Vital Earth compost?

[grannyjanny]

There is a special offer at our local garden centre of 5 bags of VE MP peat free organic compost for £20. Has anyone any experience of this product please.

[Palustris]

I used it last year (and this). Not bad, but you do need to feed sooner than if you use a peat based compost and you need to check your watering regime as it holds moisture differently too. Not had any major trouble with it, though some folks have complained.
For seed sowing I sieved it as it seems a bit 'big' for seeds to me.
Not found any vine weevil grubs in pots using it, which was always a problem with peat.

[imike24]

ok

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[caroline7758]

grannyjanny, you posted this on Jan 10th, from the Which report:

"Homebase MP peat free, Vital Earth seed & cutting compost were the ones classified as don't buy."

Here's the thread:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,57336.0.html

 But maybe their multi-purpose is ok?

[Baccy Man]

The full which report suggests VE MP compost is a don't buy although compost often varies in quality in different parts of the country & in different batches.

FOR SOWING SEEDS

Best	Which Score /100
B&Q Multipurpose Compost	(88)
B&Q Sowing and Cutting Compost	(71)
New Horizon Growbag	(71)
Worst	Which Score /100
Homebase Multi Purpose Peat Free Compost	(33)
Vital Earth Seed & Cutting Compost	(38)
Vital Earth Multi Purpose Compost	(42)

FOR GROWING YOUNG PLANTS

Best	Which Score /100
B&Q Multipurpose Compost	(88)
B&Q John Innes No2 Compost	(83)
Westland West + Multi-Purpose Compost	(83)
Worst	Which Score /100
Homebase Multi Purpose Peat Free Compost	(13)
Vital Earth Multi Purpose Compost	(50)
Murphy Multi Purpose Compost	(50)

[Palustris]

Which of these is peat free?

[lincsyokel2]

Which of these is peat free?

Only the New Horizon is peat free, its based on green waste.

[Palustris]

Vital Earth is peat free too, just wondered about the rest.

[Baccy Man]

I missed a couple of blends earlier this is the proper full report which includes the peat content for each compost blend. Click on the thumbnail for the full size image.


Might as well add the container compost trials too.

[lincsyokel2]

Just dont get hung up on price here. You get what you pay for in compost, which is what professional growing medium is more expensive than retail composts.

[Vinlander]

Just dont get hung up on price here. You get what you pay for in compost, which is what professional growing medium is more expensive than retail composts.

I'm too cynical to buy that - in compost or anything else...

Lots of really expensive stuff is rubbish, most expensive stuff doesn't justify itself against the laws of diminishing returns, and nearly all really cheap stuff is rubbish, but some of the middling stuff is worth the extra.

So the logic doesn't hold - but it's simple to correct:

You don't get what you don't pay for.

In it's corrected form above this is an unbeatable law of nature.

The only time you can beat it is when you find something everybody thinks is rubbish and use it for a purpose nobody else thought of...

Cheers.

[lincsyokel2]

Just dont get hung up on price here. You get what you pay for in compost, which is what professional growing medium is more expensive than retail composts.

I'm too cynical to buy that - in compost or anything else...

Lots of really expensive stuff is rubbish, most expensive stuff doesn't justify itself against the laws of diminishing returns, and nearly all really cheap stuff is rubbish, but some of the middling stuff is worth the extra.

So the logic doesn't hold - but it's simple to correct:

You don't get what you don't pay for.

In it's corrected form above this is an unbeatable law of nature.

The only time you can beat it is when you find something everybody thinks is rubbish and use it for a purpose nobody else thought of...

Cheers.

See my PM, most retail composts are without doubt vastly inferior to professional growing medium.

Why do you think professional growers buy professional growing mediums at +50% the cost of retail composts rather than just taking a lorry to B&Q and buying by the  pallet cheap ? Its all to do with quality and results. Professional growers do huge field trials before they buy composts. Many growers have custom mixed composts. The stuff you get  from a garden centre wont cut the mustard when you want to grow 10,000 Zantedescia to sell to a chain store.

Believe me, it really does pay to club together with three other people and spend £200 on a pallet of 40 x 80L professional potting, in the spring.

