|
|
Post by Tel on Feb 5, 2014 10:43:05 GMT
Controversial Advice from Which? magazine Which? gave Don't Buy ratings to all the peat-free composts that they tried See report in The IndependentWe have had numerous customers that have bought rooted cuttings from us managing to kill them off within a week or so of receiving them by potting them on using low cost, multi-purpose composts and then over watering them. So, if you are new to growing dahlias beware of the the type of composts you use as they are not necessarily good for the young, delicate recently rooted cuttings. We advise our customers against them. I agree with you Richard, tried them in the past, very disappointing results. trouble is the government wants the Companies to use less peat in their composts. though in practice gardeners use very little in the scheme of things. The biggest users are the Power Stations.  |
|
|
|
Post by Cherry on Feb 5, 2014 17:34:32 GMT
richardr thank you for this advice. That is a really good tip, although some people do suspect that the peat free compost does not work as well. You have proved this with customer information. Tel's answer is quite right. Peat is used on a huge scale to keep power stations going in Ireland. My husband took the aerial pictures to prove this. Gardeners use a tiny amount in comparison.
|
|
|
|
Post by snute2008 on Feb 8, 2014 15:34:05 GMT
So what would the best recommendation then for purchasing?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2014 17:41:01 GMT
Controversial Advice from Which? magazine Which? gave Don't Buy ratings to all the peat-free composts that they tried See report in The IndependentWe have had numerous customers that have bought rooted cuttings from us managing to kill them off within a week or so of receiving them by potting them on using low cost, multi-purpose composts and then over watering them. So, if you are new to growing dahlias beware of the the type of composts you use as they are not necessarily good for the young, delicate recently rooted cuttings. We advise our customers against them. I agree with you Richard, tried them in the past, very disappointing results. trouble is the government wants the Companies to use less peat in their composts. though in practice gardeners use very little in the scheme of things. The biggest users are the Power Stations. The unfortunate thing is more and more garden centres are choosing not to stock peat to satisfy both government and green led initiatives. My preference for cutting media is peat,horticultural sand and perlite mixed at equal rates. Any other type of non peat mixture would spell disaster and one that I would avoid at all costs. Lucky for me a garden centre near by closed recently and sold all its composts off at half price. I bought 30 x 100 ltr bales of peat at £4.00 each, plus quite a lot of JI no 2 & 3. |
|
|
|
Post by scrumpy on Feb 8, 2014 18:34:33 GMT
It is getting more and more difficult to get decent composts, even though they are still made by the same people who make the environmently useless friendly composts.
If you belong to an allotment society, then I would recommend interhort as they sell wonderful stuff, but only sell to the trade, or professionals, but they do say allotment societies, so if there are enough of you an order can easily be made up.
£150 is the minimum for free delivery, but they sell everything you could ever need including fertilisers, insecticides, fungicides, that aren't available elsewhere.
Composts i'm trying from them this year, apart from the usual vitax Q4 and Humax original, are there own specially made compost which is a loam/peat/seaweed mix which is really nice to the touch, plus Hortons multipurpose and bedding/container compost. If you really want to go to town then they do the levington professional range.
|
|
|
|
Post by steve on Feb 9, 2014 10:13:14 GMT
I always use Vitax, still a good peat based so far
|
|
|
|
Post by Moonlight on Feb 9, 2014 11:50:38 GMT
Problem is we are encouraged to recycle and fill our green bins and then councils sell it off to companies that make the compost, who turn it into compost.
The companies are not as meticulous as they should be and things like metal, plastic and glass are part of the mixture.
Growers by these composts in good faith but are let down by the quality.
|
|
richardr
Full Member
Linux Ubuntu User
Posts: 149
|
Post by richardr on Feb 9, 2014 17:44:26 GMT
Problem is we are encouraged to recycle and fill our green bins and then councils sell it off to companies that make the compost, who turn it into compost.
The companies are not as meticulous as they should be and things like metal, plastic and glass are part of the mixture.
Growers by these composts in good faith but are let down by the quality. Multi purpose composts also contain a wetting agent to retain moisture. For young, just rooted, tender dahlia cuttings this is, as we all know, not a good thing as they need really well draining compost to prevent rotting and damping off. |
|
|
|
Post by Moonlight on Feb 10, 2014 12:36:55 GMT
Slightly different question.
I can get well rotted manure. My dahlia patch is quite small, so I wouldn't keep walking all over it and making a massive mud bath. Would tipping some well rotted manure be of any benefit to the soil?
I am not talking digging it in, just tipping some bags on top of the soil.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tel on Feb 10, 2014 13:06:25 GMT
Slightly different question.
I can get well rotted manure. My dahlia patch is quite small, so I wouldn't keep walking all over it and making a massive mud bath. Would tipping some well rotted manure be of any benefit to the soil?
I am not talking digging it in, just tipping some bags on top of the soil. Certainly will help, Moonlight. A lot of growers use it to mulch round their dahlia plants, but if you use any for doing that just try to keep it away from the dahlia stems, just in case you get any, that is not at least, 6 months old. |
|
|
|
Post by Moonlight on Feb 10, 2014 13:36:12 GMT
Slightly different question.
I can get well rotted manure. My dahlia patch is quite small, so I wouldn't keep walking all over it and making a massive mud bath. Would tipping some well rotted manure be of any benefit to the soil?
I am not talking digging it in, just tipping some bags on top of the soil. Certainly will help, Moonlight. A lot of growers use it to mulch round their dahlia plants, but if you use any for doing that just try to keep it away from the dahlia stems, just in case you get any, that is not at least, 6 months old.
+ it is free.................
|
|
|
|
Post by Moonlight on Feb 10, 2014 13:37:48 GMT
I think part of it is that I'm a bit frustrated, everyone seems to have lovely buds and shoots on their heated benches, busy taking cuttings.
& mine are just sitting there.
|
|
richardr
Full Member
Linux Ubuntu User
Posts: 149
|
Post by richardr on Feb 10, 2014 14:03:55 GMT
Slightly different question.
I can get well rotted manure. My dahlia patch is quite small, so I wouldn't keep walking all over it and making a massive mud bath. Would tipping some well rotted manure be of any benefit to the soil?
I am not talking digging it in, just tipping some bags on top of the soil. Yes it would with one proviso. It is well worth checking the original source of the pasture grasses that were grazed as the residue of aminopyralid (a commercial broad leaf weed killer) may be present which will have a detrimental effect causing stunted growth. This is more of a problem with stable manure than farmyard manure. |
|
|
|
Post by markb on Feb 10, 2014 15:34:54 GMT
I think part of it is that I'm a bit frustrated, everyone seems to have lovely buds and shoots on their heated benches, busy taking cuttings.
& mine are just sitting there. Don't worry moonlight, mine are just 'sitting there' as well. Haven't even finished setting them up yet - will probably finish that this week. I don't have power or heating in the greenhouse so I would have to bring them indoors (usually a spare room), but then there is not enough light. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2014 11:35:25 GMT
I think part of it is that I'm a bit frustrated, everyone seems to have lovely buds and shoots on their heated benches, busy taking cuttings.
& mine are just sitting there. Don't worry moonlight, mine are just 'sitting there' as well. Haven't even finished setting them up yet - will probably finish that this week. I don't have power or heating in the greenhouse so I would have to bring them indoors (usually a spare room), but then there is not enough light. I've had mine on the heated bench for two weeks and have nothing as yet. No sunshine to keep day time temp up. Have even got my vitapod on the go in the shed now, to speed things up. |
|
