Daily Archives: March 28, 2025

Add some compost, it works!

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Pic – Compost in a compost heap.
If you remember, we started some seeds off in some peat-free compost a while ago, they hung around for a couple of weeks and just withered away. Alan got in touch with us here at the time and mentioned he had the same problem so started mixing garden compost in with the peat-free stuff.
We’ve just heard from Alan again on how his seeds are going this year and it looks like the mixing of a small amount of home-made garden compost is working well. “Last year I had pretty poor germination despite soaking seeds and providing warmth as usual. This year the outcome so far has been night and day different” Here’s the rundown on how it’s going (bold is this year’s results).

“I wanted at least one aubergine plant – last year got none from my first
batch of seeds. Planted 3 seeds, 3 plants. Chillis – wanted one plant. 3 seeds, 3 plants (both pics above).

Cucumbers (above) – couldn’t get anything from seed last year so had to buy a plant
from the local nursery (it died, so bought another). Planted 5 seeds hoping
for 1 plant – 5 plants. Have one or two to give away to my daughter.

Tomatoes (above) – never normally a problem and again very good results, near 100%
germination.

Onions (above) very good results with near 100% germination (Weeds note: That is brilliant Alan, we’ve never done onions from seed before we don’t think or they’ve never been successful if we have).

Sweet peas – very poor last year with maybe 10% germination. This year about 50% germination. All are growing well and I water once a week. They’ll go into the polytunnel soon. The sweet peas (above) are only a small sample of what I have grown. The pots had 3 – 4 seeds each pot so one plant each is not too bad.

In terms of the process I don’t think I’ve done anything very different this year so I do suspect that the better moisture retention in the compost has helped germination by keeping the seeds moist while producing critical early roots. So as far as I am concerned I will stick to my mix – next up are my peas. Broad beans did well and they are in the ground now.”

Brilliant Alan, that is so good to hear.  Your seedlings are looking great and we reckon that tip of adding the home-made compost works. We noticed the same here compared to last year as well. We only added a smallish amount but it makes a difference. Cheers again Alan and do send us more pictures on how they do in the garden!