[earlypea]

lincsyokel2 - what would you say was 'professional' compost?

So far I'm mightily unimpressed by New Horizons, Vital Earth, Homebase and B&Q.  I've tried peat free.  I've tried cheap.  Maybe next I'll go pro'

[InfraDig]

This week's Garden News talks of compost trials commissioned by Garden Which. It only tested two plants, Impatiens "Pink Sparkle" and potato "Sarpo Mira", in a single growing season, outdoors. It says that 4 peat free composts outperformed 7 traditional, peat based composts. "Vital Earth Tub and Basket Compost was the narrow winer, ahead of New Horizon Multi Purpose Compost and Vital Earth Multi Purpose Compost because it needed watering less often during the trial". "The top three are all entirely peat-free"

This seems at variance with the Which report, courtesy Baccy Man above. I just don't get it. Is it a case of "they would say that wouldn't they?"

[Baccy Man]

Garden News is talking about the container compost trials not the seed compost trials. Pics of the container compost report are posted above too.

[InfraDig]

Note to self: stop being stupid!

Thanks.

[lincsyokel2]

lincsyokel2 - what would you say was 'professional' compost?

So far I'm mightily unimpressed by New Horizons, Vital Earth, Homebase and B&Q.  I've tried peat free.  I've tried cheap.  Maybe next I'll go pro'

Professional composts are defined by the materials used to make them. They use different grades of peat, and different agrochemicals to retail composts. Peat, for example - the stuff of the top 6 inches of the bog is only partially composted down, and so its bitty and low in nutrients. The stuff from 6 to 36 inches deep is the best stuff, because its well composted and has accumulated a lot of nutrients. The stuff from deeper than 36 inches is very acidic, waterlogged and likely to contain stones.  You can guess which stuff is used to make retail composts and which is used in professional composts. All composts makers do this.

Go to a Horticultural Distributors and ask the cash price of a decent professional potting compost, usually supplied in 80L bags. They will split  a pallet for you, but there might be a minimum order size.

The other point to realise  here is that retail composts are likely to have there recipies altered and adjusted  at whim, from year to year, depending on the production costs and raw materials availability, whereas professional composts are produced  to an exact recipe that rarely is adjusted, so you get less variance in results over a long time.

Doing trials on retail composts is really only any use if there done every year, and at the start of the year so you can buy the same stuff for spring/summer use.

[Mrs Gumboot]

We use Erin multipurpose at work which we have bulk delivered. Costs a lot more than other composts, but over the years we've found it's by far the best for growing from seed. Use it either 'neat' or mix it with varying amounts of John Innes no 2 for potting on depending on what we're potting. Have had numerous other versions when this  wasn't available and they've not given us the same results. We did a very small scale trial last year using some of our own compost & leaf mold. While we got similar results in terms of growth, the plants sown and grown in our own mix grew much slower. After a year or so you can't tell the difference between the two lots, but most of the stuff we grow are annuals which need to be a plantable size within about three months so it's back to the peat.

Much prefer to be peat free at home, and have used quite a bit of the homebase peat free multi and it is very very lumpy. I certainly wouldn't use it for seed sowing, although the garlic seems to be quite happy in it. Have only been getting it as I go past homebase on the way home from work, but looks like I should start making the extra effort to get to B&Q before I start this season in earnest

[lincsyokel2]

much slower. After a year or so you can't tell the difference between the two lots, but most of the stuff we grow are annuals which need to be a plantable size within about three months so it's back to the peat.

Surely at 1 year you need to pot on into nursery stock compost or even container compost?

[Mrs Gumboot]

We grow two distinct categories of plants - annuals and tender perennials that we grow afresh each year and aren't in pots for more than a couple of months & 'stock' plants for the rest of the garden which can be in pots for anything up to ten years (we grow a lot of Rhododendrons and trees).

The stock plants are just potted in our own mixes - combinations of multi or ericaceous, john innes, bark mulch, grit, sand, slow release feed in varying quantities as needed depending on the plant and its growth rate. At the end of the day nursery stock compost is only someone else's mix. Does save the shovel work, but would lead to extra expense and we also don't have a vast amount of storage space.