[Ivor Backache]

I have been trying the supermarket peat free composts and so far I am not impressed. Again I have brassicas with club root and with peat composts being phased out, I am beginning to lose faith. Riddling is now essential and produces a small pile of kindling wood. I have sourced reasonable priced 100% peat compost and will now stock up for the future. Most compost is produced by the Windrow method which is supposed to kill off pathogens. The cheap rubbish compost market needs to be regulated and perhaps use a different word to describe the product.

[Subversive_plot]

I'm with you on this.

Except for a few bags at the start of the year, I rely upon municipal compost that must adhere to time and temperature requirements and testing for pathogens and metals.  The city goes beyond that testing too, the test results are available to the public.  I also make some compost of my own, and trust that because I know what went into it.

[snowdrops]

So are you saying the brassicas have clubroot & have been totally grown in the bought compost? Were they new seeds from the time before you grew them with clubroot?

[Ivor Backache]

I  have had clubroot on my allotment for several years. I have used chemicals and lime and it is still there. I have always grown my brassicas at home in separate pots with fresh compost, and I repot them with fresh compost. When I plant them on the allotment I dig a large hole and line it with rotted horse manure and usually works. and the plant grows to maturity. Last year and again this year (with a different compost) I have young plants with hideous roots. I renew my seeds on average every two years.

[snowdrops]

Is there some way you are contaminating the growing plants with anything that has come in to contact with your allotment soil maybe?

[Ivor Backache]

"anything that has come in to contact with your allotment soil maybe?"

The seedlings have got club root long before they get to the allotment. I have  a small nursey at home, and all my plants start there and then they go to the allotment. The brassicas are only sown and re-potted in commercial compost.

I suspect that as the proportion of peat is reduced , that volume has be replaced by more waste vegetation etc and maybe shortcuts are affecting the end product. Club root can only get to the final product because the initial heat treatment has not been allowed to work long enough.

The voluntary scheme to stop peat did not work and now the big stick is out, but only for us home gardeners. Commercial growers will still be able to get peat and Ireland still has 3 peat burning power stations. Am I missing something??