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Compost
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Message 1.Â
Posted by Hazel (U14354588) on Saturday, 3rd September 2011
Did anyone else buy compost last year, use it and find that the garden is now rife with chickweed?
I didn't have chickweed before so assume that it came from the compost. This could be possible because we are exhorted to save garden rubbish, put it into a bin for collection after which it will all be turned into compost.
If we put weeds into the bin, their seeds will be there, too, won't they? Roots as well, probably. -
Message 2
Posted by martingodliman (U13761957) on Saturday, 3rd September 2011
In theory Hazel compost you buy from a garden centre should be sterile even if you are getting the council recycled stuff, not that I've ever seen it for sale anywhere.
I make my own compost and I'm sure it gets in there and so just gets recycled I know my compost never gets hot enough to kill weed seeds.
I've always had chickweed so I've no idea how it got there originally, I had thought to start a thread myself about chickweed.
At first it doesn't seem to be the worst kind of weed it's relatively soft and easy to pull but every broken bit left behind grows and wider and soon smothers the ground and is very persistent.
In some ways it's worse than the tougher weeds that take longer to come back after you've pulled them.
Weeds eh so successful so well adapted and thrive in ones veg plot and are somewhere for the slugs to hide !
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Message 3
Posted by Stressed out (U11163734) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
Hazel
As someone who uses a lot of compost all I can say is the quality has taken an absolute nose dive over the past 5 years
All the recycled rubbish in it and lack of peat has lead to it being of very poor quality - difficult to wet etc.
At the start of the season I normally get about 10 different bags and have a look to see which is best - at present I have two pallet loads of Wickes compost which has performed quite well
Some of the others I looked at were more like sweepings up from tree felling
Also the bag quantity has reduced for most manufacturers as well as the quality
I also had a bad experience a couple of years ago with residual herbicide in a well known manufacturers compost. They had used composted grass cuttings. -
Message 4
Posted by Thesassenach (U14884672) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
I pull up my chickweed and eat it in salads, stews and soups. Same with fat hen. It might be a weed, but it's edible- free greens!
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Message 5
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
Oh I do so agree. I bought some Levingtons from B&Q and it was quite dreadful. Black and instantly draining, with lots of extraneous bits. The bag does say it contains re-cycled materials. I have never had such trouble with raising plants before.
On the other hand I bought much bigger bags from the local farmers' co-op, also Levingtons containing re-cycled material and the difference between the two couldn't have been more marked.
Sadly it is impossible to know what's in the bag from the same producer until you get it home. -
Message 6
Posted by londonplantmad (U2392946) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
This year has been terrible for chickweed not sure where we got it from. It is easy to puill out but it seems to be in amongst all the plants.veg and flowers.
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Message 7
Posted by Stressed out (U11163734) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
BaraGwenith
That's the brand I had problems with- used it for years and it was very good light and fluffy - good to the touch and smell
Then they started to use loads of recycled rubbish
Will never touch the stuff again
OH also cut her finger on a large piece of glass in it, they blamed it on the screening process.........................
They would'nt accept that the compost had residual herbicide in it - until I called trading standards and they took away a shrink wrapped pallet of compost for testing. The damage had been done by that stage to years and years of work, I lost loads of rare plants. Never got satisfaction from them -
Message 8
Posted by Lelliegoggs (U14833611) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
My rabbit and guinea pig love chickweed, and dandelions, so I've been able to pick plenty for them from my allotment plot. Also, whilst weeding a bed, I found seven Cinnabar moth lavae on chickweed. They were only on the chickweed although there were plenty of other weeds they could have chosen, so I suppose they must like it.
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Message 9
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
I complained to B&Q about their Levingtons and their seed compost - that was indescribable - this season and their technical 'expert' spoke to my husband on the phone and said that if I came in to the store I could chose £10's worth of goods.
I know they are not responsible for consequential loss of loads of seedling - not a problem I have ever had in the past, but I have not taken them up on the offer, but I vowed to the manager never to buy their compost again. -
Message 10
Posted by Stressed out (U11163734) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
Yes there expert told me there was nothing wrong with the compost - my brother is a molecular chemist who had tested the compost. They sent me a £20 voucher.............
They also told me that it will get worse as peat is taken out of the compost all together (thanks Gordon Clown)
I can see me having to go to Ireland with a lorry each year -
Message 11
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
I thought for a moment you were talking about manure compost.
I have the same doubts about seed/potting compost as you orl.
