Which? compost trials 2018 (patio pots)

[hairy face]

According to Which?, the winner is Lidl

 

See table at the end for all the ratings.

 

[Ital]

Well done Lidl £1.89 for 40L that is outstanding value.

 

 

[goldie_2007]

I find the b n q verve, whilst maybe fine for potatoes, is really def prone around the 4 week flowering mark...compared to a proper bag of all mix i don't think it comes close.  I don't believe its 50% peat either imho

[Aurora Ruderalis]

Ah great @hairy face thanks for posting this.  No lidl round my parts though

[Ital]

My Girls won't be getting Lidl but great for the hanging baskets 

[Conspiranought]

My last indoor grow was with wilko cheap stuff, £1 for a 15l bag and worked great. It was all I could find as it was winter, so used it and was good stuff. I have loads of bags of them at my outdoor grow spots  as well as another brand of compost which I haven't used at all but should be good, will just mix them evenly together in the holes.

 

 to miracle grow, put it where it deserves to be. Never used it and never will. Might be ok for stuff that's on show like flowers in the garden but fuck growing any edibles or some smoke in it.

 

Ime some decent cheap compost is just as good as all-mix or something, but at least you know what you're getting every time with all-mix. Cheap compost is a bit hit n miss, but definitely not as bad as some people seem to think for growing weed. Some growers I know think you can't even grow weed in store bought compost and need to use something from the hydro shop .

[BLhaze]

Verve, rock dust, worm castings, kelp, guano, top dressing with well rotted manure and a little fbb... Thats my plan this year 

[oldtimer1]

Thanks @hairy face nice to have the help.

 

@goldie_2007 the 58% for verve and 50% peat for the Liddle compost will be true, trading standards all over the country check large company formulas, typically the fertiliser in standard garden MP composts only last for 4 to 6 weeks or so from first potting, and verve is typical, I suspect it will say on the packaging something like "verve has all the nutrients your plants, seedlings or cutting need for up to 6 weeks, the "up to" depends on how gross  a feeder the plants are, thats how garden composts are made, the people at Gardening Which are skilled gardeners and will start liquid feeding long before the soluble chemical base fertilisers are depleted, much the same as  a good cannabis grower will, you need to know your growing medium and your plants to get it right. These composts are similar to canna biz light mixes but may have a little more base but not by much, its  understand your medium and learn how to deal with it.

 

If you dont want to fertigate then adding more base before using should work well, you could add something like BioBizz Pre-Mix to add an organic base addition, its quite long lasting, or if you don't mind chemical fertilisers  the best continues release plant foods like  Osmacoat controlled release plant food, Chempak Yearlong fertiliser or Miracle-Gro All purpose continuous release plant food will last for the full veg/flowering period.  Me I would add my own organic base, I see members above are talking about rock dust castings kelp etc, these work well as long as not over done, but it takes more skill to get it right.

 

Hope this helps Ot1.

[monkeypig]

3 hours ago, oldtimer1 said:

fertigate

 

 

Word for the day - Fertigate. Everyday is a schoolday. Thanks for the lesson @oldtimer1.

[BLhaze]

@oldtimer1 good to see your view on things.. This will be my first time using "natural" fertilisers and verve.. It could go all tits up or turn out fine... Im going to go down the root of little is more and if not enough, add some.... And if i really mess up ill switch to liquid ferts.. Bio bizz probably... Havent decided on that one yet..  

 

[Guest]

I've recently started to trial the "New Horizon Organic" compost and whilst it's a little warm for seedlings it's looking to be OK. I'm adding dolomite lime, a small amount of bone meal and ecothrive charge for the final pot up but otherwise I'll be potting up every 2 weeks so I shouldn't need to feed them until possibly mid flower ... fingers crossed 

 

 

E2A - I switched from All mix and batmix because I wanted to get away from perlite and so I now use organic rice husks 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Breezus
e2a detail

[FARMER G]

I think if funds dont allow then these type of soils are obviously of interest but for me i wouldn't use them have done once (i think it was JA BOWERS with added john innes) or something like that, all i found was this type of soil compressed and compacted very easily decreasing drainage and airiation.

 

I have recently copped a couple sacks of soil to test out from a up and coming company in the artisan soil game and im really looking forward to it

 

Farmer 

[PureSmkr]

I needed compost for my tomatoes and chillis so I went hunting for the Lidl one but our local store only had the peat free one so I didn’t bother. I got a few of the big 125L verve bags from B&Q, I’ll mix in some rotted down chicken shit and goat shit and the tomatoes should fly!

 

Nice 1

[Fishbern]

After reading a lot about soils recently (tis the time) I've come to the conclusion it's always good to add some extras in. Yet, has anyone just simply ran with the medium they purchased and nothing else mixed into the soil?

 

I've already got my eyes set on BioBizz nutes, thinking that may be enough..

[zen-ken]

Thank you @hairy face .......this was great to find....went and raided lidl yesterday for half a pallet of the stuff.

 

@FarmerPalmersNT Mega bed has inspired me to start getting my hands dirty....gonna start with tomatoes and strawberries first as the dirt couldn't be anymore  to me if it tried.

(and setting up will take forever)

 

Then move on to trying to copy the mega bed when starting to get a feel for soil....even the misses is interested in my hobby if I go the soil NT route