Fibre pots

Zazen999

RHYSDAD wrote: »

Oh dear, i thought buying it from Wyevale meant it would be good stuff to use......Damn!

I said 'personally' - alot of people love it!!!

just not me.

A._Badger

Just to really depress you (!) Wyevale appears to be either dropping or reducing the range of Bowers' compost that it sells, in favour of Westland.

I imagine this has more to do with money than anything else, but it has meant that Bowers' various JI formulae have been on offer at my local branch.

And I agree with Zazen999 - it's really too heavy for sowing finer seed. Like most of the commercialy available composts today, it's too claggy and it lacks sand. Some people add the latter and I don't blame them.

valk_scot

I used to use vermculite to top off medium to fine seeds, but more recently I've been using a mix of sieved potting compost mixed with a little sand. Works for me.

I'm a bit of a lazy git about what brand of potting/multipurpose compost I buy, must confess. Walk into garden centre, buy what's on offer. Sometimes growbags work out cheaper so I use the compost from them. Only time I've had any significant failures is (three?) years back when I bought a couple of bags out of Lidl when I was short on time and they turned out to be from one of the contaminated batches.

There's a lot to be said for making your own potting mixes up from bin compost, well decayed and sieved leaf mould and sand. Needs sterilized though for seed sowing and once again, I'm lazy.

A._Badger

I still do the vermiculite topping (it beats chopped nuts!). I came across the technique some years ago, found that it made a significant difference to germination success and I've stuck with it since. If anyone reading this is having trouble with germnation, I can thoroughly recommend it.