4/5 uk bagged composts- i need one more !

hi
can anyone offer suggestions please for uk.
i am looking for one more "bagged" ingredient for the 5
different types for my mm.

so far i have
bagged worm castings
bowers farmyard manure
clavering horse/mushroom compost
bowers horizon peat free compost

just need 1 more, but i'm finding it hard to source
one more peat free compost (nw england).
has anyone in uk experience of doing it this way, did you find 5 types,
would miracle grow or potting compost be ok as the fifth?

i need to start my own compost when i find space
thanks folks
gg

The only thing I can answer is that the Miracle-gro is not to be considered any part of the blend for Mel's Mix. I know Plantoid, your regional host will be around later to offer you a solution. Hang in there! I know you will prevail and find the last component.

anyone in blighty?

YES !

Ask away

plantoid wrote:YES !

Ask away

hi plantoid
please see my post above.
do you know any decent bagged peat free brand?
gg

Rabbit Poo! Rabbit Poo! Rabbit Poo! LOL, it's the bomb, hope you can find some.

JackieB999 wrote:Rabbit Poo! Rabbit Poo! Rabbit Poo! LOL, it's the bomb, hope you can find some.

hi jackie
trouble is i already have 3 manures in farmyard,horse/mushroom, and worm.
i think rabbit would be too much manure.
if i could find some that is!
thanks anyway
gg

greengrass wrote:

plantoid wrote:YES !

Ask away

hi plantoid
please see my post above.
do you know any decent bagged peat free brand?
gg

So far no bagged brands but here is food for thought for you to search online for Like I say later in the post tell me where you are and I and posibley several other will also see what we can locate fairly near to you.

Composted Seaweed , neat worm casts . something well composted with wood shavings or sawdust such as chicken litter from a commercial outlet , goose , turkey on shavings, pig muck on straw goat muck on straw . Llama muck . knageroo droppings , ostrich muck .
Stuff that contains a high proportion of fish scraps or tank cleanings for fish farms
You might find a source that produces compost made from farm slurry such as pig , cow or bullocks etc on veg matter rather than straw .

One of my local friend houses his horses on hemp waste whilst it has horse muck &b pee in it the plant material is quite different to shaving , saw dust or peat , it compost very quickly and is much lighter than normal stable muck due the drainage of it .. It is not very acidic like some manure based composts either.

Now the main lambing time is over it is a good time to ask local farmers if they have composted the straw & muck frm the lambing sheds .

You can sometimes buy composted veg matter that has been made from the parings and peelings from small veg processors that supply schools , hospitals and prisons etc with ready prepared veg's. I asked our local veg prep place and sadly it all goes to a chicken farm where they run free rangers. But free range hen house clearings does have a big difference in nutrients from chooks housed in beattery systems & fed soley on pelleted feeds .
.

Do steer clear of the local authority recycled waste it's usually the pits.
Dried processed sewage ( Ex human stuff I'm being posh aren't I ? )

Where I used to live in East anglia I could go to Hemsby composts and fill my trailer with a very varied set of materials composted on straw ,turned every three days for 18 days It contained much of what I've said above with very little " products of the forrest rubbish " in them for they made it up for the commercial growing trade
I had a look last night to see if I could locate a decent place on line near to you .. in most cases forget the garden centres they all tend to have the same stuff.
Which is the nearest place inhabited place to you & do you have wheels?

One last desparate way to do it is to add dried fish, blood and bonemeal powder to the composts you already have at then maximum reccommende rate for it & use either more peat or composted coir ( B&Q has this in 120 litre bales )

It's not ideal but all the composted veg matter peat and vermiclulite reallyoes is provide an anchor for the plant roots , the nutrients and trace elements are a big bonus if in the correct qualtities. You can make a liquid feed from composted or neat manure to keep the bed going till you hqave your own compost ready This will give you a start that will grow stuff , obviously you'll be beavering away like mad getting your own varied many material compost going . Then mid June when your own compost is done you can follow the way Mel describes by adding a small trowel full to each square harvested .

hi plantoid

how many manures can i have for the 5?
i have:
1.farmyard manure
2.horse/mushroom compost
3. worm castings
4. bowers horizon compost
so i thought i would need
another compost rather than manure.
seaweed sounds good, is this easy to source?

