It's getting trickier and trickier to find a good, reliable compost since the swap to peat free. So to help everyone, I have created this large trial that I will be running this year.
I have many peat-free composts, many of which I had never heard of before beginning this endeavour. I have composts from big brands and small independents, so let's see the differences.
I will be sieving the composts, to begin with, to get a first impression of them all; then, I will be using them to grow runner beans (a notoriously hungry plant) to see how much nutrition is in each bag.
And before we begin, I would like to thank all the companies who sent me some compost to use in this trial!
The Competitors
So, which composts are in the test? Well, quite a few! Let's take a look.
B&Q Multi-Purpose
The classic B&Q compost, one of the cheapest in the trial. This should give a good barometer to test the others against.
Coco & Coir All Purpose Compost
Our first of the coir composts, these expanding composts us coir (the fluff on a coconut shell) as the main ingredient.
Dalefoot Wool Compost For Tomatoes
This is an innovative compost from a company in the lake district. They use sheep wool and bracken to make their compost.
Dalefoot Wool Compost For Veg
Again the same as above, but this is the vegetable and salad mix.
Doff Expanding Compost
Another coir expanding compost, but this one comes loose in a bag rather than as a solid block.
Fertile Fibre Multipurpose
As you can see on the packaging, this is a Which best buy! Let's see how it gets on.
Growmoor More Grow
I love Growmoors standard compost, so it will be interesting to see how the peat free version fares.
Harmony Garden Multipurpose
A brand I had never heard of before starting this trial.
Living Green All Purpose
This compost is made in Ireland, and again is a brand I had not heard of before.
Miracle Grow Premium All Purpose
Everyone knows miracle grow!
Plantura Universal
Now this is a German compost, very exotic.
Rocket Gro Fruit & Veg
Another organic compost in the trail, I like the rocket gro liquid feed, so lets see if the compost is as good.
Westland Multi Purpose With John Innes
A good, affordable compost that I often pick up at the supermarket. It will be interesting to see how it does compared to some of the fancier composts.
Equigrow Organic
Another one I had never heard of before!
Moorland Gold Potting Compost
Now these last two composts may be a little controversial to some, which is why I have left them until the end.
That is because they do contain peat, but let me explain.
The compost is made from silt removed from reservoirs around Manchester's moors. This silt contains some peat that is naturally washed off the moors. No peat is dug and added to this compost, so it doesn't have the same negative issues associated with regular peat compost.
The peat content is variable, and the owner tells me that it has actually dropped a lot recently due to better moorland management by landowners.
That is why I feel it is fair to include it in this trial.
Moorland Gold Multipurpose Compost
Same compost as above, but this is the multipurpose version.
First Impressions
Let's dig into the bags and see what the compost look like, shall we?
B&Q Multi-Purpose
Nothing in there that shouldn't be, but its quite a fibrous compost. I have always found this with the B&Q stuff, but I have no idea what the fibrous stuff is.
Coco & Coir All Purpose Compost
You can see the green fertiliser balls in these images, these are needed as coir on its own provides no nutrition.
Dalefoot Wool Compost For Tomatoes
A lovely dark compost with very little big bits in it. Quite woody but I imagine a lot of that is the bracken.
Dalefoot Wool Compost For Veg
Very similar to its cousin above.
Doff Expanding Compost
Another expanding compost, they all look very similar at this stage. Not much to say apart from I didn't get the advertised 15L out of it. This may be my fault however as I did make my mix quite wet, not sure!
Fertile Fibre Multipurpose
This is a lovely compost that is very fine and smooth. From the leftovers it could be a completely coir based compost.
Growmoor More Grow
Quite a woody compost mix, but not bad overall when you consider this is one of the cheaper ones. Nothing in there that shouldn't be, and also some perlite has been added to help drainage.
Harmony Garden Multipurpose
Another woody compost that also had a bit of plastic in it.
Living Green All Purpose
This is a lovely compost, nice and dark and clearly very well rotted, almost nothing left after sieving!
Miracle Grow Premium All Purpose
Not a bad compost, but quite fiberous again.
Plantura Universal
Lots of fibre/straw left, not sure what it is. Nothing there that shouldn't be.
Rocket Gro Fruit & Veg
Very strange compost this, but it is made from a waste product from making green energy apparently, so different is probably to be expected. Excited to see how it gets on.
