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ian mcdonald:
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.

Maggi Young:
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  for full discussion ..... it is sold in bigger quantities , but worth looking into http://www.cumbriagardensandpetsdirect.co.uk/main.asp?category=Gardening+Pallet+Deals

ChrisB:
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!

Graeme:
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.

art600:
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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