Peatfree compost.

That should have read ‘professional gardeners’.

I agree that peat free compost is more environmentally friendly, but we find it difficult to work with, not fine enough for growing seeds and not nourishing for plants. Until they find a more pleasant peat free compost I shall continue to buy compost with peat on line. On Gardeners Question Time the panel weren’t in favour of peat free. I think other professionals gardeners may use their own home made compost.

Just use topsoil - available in bags from garden centres.

Yes the peat free is definitely poorer than what we used to buy. We found Jacks Magic a bit better last year. We now add manure to the mix which seems to help too. We try to reuse old compost in the bottom of large planters to save costs but on the top we use new. This does seem to work somehow.

I too have been having problems since the peat free came in.
Some of it, even from reputable brands, is terrible, barely composted, full of lumps and sticks. I tried making a worm/slug/snail sized gash in the sack and leaving it to overwinter which helped to a certain extent with the consistency but germination is poor with seeds either rotting or popping their shoots through, looking round and deciding not to bother.

I have been experimenting with making my own mixture, too course mixed with overly fine (non water retaining) adding either vermiculite to help retain/release water and or pearlite to open up the clag and perhaps a few handfuls of our poor, sandy, gritty local "soil", depending on what I am trying to grow.

100% germination failure on 20 corn kernels first time round. A second planting with a different combination and I have spotted 25% germination so far (early days) but they look a bit scrawny. Even pansy seeds failed and they are usually no problem.

Last year I was at RHS Wisley and mentioned the problems I was having to one of the staff. The lady threw up her hands and said "If you find a solution, please let us know!"

I’ve mixed last season’s used Sylagrow from my pots, and some well rotted manure together at the end of last summer, and I’ve used that this year. It’s going okay so far, but I think if I’d left it two years instead of one it would have been finer. I’ve also been toying with the idea of using topsoil in the mix, because a dry top and soggy roots seems to be a big issue with compost now, which is hopeless for young plants.

Dh saw this stuff being manufactured. Most of it is from the green bins your local council collects which ought to be ok. However people throw all sorts of rubbish in as well as green waste such as plastic, silver paper etc which is why you get these things in some bags. It is impossible to sort apparently.

The only way to use the peat free stuff is to add top soil to it , try and pick out the twigs and obviously non organic rubbish , sand helps too
I buy a small bag of top soil at the garden centre

@Azalia99 I’m glad it’s not just me! I was at a small local garden centre this afternoon and asked the chap there about this very thing. He said though he agrees with the environmental concerns driving the changes, he hates the new stuff. He is disappointed that, the industry having had decades to develop peat free alternatives, the resulting products are so disappointing. Apparently he’s had so many customers expressing the same concerns as me, both for outdoor and indoor plants. Sadly no real solutions though!

I agree the peat free compost is awful, full of unidentifiable bits!
I soak vermiculite and mix through the compost, picking out the woolly strings and plastic.. looking at you ' Jacks Magic' .....
The vermiculite seems to help retain moisture and reduces the top surface 'crack'. I get it in quantity from Amazon.

It’s rubbish! Last year I added leaf mould which was an improvement but I did grow a few unintended saplings into the bargain. This year I’m trying only seed snails as an experiment. @granniequeenie. OMG you are so right! I’ve even seen the darned flies in the dack of multipurpose! It’s disgusting. Every plant in my house is festooned with yellow sticky things.

I'm pleased with Growmoor multipurpose compost from Bargain Buys shop. I planted three tubs with earth, compost, one with a expanding in water compost from a B M store. The multipurpose is best, then the expanding compost, the just earth not so good, but they are all nearly ready to flower for the summer.

I’ve not found a bought compost to be ‘as it used to be’ .
I agree, it dries out too quickly
and the best compost my brother-in-law makes himself (and kindly gives me some).

Peat free compost is dreadful. It’s coarse and dries out too quickly . Having said that, I have been using Jack’s Magic original for a good few years with great result but this year it’s absolutely awful and I shalln’t buy it again.

Whoops.! Both quite expensive!

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?