Potting composts recommended by Gardening Which?

Cinquestelle

The other night on QVC there was a reference to a recent Gardening Which trial on potting composts in which some brands did surprisingly badly. Before I go on to repot some of my established shrubs, I was wondering if anyone here had any info on which brands did well in the trials.

ColinFishwick

I found B&Q verve quite good

xyz123

Can't post full list but in top 5 there were homebase, Livington and waitrose multi purpose compost. This is for container plants.

What us QVC?

Davesnave

None of them will ever approach the performance of a growing medium you make yourself by combining a base compost with other ingredients, depending upon the final usage. Grit, sand, fertilizer pellets and vermiculite don't go off, so only the base stuff needs to be fresh.

Professional growers don't waste time/money looking for a one size fits all solution.

As non professionals, home gardeners can actually improve on that by re-cycling too. For example, all my compost from tomato pots goes into a mix for less fussy plants the following year.

Davesnave

xyz123 wrote: »

What us QVC?

Probably the very antithesis of what this site's about! :rotfl:

Cinquestelle

Thank you for your reply. Could you specify which particular Homebase and Levington product came in the top 5. As my original question referred to potting on established shrubs, can I assume that you are referring to John Innes No3 perhaps?

QVC is a TV shopping channel. One evening I was clicking through the channels and they were selling compost mixes and fuschias.

madjackslam

Davesnave wrote: »

Probably the very antithesis of what this site's about! :rotfl:

Agreed. I sometimes watch it on a Saturday morning and can't believe the price of the plants, compost, fertiliser, etc. It seems like a different world to me (and if the channel is to be believed, one with larger, prettier, trouble-free plants).

LessImpecunious

Davesnave wrote: »

None of them will ever approach the performance of a growing medium you make yourself by combining a base compost with other ingredients, depending upon the final usage.

Any recommendations for the 'base compost'?

Davesnave

LessImpecunious wrote: »

Any recommendations for the 'base compost'?

I buy large amounts, so I like large bags. I never have any problems with B&Q stuff, but it varies somewhat. The same would go for Levington and some Westland composts, like Jack's Magic.However, those only come in smaller bags.

But it won't be like the original, once I've mixed in other material. That's the point. I'm lucky enough to have unlimited good, light topsoil too, if I want it.

For seed sowing, I find John Innes No1 is better if I add a bit of multi-purpose and vermiculite to it.

Some seeds I sow take 2 years to germinate and a peaty compost can go really sour in that amount of time!

xyz123

Cinquestelle wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. Could you specify which particular Homebase and Levington product came in the top 5. As my original question referred to potting on established shrubs, can I assume that you are referring to John Innes No3 perhaps?

QVC is a TV shopping channel. One evening I was clicking through the channels and they were selling compost mixes and fuschias.

The list simply stat s homebase and Livington multi purpose compost. There is no mention of any JI.

Cinquestelle

Many thanks. Much appreciated.