nearest place is blackburn, and yes i can find a lift if need be.
i just thought a peat-free compost would make it 5
cheers gg

greengrass wrote:hi plantoid

how many manures can i have for the 5?
i have:
1.farmyard manure .... Off a farm or purchased ready made and bagged ?
2.horse/mushroom compost ..... Mushroom compost often contains chicken /broiler house material which has shavings in it as well as horse muck and straw , it also contains some thing to heat it up and keep it dry . This can be lime or gypsum avoid limme stuff it will upset the balance of the pH MM in most cases by making the mix too alkaline . Mels mix is very slightly acid , most veg do well in pH 4.5 to 7.0 .a simple soil test from almost any garden center is about £ 2.50 for two testers or you can buy a test probe for about £7.00
Mel does not bother with pH testing but as you may not be using his idea because of difficulties in locating things it may be a worth while thing to have

3. worm castings .. fantastic the bee's knees
4. bowers horizon compost ...... will check this one out in a few minutes .
so I thought I would need


Another compost rather than manure.
seaweed sounds good, is this easy to source?

nearest place is blackburn, and yes I can find a lift if need be.
i just thought a peat-free compost would make it 5
cheers gg

Look online to see if there are any exibition veg growers with a decent website in striking distance . They often know of places which the general public would never dream of that supply all sorts of naturally composted growth nutrients

PS I've edited the other post there may be something of use in it.

Plantoid

Clag " specials compost + blackburn "into Bing


Depending on the size of your wallet there is a company on ebay in Altrichingham ( SP ? ) Cheshire that sells what looks like a very varied organic compost mix. contact them to see what it is likely to contain ... Back in a minute .

Well that sorted me out ......an hours searching and zilch nuffin guv.

I have sent an email to Westland composts setting out what we need.


I have found a bag of " Westland organic vegetable compost " but I suspect it has sand in it and is for growing orgnic veg rather than being made from pure veg matter.


There is no source that I can find that has leaf mould or pure composed vegetable matter that does not contain peat , coir or wood of any kind .
Lets se if Westland sparkle and come up with some useful info.

hey thanks a lot plantoid!

thanks for putting in the work.
i came up with a blank on exibition veg growers.
the horizon compost is a bit woody, but i can seive most of
that out.
the one thing i have is my own compost in a tumbler, but
it's not quite ready yet.
there would be just enough but it's not looking like the black
stuff yet.(contains grass, comfrey, veg matter, brown leaves etc)
maybe a trip to the beach for seaweed!!

gg

GG,
Here is the reply from Westlands :-

Thank you for your email.

We do not produce a compost made from pure vegetable waste as none of our composts contain any green waste. Unfortunately we do not know of any manufacturer or supplier of compost made this way.

We are very sorry not to have been able to help you with your enquiry but would like to wish you luck in finding a supplier.




I've just realized some one has suggested rabbit droppings . If you can get them neat ( without hay or seeds and sawdust as part of bedding) they are good to use without composting . They will break apart in a damp bed with in a few days of being put in so say turn a MM filled made up bed on day one , then re wet and turn again in three days time , doing it again in three days time & re wet should see them fully dispersed broken down and integrated on the eight day .
Just don't use too many is only 3/4 of a bucket full


tip when you make you MM think of it as fifteen buckets of things
5 of peat , 5 of vermiculite , five buckets of mixed composts

Perhaps made up of :- one cow muck , one horse muck , one chicken , muck one pig muck , one rabbit muck ( obviously you mix up all the composted versions well before adding five buckets of this mixed compost ) the more different composts you can get to mix up the merrier .
Don't get anal about exact quantities the maxim is varieties ..lots of them .

thanks for the email reply plantoid.

so i can use 5 different types of manure/muck then?
i just thought i had read that manure counted as "one" type.
i never thought it would be so hard to find 5 types of compost/muck.

btw here is the contents of the horizon compost (Composted bark, timber residues, green waste, limestone and nutrients, including
hoof and horn, rock phosphate,Vinasse and bonemeal.)
i will seive the bark/timber out.

would tubs of poultry pellets be acceptable?

thanks gg

greengrass wrote:thanks for the email reply plantoid.

so i can use 5 different types of manure/muck then?
i just thought i had read that manure counted as "one" type.
i never thought it would be so hard to find 5 types of compost/muck.

btw here is the contents of the horizon compost (Composted bark, timber residues, green waste, limestone and nutrients, including
hoof and horn, rock phosphate,Vinasse and bonemeal.)
i will seive the bark/timber out.

Don't want to add to your worries but that horizon compost seems to be "...for seed sowing, pricking-out and patio containers" so I am not sure that it will be very high in nutrients.

