[WillieBee]

I want to get some seed compost for my new allotment and get some onions sown. Obviously I'll be sowing stacks more in the next few weeks.

No doubt people with smallholdings will be buying in bulk and most probably be using 'professional composts' rather than the amateur stuff, normal 'gardens' use

Which is the one you would recommend ?

thanks !

[darkbrowneggs]

I always like the john innes type, mainly because I wasnt that good at remembering to water stuff and the peat based composts are nightmare if you dont.

[Fleecewife]

I don't buy special professional composts, just the usual stuff from the garden centre.  For a couple of years I had huge problems with New Horizon organic peat free, which was suddenly causing stunting in some plants (due probably to weed killer residue - amino pyralids).  Last year I made my own compost from a mix of molehill soil. peat, sand, garden compost, seaweed meal, wood ash and varying proportions of sieved composted manure, depending on the intended use.  It was fine at first but no good for potting on.
Gardening Which has just done another test of composts (I think they do one every year) and my old favourite was not recommended, but it was pointed out that it was reformulated for this year (but how do you know, especially this early in the season, if your source is stocking fresh supplies or still selling last years?) John Innes types were not recommended. Their best buy was a 100% peat compost from J Arthur Bowers.  I have tried all my life to look after our planet, and am very concerned about the use of peat in the garden.  However, I am now decrepit and struggling to manage my garden at the best of times.  Because of this, and because I grow in extreme conditions, I am now considering using this peat compost, if I can find a supplier in Scotland or online.  What may finally persuade me is the knowledge that in Ireland they have peat fired power stations, which must use more peat than the whole horticultural industry of Britain.
If you want cheaper composts that the professionals use, try the LBS horticulture trade catalogue (not the gardeners version which doesn't go in for bulk).  I use them for pots, canes, mesh and so on.

[HesterF]

I saw the Which? report too - and then gave it to my mum so I can't remember what their best non-Peat buy was but I think it was one of the own-brands. I just tend to use whatever is on special offer at the garden centre but maybe it makes more difference than I thought - my logic was just that they're only in it for a couple of weeks before you move them onto something they're in for longer. My mum certainly doesn't fuss about most of hers - they just go into normal compost unless they're very fine seed. I think even with smallholdings most people don't buy in that much bulk unless they've got a market garden or something. I seeded most of our veg for the year last year as well as loads of flowers and still only used a couple of bags of seed compost.

Are you growing your onions from seed? I must admit I've never tried that - always grown from sets. How easy is it?

[pgkevet]

I just use B&Q multipurpose compost for almost everything (except the ericaceous)...seeds germinate just fine for me. I hate pricking out so everythign gets sown in modules or small pots and any waste compost or failed seeds (rare) and the pot contents get added to the greenhouse borders to replace what gets pulled out of there.

Old f@rts shop B&Q on old f@rts cheap day or you can sweet-talk them to deliver if you want a pallet-load

[Padge]

We use a peat based compost for all our veggie growing.......I think its Clover   we buy it from a nursery on the edge of town 1/2 a pallet at a time   and I have to say had my best yields yet in the polytunnel at the height of last season. My dad always used to use a mix of sand and peat to get his seedlings started............he grows/grew/ hybridises fuchsias for the showbench for the best part of 35 years

[Fleecewife]

We use a peat based compost for all our veggie growing.......I think its Clover   we buy it from a nursery on the edge of town 1/2 a pallet at a time   and I have to say had my best yields yet in the polytunnel at the height of last season. My dad always used to use a mix of sand and peat to get his seedlings started............he grows/grew/ hybridises fuchsias for the showbench for the best part of 35 years

Funnily enough I bought a couple of bags of Clover compost this morning.  I hadn't heard of it before but I'm glad you've found it good 

[doganjo]

What may finally persuade me is the knowledge that in Ireland they have peat fired power stations, which must use more peat than the whole horticultural industry of Britain.

I didn't know that!  I must google!   

[cloddopper]

The John Innes composts are simply standardized  formula's that give good results.

If you Google"  what are John Innes compost formulae " ( or similar ) you should be able to view about 8 different nurseryman's mixes.
 
 The JI seed mix is well balanced and should also be free of weed seeds and pernicious weed bits , it is  designed for seeds not cuttings or potting on .
 
 Look at the nearest garden centres that are on line , they cost around £ 12 for three bags of Arthur Bowers JIO seed formula which is about 45 litres

 I'm still using one of two bags of fine horticultural vermiculite (2 to 3 mm chips ) left over from last year.

I fill & tamp down a grow tube ( A 75 mm long section of old 42 mm sink waste pipe "  with,  " Verve" .. a baled up composted coir and sedge peat  from B&Q .
Then I push a thick pencil in centrally the top of the tube so it just hides the sharpened wood .
Then fill the indentation  with a pinch of vermiculite , gently press the vermiculite down in the indentation , add one seed per tube and sprinkle 3 mm more off vermiculite over the seed & again gently tamp it down .

When the tray is filled with seeded tubes I pour in a couple of pints of room temp rain water to allow the tubes to soak it up .
 The vermiculite seems to stop the seeds getting too wet and also provides a good route for oxygen & nutrient take up by the emerging plants hair root systems .

[Lesley Silvester]

I've been using New Horizons but I do seem to get a lot of weeds. Maybe try something different this year. Perhaps the Arthur Bowers as it is a good price.

[cloddopper]

MGW this it a big problem here inteh UK  .. lots of suppliers have taken the American angle and everything that can be rotted down is called compost .
Whether it is well composted and totally free of added nutrients both natural or chemical is another problem
 At the best it seems as though most composts are only partially composted enough for gardening purposes so that they then  have to add things like humanure , stable runoff , dairy slurry etc. etc. etc. added so that they can support plant life other than the viable weed seeds & viable plant nodes.

 I've had many a bag or bale of so called compost producing the really rough leathery swamp grasses, thistles , cockspurs , nettles , St David's wart, shepherds purse and various grasses  etc, along side plants stood in pots in the green house ..never ever being exposed to being outside .

 I've also had so called recycled community waste being passed off as composted material .. it had that much wood , glass , plastic and metal in it I could start my own recycling unit.

 Some of these amenity recycled composts also appear to have plenty of 3 year residual  hormone treated killed weeds in it
 Some of the bags I've had were totally sterile wrt growing some plants or seeds  especially garden peas .

I got to filling a pot or three with  these recycled composts ( before I learnt sense and stopped buying them ) and trying to grow 24 hr. soaked pas in them  just to see if they would support life as we know it. If nothing came up after the fourh or fifth day after being placed inside a tied off poly bag  & put in the airing cupboard . I used the " compost " to successfully suppress weeds on the bank at the back of the property .

 The trouble is compost needs to be able to reach internal temps of about 120 oF to kill all weed seeds and pernicious weed growth nodes .. sadly most so called composts don't even remotely get near to that temperature .