Topic: peat-free compost

[aquilegia]

I'm really struggling to find a decent peat-free compost. I know the "compost" sold by the DIY stores is absolute rubbish. We don't have any proper garden centres near us. So I'm looking for a reliable brand I can buy online for delivery.

[Palustris]

I use one called VitalEarth. Always found it good quality (well as good as peat free can be). There are online places which stock it. But the prices for delivery are high for all of them.

[Big Gee]

I'm really struggling to find a decent peat-free compost. I know the "compost" sold by the DIY stores is absolute rubbish. We don't have any proper garden centres near us. So I'm looking for a reliable brand I can buy online for delivery.

Sorry to barge in on your thread like this, but so called peat-free substitutes are a pet sore point with me!

I personally believe that sustainable peat production for horticulture is fully justifiable and the anti-peat lobby are guilty of exaggeration and misinformation.

Particularly in propagation, there is no substitute for  peat. And many of the alternatives, e.g. coir and similar "composted" materials, have very unsound environmental credentials: this is 3rd world organic matter which should be used by local farmers, not shipped expensively round the world, in order to assuage middle class guilt. Dont fall for it, it really is not sound 'green' sense. Saying that horticultural use of sustainable peat by gardeners is going to ruin the earth is like saying that a gnat's wee in the ocean will increase sea levels to dangerous heights.

If you would like to read more on this topic take a peek at my news-letter of May/ June 2012 at:

http://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/newsletters/avas_newsletter_06-12.htm

[Amazingrotavator(Derby)]

We used to get ours from Wicks but it got really bad full of twigs. Went to B&Q and what a difference. They sell one called Verve. We find it to be as mp compost should be. Only £12 for 3 60l bags (Even cheaper on a Wednesday with your over 60 card).

[BarriedaleNick]

I have always been happy with New Horizons and use it for a sowing (mixed down a bit with old stuff) and planting out.  It does have the occasional bit of larger wood in it but doesn't have the bits of plastic that some DIY stuff has in.  The torygraph did a review a couple of years ago and it came out on top of the peat free types.
Peat -  I have never used it and I get good enough results without it.
I don't think anyone said that using peat will ruin the earth - it's a straw man argument. 

[Digeroo]

I have to admit that last years offering from Wickes seemed to be mostly hedge clippings, but this years seem to be quite good.   My strawberry runners look very bonny on it.



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[Big Gee]

I don't think anyone said that using peat will ruin the earth - it's a straw man argument.

I respecfully beg to differ my friend. Many have implied in various official documents over the years that horticultural use of peat (not single-handedly I admit) adds to the problems associated with global warming and other factors that are ruining the earth. Those accusations and their implications amount to the same thing.

Peat use in horticulture is being demonised as it is incorrectly associated with the demise of our planet.

I wrote an article on this issue back in May 2012. You're welcome to read it at:

http://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/ThePeatDebate

[galina]

A Victorian 'recipe' for seedling and young plant compost is sieved garden soil mixed with well rotted leaf mold.  Mole hill soil would do the trick mixed with leaf mold.  The leaf mold has good water holding qualities akin to peat.

[raisedbedted]

If you have an Aldi supermarket near you then I can thoroughly recommend their normal compost and their peat free compost.  The former is like black silk to the touch and the latter is probably the best peat free I have found.

I think it was something like £1.99 for 40litre bags, I can get 10 bags in an Aldi trolley!

[Big Gee]

A Victorian 'recipe' for seedling and young plant compost is sieved garden soil mixed with well rotted leaf mold.  Mole hill soil would do the trick mixed with leaf mold.  The leaf mold has good water holding qualities akin to peat.

The Victorian gardeners got a lot of things right - in fact we owe a lot of knowledge to that era. My old mother used to swear by mole-hill soil she collected tons of it over the years and I've yet to see anyone grow houseplants like she used to.

[Big Gee]

If you have an Aldi supermarket near you then I can thoroughly recommend their normal compost and their peat free compost.  The former is like black silk to the touch and the latter is probably the best peat free I have found.

I think it was something like £1.99 for 40litre bags, I can get 10 bags in an Aldi trolley!

We find Aldi stuff is good quality all round. Their peat compost is DEFINATELY excellent stuff from my experience. Even the best non peat compost is inferior in my opinion (not just Aldi's) and I'll never use it again - regardless of who sells it.

[raisedbedted]

Even the best non peat compost is inferior in my opinion (not just Aldi's) and I'll never use it again - regardless of who sells it.

I think we've gathered that, and for what its worth I agree.  I have a big bale of peat for when I accidentally buy peat free (as per Aldi's).  I believe 91% of peat is burned in Power Stations, so I'll go with one less cuppa tea a day and keep to peat in my pots.

[BarriedaleNick]

Where did you get the figure that 91% or peat is burned in Power Stations and what area does that represent.  UK, the World??
In the UK virtually all peat is used for horticulture and most by amateur gardeners..

From http://www.peatsociety.org/peatlands-and-peat/global-peat-resources-country

Almost all peat industry output is for the horticultural market; there is however still quite extensive (but unquantified) use of peat as a domestic fuel in the rural parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. About 20 000 tonnes per annum of air-dried sod peat is reported by the International Peat Society to be produced for energy purposes, part of which is exported to Sweden.