You could ask this company for more information maybe
http://www.compostdirect.com/composts/c2

The terminology is a bit confusing because "vegetable compost" is a mix for growing vegetables in, so not what you want.
"Garden compost soil improver" looks OK, you could ask if it contains any soil or if it is 100% composted organic material.
Or the "winter compost" might be OK mixed in as well.
Or just more manure.
(I did not look at the prices at all).

hi icemaiden

thanks for that!
looks a good site for bulk bags of compost.
at the moment though i only need a couple of bags,
to get my sfg up and running. plus i couldn't afford
a bulk bag for now.
i think i might add some blood/fish/bone & seaweed meal
to that horizon compost.
then worm castings, horse/mushroom compost,& 2 types of
farmyard manure.
thats 5 and will have to do as i can't find anything else.
i suppose 2 differrent brands of farmyard manure is better than
compost with no nutrients!
thanks gg

Sounds good to me! I didn't realise that site was for bulk only.
The names of this stuff is SO confusing. Mushroom compost sounds like it is made by composting mushrooms but it is mostly rotted straw and manure I think the main thing with five types is just to avoid buying lots from one source and taking the risk it is not all it claims to be (after the horse meat debacle it would be interesting to see some garden supplies tested for content!).
I am sure you will get a great crop.

greengrass wrote:thanks for the email reply plantoid.

so i can use 5 different types of manure/muck then?
i just thought i had read that manure counted as "one" type.
i never thought it would be so hard to find 5 types of compost/muck.

btw here is the contents of the horizon compost (Composted bark, timber residues, green waste, limestone and nutrients, including
hoof and horn, rock phosphate,Vinasse and bonemeal.)
i will seive the bark/timber out.

would tubs of poultry pellets be acceptable?

thanks gg

YES the chook pellets are brilliant .
depending what sort of commercial source they are can mean
NPK 1.0 , 0.4, 0.6 which I suspect is without beddings out of caged egg layers
or
NPK 2.3 ,1.0, 1.7 which I would say is broiler house stuff where they are on the same bedding for 6 weeks till they are sold
There is another type of pelleted chicken waste made from the emptying of intestines in the slaughter /processing plants , I haven't a clue as to the NPK for that might be.

Would you post up what the NPK of the pelleted stuff & who makes it is please so I can add a note to my book of info for it's not something I have seen in our local outlets..

plantoid

well the pellets i am looking to buy are NPK: 4 - 2.5 - 2.5

just google - harrodhorticulturalPelleted Poultry Manure -
4th link down.

is it possible to go overboard with adding things to the mix?
i was going to add small amounts of blood/fish/bone meal + seaweed meal + poultry pellets (ground down into powder), and add it all to my mm when i start next week, to make up for the "samey" manures i'm putting in
gg

The more variety the better don't go overboard on one type , steer clear of any crushed limestone and basic slag from a steel furnace .

The Harrod ad says @ £4.50 carriage per tub .... min order 10 tubs .

Have you checked out any big garden centres close to you or your local B&Q for
B&Q call it " Verve " pelleted chicken manure ' £ 8.98 per tub

They, " Verve " also do bales of compost peat and coir compressed to 125 ltr for about a £ 8.50 ..... I have used 9 so far in all my beds making up MM they were good value .


If your in a B&Q local delivery area it may work out well for you as it dropped on your door step .

hi plantoid

i think your looking at the wrong page!
you can buy 1 tub at a time £7.45 - 7.5kg.
delivery is £4.95 but i was buying some netting too
so it only costs 1 payment of £4.95 no matter how much you buy.
(i also had 10% off code)

i have the peat already cheers.

also will my mix not be too acid ph, with the different manures and
also the 3rd of peat?? not quite sure meself
thanks gg

plantoid
did you manage to find the right website for them poultry pellets?
you can buy single tubs no problem!
can i paste links on this website.
gg

GG looks like I was on the wrong page ( that's normal )
Links seem OK , a Mod will make a helpful comment if otherwise.

The acidity .. When animal dungs and other veg matter is / are aerobicaly composted the don't appear to be so acidic as the anaerobic stuff.
Perhaps its because aerobically composted is much more fiberous where as anaerobically composted is much more dense and therefore concentrated .

It might also be like making wine and wine vinegar with the extra heat of aerobic composting killing off the vinegar bacteria .

Moist peat & coir is only slightly acidic on it's own perhaps do a search sometime and to get an idea if it bothers you. The chances are that some of the peats and coir will also have been treated with acid adjusting lime in some form or other if is indicated on the bag that the compost is for bedding pants seds or potting


Tomnorrow If I'm able ...after my geriatrics physio session , I'll take several soil tests using my pure composts of differing materials & put up my results .


It will obviously only apply to me ,for everyones compost will be slightly different in materials used and of consequence should also indicate differing levels of NPK etc.