Thursday produced a new hottest day of the year just a tad warmer (hotter?) than yesterday 26.7°C (80.1°F).
I’ve been experimenting using New Horizon Peat Free Multipurpose Compost. As you may have read on Sue’s blog we’re struggling to find a good consistent compost. New Horizon got a good review in Kitchen Garden magazine and was credited with a Which Report “best buy” tag so I thought it was worth a try.
Beechgrove Garden on BBC Scotland have also been trialling several composts reported the results so far on in last night’s episode. Each programme has its own fact sheet and you can view this by clicking on the picture below. The compost report is on page 2 under Garden Diary.
Our results have been much the same. I’ve thought for a few weeks that the plants were very slow growing but put this down to the cold weather rather than the compost. I’m sure the cold weather has played its part.
These pansies were transplanted on 7th May and look generally OK but frankly I would have expected larger plants by now. Below are some cabbage plants “Golden Acre” sown on 6th April and transplanted on 3rd May.
They’re not looking too bad now but I'm sure I’ve grown better plants. The advice from Beechgrove garden is that feeding should help so I’ll give them a feed with some liquid seaweed fertiliser.
Germination rates in New Horizon were excellent as reported from the trial on Beechgrove Garden. I’d say these peas and French beans have an almost 100% germination rate and perhaps they too will get a feed when I give the plants a water this evening.
So far I reckon it’s worth persisting with New Horizon Peat free. Perhaps it’s a case of developing a technique for growing in this new medium so if I can do my little bit to help save a peat bog somewhere I’ll give it a go. My next step is to sow some lettuces and radishes in the compost and see how they perform.
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There's such a difference between different composts. I've just potted on my tomatoes again and I've used the compost from a grow bag. The compost I have been using, Erin multipurpose, doesn't seem to have done much for my plants this year, but I've used it previously and it's always been ok.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was telling on Beechgrove Garden that they use a Levington Compost with peat as the standard and got poor results from that. Just shows I don't think you can win anyway!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Martyn, thanks for sharing all this. Learning to use new mediums (especially for seed germination) is something we're all going to have to tackle as peat becomes harder to get/more expensive.
ReplyDeleteI'm still using the B&Q Multi-purpose for everything, it has much less peat in it than previous years but also has way more lumps, bumps and rubbish and I am having to sieve all of it before use.
Hi BW
ReplyDeleteThis New Horizon has lots of "lumps, bumps and rubbish" too. Small seeds I've covered with vermiculite and larger seeds are just having to take their chance. So far I haven't resorted to the sieve.