Gro-sure 11200018 All Purpose Compost with 4 Months Plant Feed, 10 Litre - Dark

Product Information

Old compost is often on sale - we send secret shoppers to buy our composts, who tell us if they find old compost on sale. It's a very common problem. We also know from our testing that old compost doesn't perform as well as fresh compost. To avoid this, buy bags that look new and aren't faded or heavy, which suggests they have been sitting around in bright sunshine for too long, or have been rained on regularly. The Miracle-Gro 119761 All Purpose Compost is suitable for use in all areas of the garden, adding nutrients to flower beds, hanging baskets, pots and containers. It’s available in either a 40 L or 50 L bag and offers great value for money. But the only way to know if a compost is good or bad is to grow plants in it and compare them - something we've been doing for more than 30 years. A. We would not recommend using this for your lawn. It is always better to use a fertiliser that has been specifically designed or lawn use such as Aftercut Ultra Green Plus or Westland Safelawn Overall, this is one of the best composts featured if you want a good combination of larger and smaller particles in your compost. These can help with drainage and stop the compost from compacting. With this Westlands option, it’s also nice to know that FSC certified wood is used.

Another benefit is that the microorganisms introduced to the soil will also help your plants to repel a number of plant diseases.A little more detail to answer the questions above - The survey appears in the current Jan/Feb 2013 Which? garden magazine. The survey was conducted from spring 2012 to find the best buy composts for growing seeds and young plants. Many manufacturers are attempting to lower the peat content in their compost, due to its negative impact on the environment. However, if the compost doesn’t state that it’s ‘peat free compost’ or at least ‘low in peat’, you should presume that it has a high peat content. Well, peat-based compost is still readily available, but a lot of gardeners are choosing to avoid it as much as possible for the above reasons.

Tub and basket composts are formulated to give the right conditions for pots of summer bedding to grow well.They often contain a different mix of ingredients to those found in multipurpose composts. These include small amounts of sand, grit or vermiculite in seed and potting composts, bark in orchid compost and mostly gravel and sand in cacti composts. The texture is relatively neutral – not too sandy or soggy, and there are some additional components included, like wood fibre. The wood fibre comes from FSC certified forests which means it’s been sustainably grown/sourced. Then they tested for growing on young plants and seedlings - 20 snapdragon and 20 tomato seedlings were potted up in each compost. Again snapdragons struggle if nutrient levels are too high and tomato don't thrive if they are too low. They were grown on without feeding until the largest were ready to be planted out. All plants were rated on size, quality and leaf colour. There is also some peat in the mix, which more and more gardeners are looking to avoid; however, it is considered a ‘reduced peat’ compost, so they have gone to measures to keep the peat content down.