I had problems with all compost lately:( getting a tad fed up to be honest tried at least seven different brands this year some cheap some expensive they all seem much a muchness to me poor quality with lots of twigs and rubbish too bulk them up.wish I had the room and time too make my own but I grow so much I don't think a one women operation would suffice!

New formulas with lower peat are now the norm. Some plants just hate certain formulas. I have found that high coir (coconut fibre) formulas (e.g.: Erin) upset some. Westland use steamed wood fibre and that seems okay. But I suspect in the long run it will be necessary to move to loam based John Innes composts as the general purpose composts are becoming so unreliable.

I stick to Wickes multi purpose, it's the best I've found, otherwise it has to be John innes

I stock the New Horizon peat free, and the New Horizon with added JI. Of the two, the first, crumbly and woody though it is, seems to grow stuff fairly well. However, if I'm potting on I use the peat free one mixed with JI. JI these days seems too heavy and dense. It gets soggy and stays so, and therefore is slow to warm up in the spring, so it needs something lighter mixed with it. The peat free/JI mix that I do is better than the New Horizon one I'm supplied (perversely). It smells more like soil. I'm very much hands on and using my senses type, and I'm guided by the feel and smell of the composts. All of the 'manufactured' multi-purpose mixes smell horrible when they're delivered here, wrapped in their plastic. That means they haven't finished composting down, and they're sour. It's a wonder anything grows in them, especially young plants. I try to be environmentally conscious in all that I do at the garden centre, but I'm very tempted to go back to a top quality peat-based mix as there's nothing beats it. I've been potting up and potting on since I was about 8 years old, sometimes in huge numbers, and on a commercial scale. That's about 45 years' hands on experience (and I don't doubt there are one or two on this site who can beat that), and you get to know what feels right.

Treefern I have had the same problem .

And complained to company and have had goodwill vouchers sent.

I have to say BQ Verve is brillaint but I have to drive to drive 17 miles to nearest BQ and back a total of 34 miles so its not ideal .

But last week I tried 1 bag of Westland Jack Magic and its fantastic cost £5.99 for 1 but at the end of the day if you want good compost you have to pay for it.

Good luck.

For several years I have been using Miracle Grow for potting-on, but lately, just the same as yourselves, I have found too much shredded wood fibre which grows moulds on the surface of the compost and contained very little peat. I did buy B and Q Verve Seed and Cutting Compost which was very fine with no added rubbish and gave good results.

JI composts have been of very poor quality for many years due to the lack of good loam. I now use New Horizon , which is very pleasant to handle, and add grit and coarse sand to it.

same here for me B and Q Verve.. used it for the last few years... no probs at at all.. 3 bags for 12 quid.. cant grumble at that price I don't think.

So would you all recommend adding fine grit then? I will try the b&q one next scotkat :) it's now becoming a bit of an obsession of mine I will have too write a blog on it and the results when I have time. Bulba where can you purchase new Horizon from?

I use Vital Earth Peat free MPC, never had any trouble with it. Though like Worthy1 I always add fine grit to it. The fine grit in my case is ground up Ceramic waste which is very sharp.
The only bag of Verve I tried was appalling rubbish.

I have used Miracle Grow for the first time and I am very pleased with the results. Everything grows very well and looks healthy.

Thanks All. It seems like the "Get rich quick merchants" are creeping into the gardeners world too. I am going to try and trace the address of Levingtons and complain of their inferior compost. But once bitten, as they say.

Bulba me to where can I source Horizon my local garden centre does not stock it.

I've had good results with J Arthur Bowers for the past two years - very little rubbish in it.

Hi Scotkat, go to this site:
http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/gardening/products/green_organic_range
William Sinclair is the producer of New horizon and if you scroll about halfway down the menue on the left of the screen you will find 'Stockists Locator'.
This is an interesting web page because I did not knot know they did these other product.

One of the nearest stockists to us that the site mentions is in County Down, 14.2miles from us.............like the full width of Wales and the Irish Sea is 14 miles!

Wales seemed wider than that last time we crossed it...

Well, Welsh miles are different you know!

That explains a lot. They must be Wellsh milles.