B&Q M.Purpose Compost Issues. - Page 3

If you need a LOT of compost it is well worth giving your local council a call. I bought some from ours (S Glos) in February. I wanted 5 tons (their minimum delivered) but as their riddle machine wasn't working they gave me 8 tons for the same price - £50 delivered!!

I think you can collect smaller amounts free but tbh at that price it isn't worth it.

A little bit on the twiggy side (as it hadn't been riddled) and the odd small piece of plastic or glass, but on the whole seems weed free and better quality than the bagged stuff. I'm just recomposting some of the twiggier bits with some chicken manure from a local farmer, so no problem. Just a bit of a large pile, but I'm sure it'll get used!!

Crumbs!  That is a lot of compost - your garden must be huge - or perhaps you have an allotment?  But it has given me a thought:  too late perhaps for this year, but maybe the local Allotment Society might take a large delivery - I can but ask!

Shrinking Violet wrote (see)

Crumbs!  That is a lot of compost - your garden must be huge - or perhaps you have an allotment?  But it has given me a thought:  too late perhaps for this year, but maybe the local Allotment Society might take a large delivery - I can but ask!

It's quite a big garden - about 100ft by 90ft but I'm making big changes, digging up lawn, building raised beds, putting in paths etc. It had been a bit neglected for a few years and desperately needed some organic material digging in to break up the soil a bit.

It's more than I needed, but it'll spread round the neighbours and still give me plenty left. They dumped it in front of my garage (nowhere else for it really) and I have to admit it took a bit of shifting, lol.

Good for S Glos council - our council sells it,bagged at the same price as the garden centres.  Though maybe it would be worth a try as there seem to be so many problems with the B&Q compost this year.

I'm using the Verve MP compost this year and whilst it is not so fine and user friendly for seed sowing as the previous MP compost from B&Q (which I always found quite good - except the time I found half a brick in the bag) so far germination seems OK but I was late planting as I don't have a greenhouse.  Am rather concerned as I bought 12 bags of the stuff.

I have recently had trouble with BQ MP compost,purchased plug plants don't root very well.As far as I am concerned the majority of MP now consists mainly of shredded and composted garden waste which consists largely of tree and shrub waste which you see in the Council reycling centres.For sometime I worked for the Environment Agency and inpected garden waste composting sites to make sure they were not causing polution. Before composting there was no checking to see if it was diseased or contained nasty chemicals.The compost was supposed to reach 80degrees but I don't believe it always did.This was supposed to get rid of the nasties.As far as I was concerned it came jn as rubbish and left as rubbish.It was not treated by the site operator,only size graded.It was  black sticky and wet the same as it is when you buy it as an MP product.Put it through your hand and you will see it is full of little bits of shredded twig like material.Thats the base material we are buying.The manufacterers are restricted now on the use of peat so they only have this rubbish to use.Before there was a restriction on the use of peat the waste operators didn.t know what to do with it.They couldn't  give it away then,nobody wanted it. 

What I find alarming is that people are finding pieces of glass in bags of compost, smells of ammonia and black tar have been reported at my allotments. Whats also bothering me is that many schools these days study gardening, does any of this bagged crap have the potential to harm our kids health ? A mean, if a product is giving off an odour like tar, it can't be good, right ? OR. Does a child have to lose a finger before anyone does something about it ? 

It's interesting that our local green waste collection now refuses cardboard, as their so-called compost was full of it (as was B and Q's - same supplier?). And their product is now sold as a soil-improver, not a compost. Like Sue Beesley, I've used New Horizon peat-free for years, for the same reasons, with no problem, and it's been a very consistent product.

What is interesting is that the suppliers do not put on their bags what exactly the compost is made up of although they are happy to put on the bags what it is supposed to do. The composting industry certainly needs regulating so that gardeners are not seen off.They may be in a difficult position as it appears the only substitute to  peat is composted garden waste but by now I would have thought they could have found a better substitute. 

I posted at the beginning of this thread about my B&Q Multi-P compost and maybe this isn't the place to show you this - because I'm not totally sure if what you'll see below is due to just the flower corms/seeds or has a connection with the compost.  In February I bought a box of what were supposed to be Chincherinchee corms/seeds/bulbs (see picture).  There were 20 or 30 (can't remember) corms. I put them individually into 3" pots in the B&Q compost and put some outside in the soil, probably way too early for outside but it said Jan/Feb on the box.  Below is what happened with the indoor ones.  1 looks like - I don't know.  2 looks like (and feels like) a stinging nettle. 3 - could this be an actual Chincherinchee?  None have come up in the garden and I've never seen Chincherinchee before - whim buy!   The corm is worn looking and wet because I washed the compost off it to take the picture.  You have to laugh at how I've 'nurtured' the stinging nettle.  I tipped out the pots and all the original corms/seeds came out - unattached any of the weeds which have grown.  Only one maybe looks like it might be Chincherinchee - picture 3 but I don't know as I've never seen them except in pictures of the fully grown plants on the bought box or on web photos.  You can tell I'm a beginner gardener. 

 Are stinging nettles any use for beasties in the garden - or should I ditch? 

What in the gods creation is that first picture - looks like an eyeball. Its a bit too early for halloween ya naaa....

Hi marshmello -methinks they might as well have been eyeballs! 

Hahaha

Well - it doesn't say much for the quality of the compost, does it?  Pic 2 is a nettle, for sure.  I think you must have the record for nurturing one of those!  Pic 1 could be another weed, but the reddish tinge to the leaves could (just could) be Amaranthus (Love Lies Bleeding).  As an experiment, you could keep it in a pot - probably potting it on rather than keeping it in a 3" pot - and see what happens.  I certainly wouldn't plant it out - who knows what you might be introducing to the garden.

As for pic 3 - it looks the most promising, and probably is a chincherinchee, though I've never grown them, so would bow to anyone else's experience.  But it looks like the first leaves from a bulb, so I would be quite hopeful.

I might be talking out of the top of my head but what medium do the professional wholesale growers use for their plants,do they know something we don't.Perhaps they could share the secret with the suppliers of MP.

Having decided that organic compost is too expensive, I opted for Verve multipurpose compost this year. I didn't use it for sowing small seeds, but I've used it for potting on and for sowing larger seeds such as cucumber, courgettes etc. Germination has been brilliant and the all the plants are growing well - the best year I've had so far (only been gardening for 8 years). I need more compost to put everything in its final growing position, but the number of negative comments on  Verve have me seriously worried. I agree there are large woody lumps in the compost, but the results have been good. Have I just been lucky in getting a good batch?

Wow is there anyway to link this to B+Q customer service? with so many of us agreeing and so many reading it might make someone there actually stop and think for a minute about quality over pricing, because lets face it that's what this will boil down to..... or am I just a cynic!

Moonlit Hare - I thought it would be a good idea to ask B & Q, so I registered with them and posted a question.  It is now in pre-mod (where have I heard that before?) and will take up to 72 hours before it is posted.  I think it's now a case of "watch this space" (while you let their DIY paint dry.  72 Hours!  )

Verve B and Q compost as we know was being sold three for ten pound, today in our local B and Q it was being sold for 4 for the price of 3. Try and work that out,are they trying to off load it???

 Could be !

They might just be using it to get poor unsuspecting people who trust their quality into the sort so they can woo them with products they are making a good margin on.... or  again I could just be an old cynic!