Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Blogs and Diaries => Topic started by: ian mcdonald on August 26, 2014, 03:28:19 PM
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I recently bought a bag of compost entitled "top Soil." I was going to use this to germinate seeds from the exchange, either on its own or mixed with other mediums. When I opened the bag I saw that the contents were wet peat, with small pieces of woody material. The signage on the bag said that the contents were loam, peat and additives. When I was at school, a long time ago, top soil was 100% loam. I think the wording on the bag is mis-leading, resulting in a waste of money. I have sent a message to the supplier asking them to state "not suitable for seed sowing." I await a reply. Has anyone else had this problem. Poor/misleading information does no-one any favours.
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Have to agree with you Ian - to my mind "top soil" is just that - the top layer of soil skimmed off a site - usually before building begins. A product not without its own problems, of course, it can be full of weed seeds - but something that many of us will have been grateful to order a load of at stages in our garden developments. To buy something labelled as such which then proves to contain other materials - most of which might best be described as contaminants, is not on. It's a story that has been heard before in the forum - folks complaining of the quality of the potting mixes and "John Innes" mixes they have purchased - some of which have borne no resemblence to JI of any kind.
The concensus of opinion over the years has been that most types of potting compost available to buy are pretty useless and far too variable in their content. Recently we had a suggestion of a supplier that is highly spoken of : Keith Singleton J.I. compost - see here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9198.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9198.0) for full discussion ..... it is sold in bigger quantities , but worth looking into http://www.cumbriagardensandpetsdirect.co.uk/main.asp?category=Gardening+Pallet+Deals (http://www.cumbriagardensandpetsdirect.co.uk/main.asp?category=Gardening+Pallet+Deals)
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I'm well pleased with my Singleton order, and I also had two bags of pond soil, which looks a lot like loam, with no weed seed in so far. They say they steam it. I'll be ordering another pallet in the spring. Good value for money!
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Unfortunately Ian the compost and soil situation is going to get worse over the next few years and by 2020 you will be lucky if you can buy anything in decent quantities.
We used to use Levington's compost and a few years ago we ordered a pallet load - I re-potted a lot of plants although the stuff was rougher than normal - everything died - when I had it tested it all had residual herbicide in it - wife also cut her hand on a large piece of glass. It was an absolute disaster for me and I will never use any Levington's products ever again.
Then we moved to Wickes compost which was every good till 2 years ago and that went the same way - they even put a sign on it in our local store that even though it stated on the bag for seed sowing it was no longer suitable - we are now on B&Q Veet compost which still has a highish peat content - no doubt someone will mess that one up as well with composted rubbish.
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I bought 3 bags of General Purpose Compost. Your description of Topsoil matched the contents.
I sieved the contents and took photographs of the material that could not be used. Sent these to the Manufacturer - received full refund.
I would want a full refund for a product that is wrongly described and really useless for any purpose,
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Ian and others we have discussed this issue a number of times and it might help to look at some of the history here http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7748.15 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7748.15)
Not sure where you live Ian but it seems to me that geography has a big bearing on the quality of compost you can buy. Keith Singleton's has already been mentioned and Darren and others swear by it. So Lancashire, The Lakes areas and spreading up to Northumberland would seem to be in the Singleton's coverage.
Green Ore, from Wells, Somerset was one of my favourites. It was used by Wisley's alpine dept. until the RHS eco-warriors banned it because it contained peat. I used it for a number of years, it was really good stuff, until the 240ish mile round trip to get it got a bit much and they don't have suppliers near to me in Devon. All of this is academic as Yann (in France) who it seems imported Green Ore, tells me that they are closing down at the end of October. Yann has found a new JI supplier from Essex but I can't remember the name of the firm.
One of my local garden centres and nurseries (locally owned and managed) Otter Nurseries based in Ottery St Mary, Devon (branches in Brixton Nr. Plymouth, Torquay, Wincanton and Lymington ) do a good range of their own manufactured JI's. I use this wholly now and am very pleased with it.
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until the RHS eco-warriors banned it because it contained peat.
are they the same ones who infiltrated the national trust as well and got our stupid government to adopt the no peat by 2020.........
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Exactly.
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Unfortunately Green Ore have confirmed to me that they will close at the end of October and that they are notifying customers although if you just go there and pay cash this clearly won't happen. They say that they will be fully stocked until then. Looks like a final visit is in order even though I don't really need any at present.
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This other company located in Essex is Binder Loams Limited.
I'm waiting a quote.
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I have bought 2 cubic metre bags of "Top Soil" recently, to level an area to be laid as lawn. Both stated to be grade "A". The first was the expected sifted loam. The second was more than 50% organics, and still hot and "working". It took at least a week to cool down to air temperature. I have used most of the latter as a planting aid and top dressing in the garden as it is useless for levelling. The second came from a local builders merchant, the first from a landscape and fencing company. As expected I guess the good top soil seemed to have more weed seed in it, the second was sterilised by the heat probably.
The Arthur Bowers top soil I sometimes buy bagged is a fine loam, but with added minerals etc. Seems to be little fibrous organic in it.
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Hello David, I am in S.Yorks. Our gardening teacher at school used to sterilize loam for use as compost in a wooden box on the radiator pipes in school. As power stations have excess heat I wonder if this could be used to sterilize loam?
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Things will only improve if the customer keeps complaining!
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Hello David, I am in S.Yorks. Our gardening teacher at school used to sterilize loam for use as compost in a wooden box on the radiator pipes in school. As power stations have excess heat I wonder if this could be used to sterilize loam?
I wouldn't have thought it would have been hot enough?
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Things will only improve if the customer keeps complaining!
Isn't this something that the Trading Standards people should be persuaded to look into? I have found that Garden Centres just don't care when it is something they have bought in and put the blame on the supplier or in the case of wrongly named plants for instance, on the grower.
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I think that would be difficult Maureen without there being an enforceable national standard that a Trading Standards department could test and measure against.
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People power! We are the buyers or not if the product/service is not to our liking. Why do we put up with poor standards in this country. It is only by using the Forums such as SRGC and AGS that the message to the supplier is likely to get action. Suppliers usually ignore single complaints.
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I'm sure you are correct ,Ian . I would certainly suggest that any letter to a supplier include the link to the likes of this page to show that the matter is being discussed - and seen by hundreds of people who are all consumers of such products - there is such a thing as bad publicity, I think.
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People power! We are the buyers or not if the product/service is not to our liking. Why do we put up with poor standards in this country. It is only by using the Forums such as SRGC and AGS that the message to the supplier is likely to get action. Suppliers usually ignore single complaints.
Ian - if you are a casual compost buyer and your seedlings don't come up or your plants don't grow or die - then you probably put it down to anything other than the compost. - Most people would not have the contacts to get compost analysed properly or even be bothered
I have complained to both Levington's and Wickes and their attitude is we normally don't sell it by the pallet load to an individual and if we do get a small number of complaints we will just give them a voucher to get rid of them.