[cjskts]

I bought some compost at the weekend and being a complete novice (starting 2nd season) i think i may have bought the wrong stuff. It said it had John Innes in it so thought it was good. But it has huge lumps in it and big twigs etc.

What does peat free look like and does it sound like what i have in unusable for seedlings? Its called Easigrow if thats any help. Thought it was a good bargain, but i'm starting to wonder now.

[solway cropper]

If you sieve it to get rid of the big bits it should be fine. Some composts do seem to have more rubbish in them than others but its easy enough to get rid of.

Peat-free can look like just about anything...it depends what the base material is. Sometimes they use shredded wood, sometimes coir, sometimes green waste from recycling bins.

Saying it has John Innes in a compost is wrong because the name refers to specific formulations which stop being John Innes if you mix them with something else.

best answer to the compost question is to make your own if you can.

[cjskts]

We've tried making our own and its gone wrong! lol. Bit sloppy. Found we put too much green waste in. So at half term hubby has the delightful job of emptying the compost bin, mixing more brown cardboard etc in and mix and put into a different bin. LOVELY!! lol

Think i might buy something different and use this to mix in the beds when making raised beds. I have 3x75l bags, dont fancy sieving it all! lol

[compostqueen]

I think making your own seed sowing compost is a bit much for a novice, and there's no harm in buying it in for seed sowing purposes

I think by and large the peat based composts look more refined than the peat free which tend to look scruffy.  I used some peat free the other day for sowing cabbages and it looked very lumpy and rubbishy but the seeds came up in two days  

The bag will tell you whether your product is peat free and there'll be specific instructions on what it can be used for 

Good luck with your seed sowing, and remember to read the instructions on the seed packets before sowing.

[VirginVegGrower]

I think the more the peat content the blacker/darker it is.

[savbo]

is it this one?
http://www.olusproducts.co.uk/easi-grow-40l-compost-bags-67-p.asp
it's a peat-free from the look of it

Savbo

[cjskts]

is it this one?
http://www.olusproducts.co.uk/easi-grow-40l-compost-bags-67-p.asp
it's a peat-free from the look of it

Savbo

Yes, it is that one, just in bigger bags. But it had huge lumps in it. Just tried to give it a sieve through and there wasnt many 'little' bits in it. So think i'll have to buy a seed compost for the seeds and then pot up using this. Or am i totally worrying over nothing and its fine to sow seeds in lumpy stuff like this?

[hamstergbert]

You can sow your seeds in the stuff and probably get some sort of germination, it is just that you will almost certainly get a much better germination rate and get seedlings that are growing better by using a good seed compost, either through buying a special purpose seed compost or by preparing your own through sieving bought in multi-purpose stuff (personally I find I get better results with peat based.  Hey, I'm just sayin') and perhaps mixing in a handful or two of sharp sand.  Certainly a finer granularity will reduce the amount of energy expended by the germinating seed in both breaking surface (for covered seeds) and striking initial root structure.

You can pot up using the grungier stuff but once again you will usually do better with a better quality of compost.  Simple fact.

Of course, 'expensive' does not always equate to 'better' in every case!