From http://www.rhs.org.uk/

Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) estimate that 2.96 million m3 of peat is used in the UK annually, of which 99% is used as growing media and 69% of which is used by gardeners. Sixty-eight percent of all peat used in the United Kingdom is imported from other countries, incl. the Republic of Ireland and the Baltic states (Defra, 2010).

Interesting to note that commercial agriculture consumes very little in the way of peat (relatively of course).  Those that do use peat are primarily producing potted goods for households or for nurserys or for mushroom production and not for producing the nations friut and veg.  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=487 - figures are a little old.

[Palustris]

The question asked was which peat free compost one used and a good source to buy it online.
That  is what I answered, any discussion of the rights and wrongs of using peat are irrelevant to the original question.

[Big Gee]

The question asked was which peat free compost one used and a good source to buy it online.
That  is what I answered, any discussion of the rights and wrongs of using peat are irrelevant to the original question.

Point accepted, but I did preface my response with the following words:

"Sorry to barge in on your thread like this, but so called peat-free substitutes are a pet sore point with me!"

Perhaps on reflection I should have started a new thread - I would have - if I'd known you'd feel bad about it.

Sorry.

[aj]

I use New Horizon and Vital Earth but this year have been making my own in preparation for next spring. My first hot composting batch consisted of cardboard and shredded paper, with dock stems and loads of weeds; and we sieved it and started using it 31 days later.

If you really want a true peat free compost and cheap; make your own. Pile all your weedings and choppings from this autumn and winter with cardboard and shredded paper, into piles and turn them every week. By spring you will have not only peat free compost, but free peat free compost.

[aquilegia]

sorry to have sparked a row!

aj - is your homemade version clean enough? I always get lots of weeds growing in my homemade compost, so i use it for mulching or, mixed with soil, for more mature plants in pots.

last year's leaf mold might be useable next spring, though. my garden soil is awful (clay) so not really suitable for propagation, but i could buy a bag.

i do have a local aldi. i felt their compost through the bag and it felt quite chunky, so i didn't buy it.

[Big Gee]

I use New Horizon and Vital Earth but this year have been making my own in preparation for next spring. My first hot composting batch consisted of cardboard and shredded paper, with dock stems and loads of weeds; and we sieved it and started using it 31 days later.

If you really want a true peat free compost and cheap; make your own. Pile all your weedings and choppings from this autumn and winter with cardboard and shredded paper, into piles and turn them every week. By spring you will have not only peat free compost, but free peat free compost.

You're absolutely right.
Most 'peat-free' stuff sold in bags is basically the same as home-made (hot) composted material anyway. Whilst it's a good soil conditioner and can be used as a general 'compost' it really is not as good as a quality peat based seed/ general compost for seed germination. I compost about 60 barrow-loads of the stuff every year from green allotment and kitchen waste including half of our street's grass clippings, but I don't don't use it for initial plant culture. Instead It goes in the polytunnel borders and back on the soil in the lottie - for conditioning - and good stuff it is too, but it's horses for courses, if you want good results.
Composted material should be viewed in the same category as manure in my opinion. In his book 'The Bedside Book of Gardening' the best selling author Dr Hessayon makes a similar pragmatic observation. He writes:

"don't use peat as for overall soil improvement- it is not efficient and garden compost and manure will do a much better job. However moss peat has a role to play in planting and seed composts where there are no substitutes of equal merit"

The merits of peat are:

• It has a low pH ideal for Ericaceous plants. Indeed most of the world's Ericaceous plants have evolved to grow on and in peat.

• Peat's high water and air holding capacities which mean that it can retain and subsequently provide moisture and air to the roots of plants.

• It holds added nutrients available for plant growth as required.

• It is an easy material to handle.

• It is normally free of pathogens.

• It is the best component available for commercial container production and propagation.

• It is freely available with vast reserves all over Scotland, Ireland and Northern Europe.
  

As a 'by the way' I would be careful with bits of dock roots & any seeds, it takes a REALLY hot compost to kill them! 31 days may be a tad early to render them 'safe'!

[BarriedaleNick]

sorry to have sparked a row!

A bit of debate is always a good thing if people are polite (which they are here!) - indeed it can be very useful at times.

I try to make do with home made compost plus leaf mould plus I get bags and bags of straw/horse poo and wee from the stables.  It is very fresh but rots down marvelously into a nice fine crumb esp when combined with green waste on the heap.  A bit rich for seeds maybe but watered down with old compost, sand or soil it does fine. Plus I reuse old stuff and add nutrients if needed in the form of rotted manure.  As I say I don't use peat and seem to do okay without it but I wouldn't dream of castigating others for making their own choice..

[Big Gee]

sorry to have sparked a row!

A bit of debate is always a good thing if people are polite (which they are here!) - indeed it can be very useful at times.

I couldn't agree more. Debate (as opposed to 'rows') is healthy and is a tool for learning new things - as long as it's respectful and polite. As a comparatively new contributor here I find the level of politeness on this forum to be very refreshing. Believe me it's not the same everywhere!!