Westland Multi Purpose With John Innes
Another cheaper compost that is very fiberous, and as you can see it had quite a large stone in it!
Equigrow Organic
Lovely and dark but does contain quite a bit of wood still, and also a tiny bit of white plastic.
Moorland Gold Potting Compost
Another excellent compost, barley anything left after sieving at all!
Moorland Gold Multipurpose Compost
Same as above, exceptional compost!
Growing Runner Beans
Now to test the nutrition in each compost, I will grow some runner beans in them. These will be grown in buckets to keep everything separated.
No feed will be added, it will be all down to the composts themselves. Some are organic and some not, so I think we will have two awards, the best compost and the best organic compost.
Late June Update
So the plants have been growing for a few weeks now; it's time to look in at how they are doing!
- B&Q
- Westland
- Miracle Grow
- Doff
- Coco Coir
- Living Green
- Dalefoot Veg
- Dalefoot Tomato
- Rocket Gro
- Moorland Gold Multipurpose
- Moorland Gold Potting
- Equigrow
- Fertile Fibre
- Plantura
- Harmony Gardens
- Grow Moor
- Slyvagrow (Late Entry)
One thing that immediately strikes me when looking at this photo is the difference in the colour of the runner beans.
Some are a nice dark green, whereas others are very yellow. I can only presume this is due to a lack of nitrogen in some composts.
There is also a big difference in height from compost to compost, with some reaching the top of the canes while others have barely got going.
One thing is for certain going off these results so far: we are going to see big differences between the best and worst performers.
So far, one of the standout performers is the B&Q Verve multi-purpose compost. As you can see, it has lots of nice green foliage, and the top of the plant has reached the top of the canes already!
Trial Results
| Compost | Number of Beans | Total Weight (g) |
| Moorland Gold Potting | 22 | 366.6 |
| Dalefoot Tomato | 18 | 295.9 |
| Growmoor | 14 | 288.1 |
| Dalefoot Veg | 15 | 282.1 |
| Moorland Gold | 14 | 281 |
| Harmony Gardens | 14 | 260 |
| Slyva Grow | 12 | 240 |
| Doff | 11 | 234.95 |
| Fertile Fibre | 11 | 231.6 |
| B&Q | 14 | 231.4 |
| Westland | 12 | 208 |
| Miracle Grow | 10 | 202 |
| Living Green | 7 | 191.5 |
| Equigrow | 8 | 178.2 |
| Coco Coir | No Result | No Result |
| Rocket Grow | No Result | No Result |
| Plantura | No Result | No Result |
So, we have one clear winner and that is the Moorland Gold Potting mix. Next up, we have a load of composts that had very similar results, including Dalefoot Tomato, Growmoor, Daleffot Veg & the regular Moorland Gold.
The results were so close on these next four that it doesn't really matter; any of them could have taken second place.
We had a few no results, which could be anything, the plants seemed to die or never get going. Now, this might be anything to do with the compost and could just be plain bad luck, it's hard to say with only growing one bucket with each compost.
Also, this trial was far from scientific, but I did the best I could as a man with an allotment! So take the results with a pinch of salt, but I tried to be as fair as possible.
With all that said, if you are looking for a peat-free compost, then I highly recommend the Moorland Gold and Dalefoot composts. If you have a lower budget, then the growmoor compost was excellent, too, but this one isn't organic like the other two.
Also, a shout out to the Slyva Grow compost; this was very late to arrive to me, so I had a massive disadvantage but still did very well. If I got this at the same time then I think it would be right up there with the other composts.
Dee Quiney says
think I might go with B&Q
Neil Cook says
I use B & Q Verve and works well but obviously from Mushroon farms as the amount I get is unreal!!
Liz says
Hi Daniel,
What a great test! can i ask how the watering side went if you noted anything? I find some composts are not very good at retaining the water, and should they get a bit dry it is hard to get the moisture back in without sitting the pot in water. This is an important one for me as i can't always get to my allotment on a daily basis.
Many thanks
Liz.
Daniel says
They were outside so I had to do little watering as it rained quite a lot! Cant say I noticed much of a difference between them
Allan Timbrell says
Got the cheat list thanks. Living on the isle of Wight so things are slightly different here for growing. Liked your compost test. For veg patch I use farmyard manure dug in during early winter if the ground is free For pots and greenhouse B&Q or Westlands multi.