Compost Bargains?

hermum

I'm not sure what thread I saw it on but they were talking about compost said that in tests B&Q at 3.98 a bag were said to be best. I will see if I can find the actual thread again.

sb44

I bought this last year which was quite good, I shall be buying some again this year too.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Multi-Purpose-Compost/invt/200246

teresacat

I did see in the March issue of Grow Your Own mag that Which? have done some compost trials, and they found that the B&Q multi-purpose came out best in several categories. But, as A. Badger noted above, the "formulas" do tend to change.

jsh99

I had a B&Q email for half term savings offers - and it said 'Compost from £1, Max 10 bags per product per customer. In store only'.

dexyblue

Its only for 20 litres though, but I suppose it will be better to carry to the allotment than having to struggle with 70 litre bag ( not got my wheelbarrow out of Dads garage yet)

Optimisticpair

Pixiechic wrote: »

Thank you for all the replies and advice. I am wondering now if I would have been better off just buying the grow bags with the compost in already. I thought I was getting a bargain at Wilkinsons with the £2.50 for 2 bags that you put the compost in to grow pots and other veg. I wonder if I aught to take them back and go and buy the big compost bags. Any opinions?

Many thanks again, this site is great with all the shared knowledge.

You could also try out strong rubble sacks instead if they are cheaper.

oldsam

Have used Wickes compost for most of my growing for the last two years also from a local garden centre recently Vitax compost 3 x 60lt bags for £10- but remember to add extra food to the compost, the reason is that the food in the bag only lasts six weeks- You can put in Long life fertiliser or Fish,Blood and Bone Fertiliser at least 1lb /500 grms plus sand to open the mix - thats the bit they leave out the sand- Does anyone still make up their own to John Innes Int formula for soil less compost - Peat based compost only became avialable to gardeners in the 1970,s before this soil based compost was used . We could take a good look at some of methods use in the past .--- Nearly missed it the fertiliser amount is for a bag of 75lts -- opps!
A Badger good point thanks .

A._Badger

I don't make my own JI, oldsam, but I have started to go back to using it as modern soilless types have got worse. And you are absolutely right about the missing sand!

Somewhere I had an original formula for soilless composts (heaven knows where it is now) but they all contained sand - as did the early commercial ones, I seem to remember.

lynzpower

A._Badger wrote: »

May I just, ever so gently, suggest caution with multipurpose composts?

Last year, the gardening groups (including this one) were full of tales of poor quality products, as manufacturers struggled to find suitable replacements for peat, which the government is forcing them to stop using.

I posted about problems I'd had with J. Arthur Bowers, while other commenters had bad experiences with other makes - even the once reliable B&Q brand I tried at one stage seemed to have all sorts of strange, alien, additions!

Sadly, the manufacturers change their formulae every year, so we can't even rely on what was a good variety the year before - and the type I had singled-out to use in place of Bowers for 2010 (Humax) has just been bought by the giant US firm, Scotts (which also owns Levington and Miracle Groo) so I doubt I'll be bothering with that, as it will probably end-up like Levington - a shadow of its former self!

Perhaps we should have a thread comparing notes on this year's varieties in real-time?

Any views?

Gardening Which reported the best B&QMultipurpose - with 88%

Homebase seed & potting compost the worst faring a mere 33%

It doesnt translate well but there are comparables with plants grown in the compost- the poor composts did not produce viable plants.

B&Q 20l compost in this variant ( purple bag) is £1 today, we went and bought a few.

Worth trying to get hold of the gardening which possibly in your locla library if you cant find the report online

HTH

A._Badger

Thanks, lynzpower! So as not to look as if I'd hi-jacked this thread, I did create a separate one as I'd said I might, so I've copied your helpful comment over to it. It's titled: 'Which compost for 2010?'

I hope you won't mind that I've copied your comment over to it?