General purpose Potting compost August 2025

glad2bmad

If you have an Aldi near you, try theirs. they do two different types, one with seaweed and one without,. they both seem like good quality, and a fair price. Most of the peat free ones don't hold moisture as well as the old ones containing Peat .. 

wightrider

I use Plantgrow multi-purpose peat free compost from plantgrow.co.uk
It's very good quality and my plants do well on it.
They do prices for multiple bags as well, if you need more than one bag, and they deliver.

Slinky

I haven't yet found a decent commercial compost since we can no longer get peat free. They all seem to be bone dry at the top and soaking wet at the bottom of the pot. Not good for trying to get bare rooted perenials to grow. Don't have the option to make our own.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I found Erin low peat compost in my local garden center and that did better than my usual B+Q stuff. My toms were growing lovely 'til the blight blew in and I lost them all. Is Erin available online anywhere?

My system - more by accident than design - is just buy whatever you can cos it's nearly all equally carp, and keep it a year before using it. Give it chance to mature and break down at least some of the fence posts and bits of branches and other "intentional drainage aids".

Erin is available in my garden centre. The manager there knows the problems people are having with peat-free and points them to it. The GC have also introduced a compost of their own, which is finer than Erin and also sourced in Ireland. By combining the two, I can hit the Goldilocks spot! 

Keeping compost for a year or more is something we're not supposed to do, the thinking being that some nutrients break down after a time. Whether that's true, I can't say, especially if dry stored. Often the public are fed nonsense in the guise of 'science,' but in any event, I buy slow release fertilizer in bulk and often add some. It seems highly likely I will stockpile these good composts next year, 'just in case! '

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh dear, I didn't think of that... so maybe I should sling all my compost bags about as mulch then and hope there's something better available next year. 

-taff

Dusty, I'm gradually stocking up from the allotment shop, I've been through at least ten bags this year, here and at the allotment [ for plating pockets there though] so if things stay the same, I'll be using at least that next year too [all my tomatoes and peppers, chillies etc, grow in pots]. It's a good idea before an inevitable next year price hike.

ybe, If it's rubbish suff, you can, if it's good, keep it.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Ooh dear, I didn't think of that... so maybe I should sling all my compost bags about as mulch then and hope there's something better available next year. 

No, I didn't say, or mean to imply you should do that. Far better to keep what you have under cover and just moist, not outdoors in the weather, which can allow wet compost to leach nutrients. None of the common composts has much feed in it anyway; only a month to 6 weeks worth in most cases.

Personally, I shall be storing enough 'good' compost to get plants away next year. After that I'll just have to hope things improve. None of us wants to see very important habitats depleted, but nor is it acceptable to dump some of the horrible mixes I've experienced first hand on unsuspecting gardeners, all in the name of saving the planet. Like other things with that magical target date of 2030, it appears the Agenda has been prioritised at the expense of the public. And when I say 'expense' I mean that! There's nothing MSE or eco about losing plants in a soggy morass, reminiscent of something unspeakable a badger might have deposited!