Toxic compost?

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Every year I plant up some window boxes with Narcissus. I use fresh compost each year. This year I had two lots of compost. Some which I had left over from filling my summer pots and some which I bought "on an offer" from local garden centre. The garden centre stuff seemed very fibrous but I thought the drainage would be quite good. I have 3 window boxes of Jetfire and the two which are planted with the fibrous compost have stunted growth in some of the bulbs and some bulbs have died back.Thw window box with my left over compost are fine and healthy. The Tete aTete and Tete Boucle are stunted and died off. Another variety ( can't remember name and label has blown off I think it was Sungold) has come up blind. Another variety planted in the leftover compost are fine. I don't usually feed them till they are in bloom and then plant them out when they have died back. I am thinking that there must have been something in the compost that the bulbs didn't like or was I just unlucky with the bulbs?

FreeBear

Compost is looking very dry. Have you been watering the pots on a regular basis ?

Farway

Could be some residual herbicide in the compost, there was a spate of it a few years back

If it has a trade name, have a search to see if it's been queried online

FlorayG

Unfortunately, quite often toxic weedkillers get into composts and nobody know until they use them because aminopyralids are used by farmers to kill weeds but not grass - cows and horses eat the grass coated in aminopyralid - no harm to the animal - unchanged aminopyralid in manure - manure is used in compost - plants die.
To test, plant a couple of bean seeds in it on the windowsill and a couple in your old compost. If its aminopyralid the beans in it will come up all stunted and weird shapes. Then you can take the compost back for a refund

twopenny

That's a good idea Floray.

And I've not heard about that before.

Generally the companies don't seem to have done much in the way of making good compost without peat - or they are hopping on a band wagon with gardening taking off during the pandemic.

I know that I've bought some cheap (would normally be ok) for putting on the beds and it was much like Buttons and it just blew away it was such large chunks of wood.

I would say the new compost has way to many large chunks and the air is around the roots causing them to die back.

Unfortunately you don't get to see what the compost is like before you buy or that could put an end to this.

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 The boxes  were all watered on a regular basis. I shift the boxes into a large cold frame if there is severe frost forecast.We are very exposed and can get very hard frosts.Those which have not thrived I stopped watering and I am going to lift and dry the bulbs to plant out elsewhere with a good dressing of Potash.May or may not be successful. I normally mix in some Perlite to "open up" my own compost and improve drainage. I had run out of my own compost because I had not been fit to turn it when I had a dodgy hip and then a hip replacement.

FlorayG I'm going to try the bean test and see how that goes.