Peat vs peat-free experiment #2

alan refail · Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:58 am

Update #1

Ten days from sowing and most things are through, except the spinach and coriander in the Home Compost. Home Compost is definitely the poorest of the three.

All five sowings are through in the Clover and the Vital Earth. Germination in Clover was very marginally quicker and better - but no significant differences so far.

As with my Clover/New Horizon trial, the test will be growing on after germination.

Some pictures to follow next week.

alan refail · Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:43 am

This post and the one that follows show progress two and a half weeks after sowing.

In all the composts are, from left to right: Clover Peat Multipurpose; Vital Earth Peat-free Multipurpose; Home produced compost.

In the case of the wild rocket I have had virtually no germination (duff seed?) - best in Vital Earth - 4/12

Mustard - satisfactory in both Clover and Vital Earth, very poor in home compost

Spinach - Clover 11/12; Vital Earth 6/12; home compost nothing at all

Coriander - Best in Vital Earth - 100%; unacceptable in home compost

Pea - Best in Clover; very good in Vital Earth; a failure in home compost

: Wild rocket 7 July 2011; IMG_0075.JPG (50.12 KiB) Viewed 1432 times

alan refail · Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:45 am

: Coriander 7 July 2011; IMG_0073.JPG (54.5 KiB) Viewed 1432 times

alan refail · Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:00 am

Final pictures three and a half weeks after sowing. Some good progress since last week.

Again the composts are, left to right, Clover Multipurpose peat; Vital Earth Multipurpose peat-free; Home compost.

Wild Rocket - poor all round, but best in Vital Earth

Mustard - acceptable germination in Clover and Vital Earth, poor in Home compost. Growth noticeably best in Clover

Spinach - 12/12 germination in Clover; 8/12 in Vital Earth; only 1 in Home compost. Much sturdier growth in Clover

Coriander - Best germination in Vital Earth 12/12; 11/12 in Clover; 6/12 in Home compost. Good growth in both Clover and Vital earth - Clover slightly taller

Pea - 11/12 germination in both Clover and Vital Earth; 1/12 in Home compost. Growth much stronger in Clover