Peat Free Compost 2023

It’s really disheartening isn’t it.
So many things failing to grow.

I've never gardened with peat-containing compost, so I don't know any different but I've only had a complete disaster with multi-purpose compost once (the B&Q stuff last year). The Wickes stuff this year and last is a bit woody and I've found the odd stone but I've had no plastic and things seem to be growing in it okay so far. I'm around 8 or 9 bags in by now, but I can imagine my big delivery may all be from a particular batch and other batches could be quite different, even for the same brand in the same year.

I've not had problems with plant growth in any peat free, though I almost never use it on its own but mix it with homemade compost, worm castings and extra fertiliser. My pepper seedlings loved the Aldi peat free stuff last year. Green waste compost is an excellent source of nutrients and I would use it all the time if not the plastic etc. contamination. I don't like using woody compost for sowing seeds, but for everything else it seems fine. Once plants are a certain size they don't mind growing in lumpy stuff.

This year I've been having really good results with Westland peat free with John Innes mixed 50 50 with Dalefoot's wool compost.
I've also used home compost that was a bit sticky 50 50 with molehills which was also very good, a bit weedy but not too many so might stop buying the stuff in future.

We seem to have the worst of both worlds here - I cannot find peat free at all and even the expensive stuff has, along with the peat, great lumps of uncomposted wood, plastic, metal, bits of kitchen worktop ...
I invested 8€ in a 20l bag of seed compost which is a lovely mixture of peat and coir.
I also buy blocks of coir and mix it with the rubbish (yet expensive) stuff to lighten it a little.

Perhaps importing peat free from the UK would be a good little earner, but then the carbon footprint of that!

This is a photo of a sample of things I found in a delivery of topsoil a few years back. Electrical cable, plant pots, plastic bags, nails, circuit board, bags and bags of rocks... They have the gall to advertise that as being screened. Screened through what, a hula hoop?   It was obviously just soil straight from a building site mixed with a bit of sand. It didn't even come in the company's branded bag so they must have used a third party contractor more local to me.

I'm not impressed with the peat free compost but keep perservering.  There are so many sticks in it, on a few occasions I have ended up seiving the retched stuff.
It also doesn't seem to hold the water like it used to.

I noticed Westland promoting a new liquid feed called Boost. The FAQ on the website says it contains a wetting agent. With that and the professional ICL peat-free both containing wetting agents, the compost companies know that wood based peat-free tends to dry out quicker.

I needed some compost so ended up getting 10 x 50ltr bags delivered from Wickes, reduced from £7 to £5 per bag.

I realise all the struggles/concerns people have aired here but needs must, for now.

Anyway 7 bags shipped to the plot for mulching beds and 3 left at home for sowing/potting etc.

I also have 3 x 75ltr coir blocks that I will be mixing with the bags at the plot.

Two sorts of compost that I suspect none of us will be buying …….. (!!)
Making manure waves on the other side of the Atlantic is Flamingo Estate’s The Good Shit. This organic compost, harvested near Los Angeles, sells for £60 for a 4kg bag. After appearing in a gift guide for Gwyneth Paltrow’s company Goop, it sold out over Christmas and has a waiting list.
and
Climate Compost Inoculum at £20 for a 1.5kg bag. The compost, abundant in naturally occurring soil microbes, comes from their gardens and the Althorp estate, where Diana, Princess of Wales grew up, in west Northamptonshire. Although the price tag is high, at least this mode for manure comes from a good place, so to speak. It is more about its environmental credentials than its designer ones.