Sassenach what is the technical name for chick weed to check the dietary value of it? i have never thought of trying it and after being told the name of
dandelion, in french, I wondered whether I should eat that more than occasionally!!!! -
Message 12
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
There are several closely related plants referred to as chickweed, but which lack the culinary and medicinal properties of plants in the genus StellariaÂ
Family: Caryophyllaceae
There are so many called chickweed that i would hesitate to eat them all! You evidently know your species and have sampled them effectively before you eat them.
Stellaria may well all be edible, but which is best for culinary purposes? -
Message 13
Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Sunday, 4th September 2011
I have found it quite a useful weed in some instances e.g. Onions but not legumes.
Onions do not require nitrogen once the begin swelling so I find by leaving the chickweed in place from this stage it soaks up the nitrogen.
The reverse is true with legumes.
I find it also acts as a mulch and keeps the soil quite moist around my onions.
OK it might sound bit far fetched but it works!
After all a weed is only another plant in the wrong place,but in this case I am not sure if it is in the wrong place!
Regarding compost quality"................. That's a sore point with me so I won' t lower the tone of the thread with my views on it.
The other thing some of you may not have noticed is.............. The fertiliser content.............I think cut backs are being made here too I.e. They are putting in less to keep costs down!
So I am making my own from now on but even this is not as cheap as it once was................a sign of the times I am sad to say -
Message 14
Posted by netherfield (U3897706) on Monday, 5th September 2011
One brand which I have found over the years to be consistently good has been 'Humax', finding who sells it is another matter, it was produced by a smallish company somewhere in cumbria.
I do fear that the quality may go the way of others in the future though,the family who owned the company have sold out to 'Scotts' , a large multi-national company who's main aim may be to make a large profit rather than bother about the quality. -
Message 15
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Tuesday, 6th September 2011
You really can't consider Compost without mentioning Fertilizer in the same breath.
The recent history of both are to be found on these two wiki pages, though compost does not merit an individual history, rather a paragraph.
(Compost)
(History of fertilizer)
Since compost bags contain fertilizer do we have a right to know precisely how much fertilizer is put in each bag and what kind of fertilizer it is, where from?
I am delighted that Rudolf Steiner, my late fellow Theosophist, and educationist 'invented' Bio-dynamics.
I'll wait for some more input to this discussion, before I write again, except to say that the working of soil may be as important as the fertilizing of it, which is what I have got started on again, with the fresher weather. -
Message 16
Posted by blueberry77 (U14703896) on Friday, 16th September 2011
They also told me that it will get worse as peat is taken out of the compost all togetherÂ
You seriously believe that the only options for compost are peat, or a bag full of glass shards, herbicides and lumps of tree ???
The only problem with manufacturers providing good compost is that they are too lazy to do it. Years of easy pickings in the peat bogs and now they're whining that they are just *forced* by the mean old goverment to make an effort - and they won't so here's a load of old rubbish instead ? -
Message 17
Posted by the2 jays (U14383723) on Friday, 16th September 2011
The best compost I have used is Clover. It was recommended to me about 3 years ago. The first year I bought it I had a couple of bags left over & it was left out over a harsh Winter & I still had almost 100% germination. I have complained to JAB 2 years running, tried B&Q Which best buy which was absolute rubbish. I can't remember the next one I tried but was as bad as the others. In desperation we did a 25 - 30 mile round trip to get more Clover & it was well worth it. I have some left but next year I'll go straight for the Clover, no messing.
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Message 18
Posted by Bubble Works (U14532674) on Saturday, 24th September 2011
Can someone please tell me the brand of compost that has Chickweed seeds in it??? I am deperately trying to grow the stuff and it just doesn't like my garden!!
If anyone could spare a pot full of it, I'd be glad to have it (now considering of growing it as an indoor plant / herb). Sigh...always the same....the plants we want to grow are not the same as our garden wants to grow...
I have also got creeping buttercups (as mentioned on another thread about weeds) and they aren't really a bully in my garden, they have a small patch and never stray from it, they look quite pretty that way.
Just in case you think my garden must be barren and empty, if I can't even grow these easy weeds, no, quite the opposite. I have roses that grow well and are disease free. I have bay trees, bay hedges and bay shrubs (all different ones) which are threatening to take over the garden. I have fox gloves en masse (need to do some culling next year, although they did look pretty), Gladiolas and sword lillies do well. I have some Peonies, but they don't seem to like it much in my garden, they flower, but they are rather small and don't seem to grow well. Lady's Mantle is slowly spreading around and bluebells also seem to do well. My magnolia tree is going mental, the pear tree is fine and my passion flower thinks it is related to triffids and is slowly covering the floor of my patio as it has run out of space on the wall.....
So plenty of stuff grows there (it's only one of those tiny London Gardens at the back of a Victorian Terrace and North East facing to boot), just not chickweed [goes away and sulks...]
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