distracted Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 (edited) Compost for raising plants tested Brand Price¹ Cost per litre Peat content Seed raising Growing on young plants Test Score Peat-based composts Best Buy J Arthur Bower's Traditional All Purpose Compost £5.99 for 56 litres 11p 100% 81% Best Buy Verve Sowing & Cutting Compost IN 12 LITRE BAGS ONLY £3.68 for 12 litres 31p 75% 76% Best Buy Verve Grow Your Own Grow Bag £1.98 for 27 litres 7p 55% 74% Best Buy Westland Gro-Sure Seed & Cutting Compost £4.99 for 30 litres 17p 80% 73% Best Buy Verve Sowing & Cutting Compost IN 50 LITRE BAGS ONLY £5.98 for 50 litres 12p 40% 71% Verve Multipurpose Compost £2.98 for 20 litres 15p 58% 61% J Arthur Bower's John Innes Seed Compost £3.99 for 20 litres 20p 50% 60% Westland John Innes No. 1 Young Plant Compost £4.99 for 30 litres 17p 65% 56% Verve John Innes Seed Sowing Compost £4.98 for 20 litres 25p 50% 54% Westland Jack's Magic All-Purpose Compost £4.99 for 30 litres 17p 95% 50% J Arthur Bower's Seed & Cutting Compost £3.99 for 20 litres 20p 70% 46% J Arthur Bower's John Innes No. 1 Compost £3.99 for 20 litres 20p 50% 34% Verve John Innes No. 2 Potting-on Compost £4.98 for 20 litres 25p 50% N/A² 8% Peat-free composts Miracle-Gro Expand 'n Gro Enriched Compost £9.99 for 50 litres 20p 0% 40% GroChar Seed Compost from Carbon Gold £4.99 for 8 litres 62p 0% 29% Using the table: The more stars the better. Best Buys are highlighted in red. Test score ignores price and is based on how well antirrhinum and cabbage seed germinated 50% (giving equal weighting to percentage germination, seedling size and quality) and how well chilli seedlings and petunia plugs developed 50% (weighting plant size, quality and leaf colour equally). ¹Based on the 2014 suggested selling price for a 20-litre bag or the nearest size to that sold. ²We did not test this compost for seed-raising as it is not sold for this purpose Compost for plants in patio pots and hanging baskets We tested 13 brand-leading composts - including a leading growing bag. We used them to grow begonia (geraniums) and potatoes in patio pots. This table shows how well our plants did in the composts that are still available to buy in 2014. Six of the brands that we tested have been reformulated for 2014. Compost for containers Best Buy Brand Price¹ Cost per litre Peat content Potato crop Begonia vigour & flowering Test score Peat-based composts Best Buy Verve Grow Your Own Growing Bag £1.98 for 27 litres 7p 55% 77% Best Buy Westland Jack's Magic All-Purpose Compost £6.99 for 60 litres 12p 95% 71% Verve Tub & Basket Compost £5.48 for 50 litres 11p 58% 69% J Arthur Bower's Traditional All Purpose Compost £5.99 for 56 litres 11p 100% 68% Verve Multipurpose Compost £4.98 for 60 litres 8p 58% 60% Peat-free composts Vital Earth Tub & Basket Compost £5.99 for 60 litres 10p 0% 69% Using the table: The more stars the better. Best Buys are highlighted in red. Test score ignores price and is based on potato yield (25%), potato quality (25%), begonia vigour (25%) and begonia flowering (25%). Price is based on the 2014 suggested selling price for a 50-litre bag or the nearest size to this sold The following composts were reformulated since our tests and are excluded from our table. Homebase Multipurpose J Arthur Bower’s Multipurpose J Arthur Bower’s Multipurpose with added John Innes Miracle-Gro Peat Free All-purpose Enriched Richard Jackson’s Premium Multipurpose Vital Earth RSPB Multipurpose Westland Multipurpose Compost with added John Innes Edited April 13, 2014 by distracted 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reds Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Nice post, distracted. That JAB All purpose really is good shit. And at 11p alitre you cant go wrong. Its the only non-canna specific soil id use. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
distracted Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 Nice post, distracted. That JAB All purpose really is good shit. And at 11p alitre you cant go wrong. Its the only non-canna specific soil id use. I just copied what OT1 does every year! Sick of all these twigs and bits of plastic being sold as compost though 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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