Topic: Civic amenity centre compost

[Gordonmull]

Hi folks

In my every present quest to get better food at significantly less cost than supermarket buying I'm wondering about using CA compost that's made from the garden waste bins. Our council are giving it for free. I understand it's OK to use as a soil conditioner and it obviously has to meet PAS 100 or they wouldn't be able to give it away.

My question is can i use it as a potting compost for tomatoes?

I've tried a couple of things with it.

4 grape trays sown with 11  peas to each, 2 with multipurpose and two with this. Multipurpose - 90% germination, CA compost about 60%.

1 ice cream tub sown with 12 chard. 11 stations came up. I actually did this accidently.

And that's about it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Gordon

[chriscross1966]

I've used it as a soil conditioner and also as about 50% of the earth in what were smallish raised beds in the polytunnel for tomatoes and it worked well... it's not a particularly good sowing medium, but fine for potting on big strong things....I'd mix in some topsoil though to give it a bit of structure....and plenty of fertiliser appropriate to the plant.... or a pinch of BFB per double handful of compost....

[daveyboi]

You are lucky to get it free they charge us for it here £4 per bag or 3 bags for £10 and they are not that big bags either.

[Ellen K]

I've used it for growing in big pots and it is OK but not great.  So next time i'd use 50/50 green waste compost and bought peat based cpmpost.

But it is good stuff because its sterile - no weed seeds or other biological nasties because of the high temperatures these very large compost heaps can reach.

[chriscross1966]

You are lucky to get it free they charge us for it here £4 per bag or 3 bags for £10 and they are not that big bags either.

They cahrge us a lot for the ready bagged stuff, but if you go along to the recycling place and load it yourself it's 30 quid a ton... and shovelloing it into my 8x4 trailer (three dumpy bags as a liner) and the back of my van (long wheelbase LDV, there mopre dumpy bags) until I really couldn't shovel any more got me 800Kg.... and it was loads and loads of compost....

[Gordonmull]

Thanks. That should take the sting out of the 70 tom plants we are hoping to get into containers soon! CA centre compost and soil, it is. I take it, when I'm done, I could spead the spent material on the bed that I'll be using for carrot, allium and brassica next year?

[chriscross1966]

I always put the spent tomato compost where the brassicas will be going, too much organic matter (it depends on a lot of other factors too) under carrots can encourage forking.... although equally I'd be perfectly at ease with the idea of using it in pots to grow the early forcing types in a GH....or lettuces etc... to be really technical it ought to go onto where the potatoes come out from as they are the same family and should therefore share a rotation slot...

[Gordonmull]

Thanks chriscross. I should have really spotted that. Kind of at the stage where so I'm saturated with info a lot of it's leaking out my ears!  :)

Well, nothing like a year of putting it all into practice to cement it in place.

[Digeroo]

I had used a lot of Wiltshires offering which is fill your own bag for £1,  I have found it has plenty of nutrients,  It does dry out quite quickly and form a crust so I mix it about 75/25 with a peat based compost.  Courgettes and beans in particular seem to like it a lot.

I currently have some tomato plants 18'' tall which are very bonny in a four inch pot of it.  No extra feed at all.  And loads of courgettes which are very quick to yellow up if they are sulking.

It can contain certain weeds.  Tomatoes, cucumber pop up occassionally and goose grass (sticky weed/cleavers) can be a problem. I had one batch full of it.   And we can only pray no one puts fat hen into it because that seem to survive anything.

I use it on two inch wide stips to sow seeds such as carrots and parsnips the dark stripes help with weeding. 

Actually very pleased with it.  I do however worry about selective weedkillers used on lawns.