Author Topic: Bulrush peat free compost  (Read 3110 times)

caroline7758

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Bulrush peat free compost
« on: April 22, 2017, 10:27:02 »
Just wondering if anyone has used this? i bought some from the Leeds Council nursery where the plants look great and it was a good price, but the texture is very "woolly" and quite dry. Would be good to know if anyone has experience before I use it, although I know the same compost can vary from year to year.

squeezyjohn

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2017, 11:07:36 »
I'm afraid I haven't got experience of that particular brand, but I have switched over to completely peat-free this year and had to travel far and wide to find the brand I'm using which is Sylvagrow. 

Peat-free composts are definitely not all equal, and 99% of the time all you can find is New Horizon, which is pretty awful and only worth using to bulk out raised beds ... hardly surprising as it's made by a company who has a massive financial interest in the peat industry!  However, all peat-free that I've tried including the good ones have a far more fibrous texture than most multi-purpose composts that contain peat. 

With the Sylvagrow the fibres are a bit smaller and have been no hiderance to sowing seeds, even the small ones.  What I have found is that it responds quite differently to water.  When it's dry, it is much harder to get the peat-free compost to take up water, but once it's moist then watering becomes almost indistinguishable from using peat.  I find it wets better by standing the bottom of the pot in a dish of water rather than pouring it on to the surface.

Do let us know how this brand turns out if you get some ... it's great that New Horizon is getting some proper competition at last.  I don't want to be using peat any more.

ancellsfarmer

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2017, 17:23:29 »
http://www.bulrush.co.uk/retail/composts
Yet again no list of ingredients or indication of type of fertilisers or analysis. Its time trading standards or Defra got involved.
Freelance cultivator qualified within the University of Life.

caroline7758

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2017, 16:42:25 »
I've used New Horizon for a good few years and have found it ok, but maybe my expectations are too low! This article is interesting:
http://earthfriendlygardener.net/2016/02/24/peat-free-peatfree-compost-media-growing-sowing-sustainable-multipurpose-growise-grosure-newhorizon/

They are definitely out to confuse us!

pumkinlover

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2017, 17:39:33 »
I have found Petersfield peat free very good.

caroline7758

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2017, 09:50:15 »
Just reporting back on Bulrush. I've found it to be much slower to sorry out than New Horizon and my plants are doing well. No use for seeds but otherwise I'd certainly buy it again. It contains Forest Gold if that means anything!

squeezyjohn

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2017, 11:37:55 »
The best way to sow smaller seeds in a decent peat free compost is to fill your pots or modules and tamp them down.  Water the pot well and then sow direct on to the surface of the compost.  Afterwards you take a little of the dry compost and seive it over the top of the seeds to give a little covering of fine stuff and then water gently again.  After that treat exactly as you do for a peat based compost - keeping your pots in a tray and watering from the bottom seems to work best.

For bigger seeds like sunflower, beans and squash/cucumber family ... there is no difference between peat and peat-free techniques.

I've sown everything I used Jack's Magic for last year in Sylvagrow peat free ... and the germination rates have been exactly the same.  In the peat-free the seedlings haven't raced away quite as quickly as they do with Jack's Magic, but actually, in the long run, this seems to lead to shorter, sturdier plants which have been more tough at the planting out stage and have needed less hardening off.

Vinlander

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2017, 12:30:24 »
Water-repellent composts are as troublesome as water-repellent towels - the answer (as at Wimbledon) is to add some wetting agent before you use them.

The simplest, cheapest and safest wetting agent for compost is clay - it lasts forever, and you only need a few % to make a difference. Too much pure clay can clog it up, but adding soil with a reasonable clay content is foolproof.

This why experienced gardeners add 10% John Innes to peat-free composts - but I stopped buying John Innes when I realised I could microwave my garden soil to make an even more sterile ingredient. 

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

caroline7758

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Re: Bulrush peat free compost
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2017, 17:51:25 »
Squuezyjohn,  I have used New Horizon for seeds by sieving, but the texture of the Bulrush is quite "woolly" so would be very difficult, if not impossible to sieve fine enough for seed.

 

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