Peatfree compost.

This has happened to me in the past. I changed my supplier last year and then had wonderful success germinating seeds. I've gone back to the same community nursery this year. Perhaps change your supplies to a different brand?

Well we don’t all have suppliers some of us just pick it up at the nearest supermarket or garden centre
It is awful stuff dry and full of woody bits my seeds have mostly germinated but it’s not good looking compost that s for sure

Quite a lot of my seeds have failed this year.
The compost is dreadful, pieces of foil and even plastic in it.
Water seems to just drain through, leaving a dry hard layer on the top.

Every grower will tell you peat free is not yet as good for seeds and plants as compost with peat in. They are still using it on the continent which puts our commercial growers at a disadvantage. I bought up several bags and stored them.

I’m come to the end of my store of Jacks Magic 25Avalon. Going to try Westland, reasonable reviews on allotment website.

I'm also disappointed with my peat free compost .
My seeds haven't germinated as well as they did before .
I had some failures with plants which normally grow really well .
Jack's Magic and Westland are good .

It's trial and error.

I've bought a multipurpose compost with added John Innes soil and it seems fine. Some of the stuff I bought last year was rubbish with a lot of woodchips in it which would be hopeless for seed growing

Dont use peatfree for seedlings, proper seedling compost will be a mix of soil and compost John Innes is one of them.
Many of the plants you buy in the garden centers are produced in Holland grown in peat compost. If it's any consolation Ive had problems because of the cold nights causing very slow emergence.

I was giving compost some thought, and it occurred to me that my grandfather - a gardener in one of those huge estates (think Downton) - used to make his own seed compost - well, compost of any sort. I remember he had different grade sieves which he put his home made compost through ending up with a very fine one. I can remember them hung on the potting shed wall.

Well he didn’t have any access to peat. Most people would not have done back then, and look at the beautiful things they grew. So I’m not convinced it is lack of peat. It may be poor quality compost though, and of course growing conditions.one year - temperature - especially night time is never like another, and my guess it is other variables apart from peat.

I agree the peat free compost is awful and dries out too easily, there should be more choice.

This is the last year that a lot of small specialist nurseries will be showing at RHS shows like Chelsea because they will have to be peat free. If commercial growers can't make peat free work for them I'm not surprised that amateurs are struggling. Most of the peat free I've bought doesn't help in root formation and dries out too quickly resulting in poor results. I'm now mixing sieved soil into the mix.

I try very hard to be eco-friendly but peat is my stumbling block. Peatfree compost is not fit for purpose.

At the beginning of the season I sowed several veg seeds in both Levingtons peat free compost and also Aldi's Enriched peat free compost. Germination was less than 50% mainly, I think, due to the high acidity levels from all the bits of unmulched woody twigs and fibrous roots. I then bought Clover peat free compost and re sowed the same seeds and have pretty much 100% germination. It's not the cheapest compost but the difference in quality is immediately obvious when you open the bag; no sticks, twigs, bits of unrotted roots or fibre, just clean, fine tilth compost. I've dumped the other stuff on the potato patch.

On a slightly different note, I repotted some houseplants in peat free compost and have been plagued with fungus gnats ever since. I’m careful not to overwater, have used sticky traps and nematodes but still they flourish! Any ideas?

I was advised by a pelargonium grower many years ago at one of the RHS flower shows that they don't grow well in compost made with coir.

We make our own compost which we mix with (putchased) peat-free. No problems!

This year I have found that adding some soil improver to the peat free compost, along with some topsoil and a little bit of sand and vermiculite has made a very good mix.

We mix 1 bag of John Innes compost no.3, with a bag of topsoil and some perlite for our garden pots.

This year out of desperation I bought a bag of peat free compost from Aldi and its fabulous, no sticks stones or other undesirables, it's even better than the stuff I usually get from the plant nursery.

I do not like peat free compost at all. Tried the buy one get one free makes and the top of the range from garden centre and still rubbish. Also cannot store say half a bag for 4 weeks before it turns slimy. Rubbish product.

Last year we did an experiment with our tomatoes grown in pots in the greenhouse. A third of them were just in commercial tomato compost (peat free), another third had our own compost at the bottom of the pot with the tomato compost on top and the rest had John Innes Number 3 at the bottom and the tomato compost on top. The pots with just commercial tomato compost were way behind the others and produced a disappointing crop. There wasn't much to choose between the two other sorts. However, none of them were as good as they used to be before peat-free. Unfortunately we have no choice but to use pots in the greenhouse because it has a concrete base. I grew some spare plants in normal soil in our raised beds and they were brilliant.

I have used it a couple of years but I added some treated Rotted Manure.
Seems to be fine, haven't had that many problems but agree prefer the Multi purpose with peat.

Which magazine peat free best buys are Fertile Fibre Multipurpose compost from Amazon and Melcourt SylvaGrow, oth quite expensive though. I used Melcourt last year and it was fine. I hope this is helpful.

Whoops.! Both quite expensive!