tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983898767534428385.post5649892455278485982..comments2024-03-17T17:14:03.259+00:00Comments on The Urban Veg Patch: Improving and re-nutrifying my clay based soil with PeatFree mulchesCarohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11317388242574705433noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983898767534428385.post-3748839702094171842023-04-27T16:09:00.956+01:002023-04-27T16:09:00.956+01:00Hi Caro,
I've had two problems with peat-free ...Hi Caro,<br />I've had two problems with peat-free compost. The first, as you hinted, is herbicides in them. The year before last my tomato plants were ruined by it. Not great when you're buying a supposedly organic compost! The other, I found, is that they contain fungus gnat eggs. Not sure at what stage they get in - during production, or in storage afterwards. I've made the mistake of using peat-free compost for indoor plants, only to find that a week or so after re-planting, the adult flies start emerging in swarms! I've had to go to dedicated indoor plant compost, which is far more expensive (I've no idea why!) It seems that the rotted down materials of peat-free compost are a magnate for these blighters, whereas I suspect there's nothing in peat for them.Pulling Weedshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06029383536991847946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983898767534428385.post-69210138617017603082023-04-27T14:14:13.423+01:002023-04-27T14:14:13.423+01:00Thanks, Roger. If you can get Melcourt compost ch...Thanks, Roger. If you can get Melcourt compost cheaply, let me know and I'll come over! Sounds like you're doing all the right things, some good advice there. <br /> Also nothing wrong with using last year's compost - I always chuck my used tomato compost onto the beds as a mulch or, if growing tomatoes in a bed, I top up the bed with multi-purpose and feed. Perlite is excellent stuff, or vermiculite could be used to open up the compost for seedlings. Have you tried any of the charcoal products, eg BioChar? I haven't yet but there's a lot of chat about it so maybe worth a try. So envious of your manure delivery - allotments are good at getting those supplies in - also good for chipped bark which can be a good mulch if allowed to mature for a while. Carohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11317388242574705433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983898767534428385.post-67116327437142410862023-04-26T23:23:19.190+01:002023-04-26T23:23:19.190+01:00I found that helpful. I saw some quite cheap Melco...I found that helpful. I saw some quite cheap Melcourt compost at a Turkish supermarket near me and I think I might buy a bag or two now. I've been mixing used compost from last year's pots with sieved compost from my compost bin and some from a cheapish peat-free multipurpose, with added fish, blood and bone, just trying to judge the right mixture of ingredients, so that it will drain well, hold water well and resist over-compression. If I need a more open mixture, I add some perlite. It has worked pretty well in the multi-cells I use to raise most of my vegetables, though neither germination nor growth are quite as good as with the peat-based compost I used previously (which was top-rated by Which?). The only minor gripe is a very few weeds germinating, presumably from seeds not killed by composting, but they are easily removed at an early stage, so not really an issue. I mulch my beds with stable manure, which arrives at our allotment site several times a year, fresh from the Metropolitan Police Stables and which I compost for six months to a year before use.Roger Paynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090695241845819319noreply@blogger.com