data sheets Alan points to and they are dated 2002, I would be surprised if they haven't changed the formulas since then. (Continuous improvement and all that). Which might explain why other people on these forums report good results one year followed by terrible the next.

MikA

[Geoff]

It actually looks more like Council incompetence or lethargy to me - if you apply to extend a licence before it expires and they can't be bothered to consider it until 6 months after the expiry I think I would be tempted to carry on regardless. How would you feel if the DVLA treated you like that?

[Johnboy]

I wonder!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-13252340
In the bulletin they say that the circumstances are suspicious!
Fundamentalists who cannot get their own way do the most awful things to achieve their aim. This is generally when a minority group are trying to win the day over the majority.
JB.

[alan refail]

Morning guys.

I was puzzled by your concentration on the peat aspect, until I realised I had missed out the most important link to Sinclair's compost product list. I have edited the original post to put it in. Here it is again -

http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/garde ... ts/compost

My main point was that it was good to see a company that actually published the contents of its composts. I only referred to the Chat Moss story insofar as it is interesting to see that the company being so reviled by the environmentalists for going about its peat business is also the company which produces New Horizon compost which is the favourite non-peat baby of the environmentalists themselves

[MikA]

Geoff -

Bad example - the DVLA did mess me about a couple of years ago but although I was as mad as ... I was not tempted to jump in my car and drive unlicensed.

Alan -

With reference to the "Content of commercial compost" as is the title of your topic, I am always sceptical of vague terms like green waste.
If I was buying my compost from an institution such as Kew Gardens in the knowledge that it was the same as they use on their gardens then I might be confident. However if I look at a company that from their action at Chat Moss, as reported in the BBC link you gave, could be seen as somewhat less than ethical then I would think twice about the contents of any of their publications.

[Colin Miles]

I would tend to agree with Geoff re Council lethargy. A friend has had the same problem - different Council admittedly - with renewal of Dormouse license. And not to mention the length of time taken to deal with road matters.

[Colin_M]

Just to widen the scope of discussion slightly, many of us have been contributing material that our councils collect and compost. I've seen a few examples of this then being made available or sold back to the public (for example last year a garden centre was selling compost from Wiltshire council).

Any views on this, the provenance/reliability of the source material and whether you'd feel comfortable using it?

Alan, have your investigations found any councils that try to offer a similar analysis to the one you've already highlighted?

[glallotments]

I worry about the 'green waste'. Using this as an ingredient was possibly why commercial compost became affected by what was thought to be aminopyralid (it was a big problem in the USA) - it could however have been clopyralid which has the same effect on plants as ap and is used in lawn preparations and available to the public. Instructions say not to compost for x number of mowings later. Ideally grass clipping should be put in the ordinary bin but how much of it goes into green bins? (I could see the council refusing to empty ordinary bins full of grass clippings anyway). Goodness knows what else ends up in the green bin.

As for using coir - is account taken of the air miles taken to import it so doesn't this have a high carbon footprint.

[Johnboy]

I'm very much of the opinion expressed by MikA. Green Manure can cover a complete host of things and wood products can cover a complete multitude of sins.
Earlier on another but very closely related subject "Peat," I suggested that there should be a British Standard for Non Peat products especially Non Peat multi-purpose compost complete with a Kite Mark on every bag.
It was suggested that if this were to be brought about so many more people may have the confidence to convert to non peat products. As it is there are those who have been caught out by buying absolute rubbish giving dire results and they then go back to using Peat.
I feel that this is something that those opposed to the use of peat would have latched on to. Instead of bullying Alan Titchmarsh and quoting only half of what he said, because it suited their campaign, they should have listened to his wisdom which is calling for a a really descent range of dependable non-peat products. When that is achieved then he will give up using peat and so will I.
Although certain good non peat products have been mentioned there is only so much that a single manufacturer can make in a 12 month cycle and distribution is not as wide as is he who mentioned them thinks.
To me cost doesn't enter into the equation but quality to me is of absolutely paramount importance.
JB.

[John Walker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-13252340
In the bulletin they say that the circumstances are suspicious!
Fundamentalists who cannot get their own way do the most awful things to achieve their aim. This is generally when a minority group are trying to win the day over the majority.
JB.

What the BBC news report at the link provided actually says is:

The cause of the blaze is not known but it is not thought to be suspicious.

It's interesting to note that no one else picked up on this.

[Johnboy]

John Walker.
You are correct it is my old eyes that have let me down again!
JB.

[Colin Miles]

One of the things that worries me about Council composts is what the general public provides in the form of green waste. There are enough problems getting ordinary refuse sorted into the various categories - and let's face it, everyone can make mistakes. But can we be sure that nasties like clubroot will not be introduced? Or am I being paranoid?