Peat free compost trials
We are running an interesting peat-free compost project with Patrick’s Patch at Fairweathers Garden Centre in Beaulieu.
We aim to reassure the home gardener that peat-free composts are an ethical and viable alternative to peat based composts and that they allow plants to be grown without loss of quality. Thus when peat-based composts are eventually unavailable people will have the confidence to grow in peat -free.
We will be growing a variety of vegetables and flowers from seed in four different composts, three peat free and one peat based.
We will test each of the four composts for seed sowing, pricking out, growing on and for growing the mature plant. The same species will not be used for each of the four stages. For instance, while rocket and parsley have been chosen for seed sowing and pricking out then growing on, these plants are generally not allowed to mature. Conversely chard and are needed as mature plants so will be used to test the composts’ capacity to support the plant at this stage.
Conditions will be kept us near constant as possible on the two sites. For instance we will use the same containers, we will keep to the same timings, We will use a cold greenhouse for the trials in the early months and we will sieve all composts.
Trials will start on February 15th!
