BCSS - Forum

There has been a fair bit of discussion on the forum about various current branded John Innes composts and their faults, and having tried lots of them over the years I settled on Clover John Innes No.2, produced in Ireland, which I think is excellent. I've been using it for a number of years now.
However, peat is shortly to be banned from being used in retail composts, and is a key ingredient in John Innes composts. There are lots of "peat-free composts" out there but none that I can see are marketed as being a direct replacement for John Innes composts.
Question, hopefully without getting into another discussion about how bad various John Innes or peat-free composts are: since John Innes No.2 or No.3 is no longer an option, what are people using as a substitute? Keeping it positive, what do you reckon is the best option?

For some years I've been using Sylvagrow ericaceous compost, mainly because my local Garden Centre sells it. It seems good quality and the plants do well. We also use their standard multipurpose compost for garden pots etc.

Surprisingly we can't get that Clover JI#2 here in Ireland for some reason. The Vitax JI#2 was my staple for many years but seems to be gone now since Brexit.

Anyway, this doesn't seem too bad. It seems to be made of mostly top soil with added fine sand. I read some reviews there online saying it contains lots of sticks and stones, but I didn't find that. Not much info on the bag and I haven't the gear to do an accurate acidity test.

I'm currently using the Westland but I think it also contains peat.

I am about to buy some more grit and JI and was debating whether to order bulk loads of the ingredients and fire up my (clean) cement mixer to make my own JI + grit.

All original JI recipes contain peat, they are all loam, plus peat, plus sand, plus lime, plus fertiliser.
There are peat-free JI composts, althogh I have never looked for the JI seal on the bags.

The problem with all major non-peat organic compost components, no matter what they are, is that they are very short-lived in a pot, they compost down to nothing within a few to several months - absolutely fine for fuchsias, chrysat's and the like, but not great for anything likely to stay in the same pot for at least a year or two.

That said, I always used loam as the base for composts for the real water-sensitive plants - Mamm. tetrancistra, Pedio's, Sclero's. Just add sand, grit and perlite.

There was talk a few years back of banning the use/sale of loam. A lot of it was (is?) coming from fields/meadows that are bought, stripped of a few inches of top-soil, reseeded, and then sold for at least what they were bought for originally, but with much impoverished soil and flora.

I'm keen to try some peat-free JI-substitute composts but the only one I can find to test is the Sylvagrow product. I'm going to try it this year, but otherwise I will make my own.

SimonT wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 9:54 am I'm keen to try some peat-free JI-substitute composts but the only one I can find to test is the Sylvagrow product. I'm going to try it this year, but otherwise I will make my own.

I've just ordered some Sylvagrow Ericaceous. I'll report back once I've tried it.

Sylvagrow ericaceous is a blend of bark chip and coir, so will compost-down to dark brown/black sludge reasonably quickly, a few months if kept well dampened. Reduction in volume will be huge, maybe 90%, maybe more. It will be fine for nursery stock for a few months, depending on how damp it is kept, but........
I have a builder's big bag of chipped woody prunings, around 2 years old and the whole bag has composted down to 2-3 inches of very crumbly peat-like material with about as much chip, which was too dry, on top.

Sylvagrow is a growing medium, calling it compost is stretching a point, although Sylvagrow do not actually use the word.

That is not my experience Davey, I've been using it for several years with no problems, the plants are doing well and it does not become a sludge.

Davey246 wrote: ↑Wed May 18, 2022 12:18 pm Sylvagrow ericaceous is a blend of bark chip and coir, so will compost-down to dark brown/black sludge reasonably quickly, a few months if kept well dampened. Reduction in volume will be huge, maybe 90%, maybe more. It will be fine for nursery stock for a few months, depending on how damp it is kept, but........
I have a builder's big bag of chipped woody prunings, around 2 years old and the whole bag has composted down to 2-3 inches of very crumbly peat-like material with about as much chip, which was too dry, on top.

Sylvagrow is a growing medium, calling it compost is stretching a point, although Sylvagrow do not actually use the word.

Thanks Davey. It appears I've wasted a small amount of money then.
But as I said at the beginning of the thread, let's keep it positive- there is plenty of criticism of composts (and growing media) on the forum. What would you suggest as an alternative to John Innes composts?