potting compost

[Marise]

Do people have favourite brands of JI compost that they use to make their own recipe for potting? I'm struggling to find one that doesn't have unnecessary bits in i.e. stones, bits of wood etc. I'm fed up with having to pick out the rubbish!

[BryanW]

Personally I use Westland but I still have to riddle out the unwanted bits before i mix it with any sand, gravel and/or coir. I would use more expensive stuff if i didn't have to re-pot so often.

I purchased a set of Bonsai Stainless Steel Garden Sieves off e-bay for less than £20 delivered
I use it to recover gravel from spent compost and to riddle out unwanted rubbish from new compost, long term it saves me money.

[topsy]

Hi Marise,

The brand we are using is Clover (an Irish brand as the name might suggest). This seems to be more like the JI I used at the beginning of my days with succulents. So far I have found no rubbish of any description in their bags, but I do still put it through a sieve to be sure and to break up the odd lump or compost.

Like you I have found so much rubbish in the bigger brands including glass and of course there was the instance with some recycled compost of lawn mowings being used which had been treated with weed killer and which had a very bad effect on our potted plants.

Our branch bought a pallet full (80 bags) of this brand and it is nearly all sold to our members and worked out at £3.30 per 25 kg bag.

If you cannot find "Clover" then I believe that "Erin" is very similar.

Best wishes,

Suzanne

[BryanW]

The brand we are using is Clover

Hi Suzanne,
Is this the moss peat compost? I can get that locally from a farm supplies shop and have used it on my garden.

[Diane]

Westland for me too, and Homebase's own brand is quite good.

[topsy]

Hi Bryan,

Yes that's the stuff. Looks too good for the garden.

We add RHS potting grit, Tesco cat litter, Rock dust and fish, blood & bone fertiliser ratio 2:1:1:0.5:1 handful fertiliser, mix well.

Suzanne

[Paul D]

I've tried various different ones over the last few years, and have yet to find one that I like. The old J. Arthur Bowers used to be my favourite until they changed it.
I now use only a small amount of compost in my mix- about 20%, with the rest being made up of chick grit, cat litter and perlite. The current batch of JI is No.3, the Bord na Mona version but while the texture is fine it seems to have a few weed seeds in it!

[DaveW]

Make your own JI compost if you cannot get a decent brand, at least you know what goes into it. There is no difference between JI 1 to 3 except for amount of fertiliser added. These days the original fertiliser recipe is usually replaced by a normal balanced one.

If you use JI as one ingredient of your compost, adding grit etc to the mix, you just modify their original recipe and add it at the mixing stage. JI without peat is not a JI compost since peat is an essential part of the original formula.

See:-

http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/s ... -Explained!

[BryanW]

Hi Bryan,

Yes that's the stuff. Looks too good for the garden.

We add RHS potting grit, Tesco cat litter, Rock dust and fish, blood & bone fertiliser ratio 2:1:1:0.5:1 handful fertiliser, mix well.

Suzanne

Great stuff, it's cheaper than Westland
RE usage; 12 bags of it was mixed with garden soil and coir for raised flower/veg beds

[Marise]

Thanks everyone. I'll look out for some of those brands I've not heard of before. I'll probably get a sieve too instead of picking out by hand.