Wrong Compost causing plants trouble?

Hi,
It seems that some of the compost I bought earlier this season whilst just starting out doesnt agree with the plants.
Several plants that were all planted in the same compost all look a little ill. When I water these particular plants the water flows straight through and out, I cant see how any stops in the pot. They do seem very dry all the time. When you examine the compost it is very coarse and woody. Its consistency looks more like wet black sawdust than compost. Ive had so many different brands of compost that I couldnt tell you where its from.
Do you think its worth repotting these plants? If so do i keep the woody compost then put in a larger container of new good stuff, or should I just water them more frequent, maybe get a saucer under each pot?

Thanks
Lee

Wetting is a major problem in dry compost, so much that commercial composts usually contain a wetting agent.

You can get at some garden centres a compost wetting additive , but the best strategy is to repot the plants then submerge the compost in water until it wets up.

Funilly enough, its a problem that has plagued the manufacture of Coir Compost this year. Coir, or Cocoa Shell Fibre, come is highly compress, highly dessicated block, and normally you just leave them stacked outside in an open concrete bay all winter, and they wet up and expand. This year, there has been a shortage of coir based compost because the winter was too dry and the coir didnt wet up.

The only other thing you can do is mix some hydrolecea into it, that will keep moisture in the body and it will wet up eventually.

yea theres a lot of tree hugging bs talked about peat. As a country we only harvest 2% of the allocated peat bog each year, and they can easily replenish themselves at that rate. People just get  so uptight and irrational about anything to do with the environment, sometimes

Thanks, Montano.