I think John Innes is a recipe for compost but I'll have to leave it to those with more knowledge to give you more details.

As Seabird says, 'John Innes' is the recipe but it is manufactured by several different companies. Is this what you meant, Sprinkler?

The phrase 'with added John Innes' is a complete nonsense. As said the John Innes Instute many years ago tested various recipes for compost based on varying amounts of loam, peat, and fertiliser. Different ones were arrived at for different purposes. So JI 1 is for seeds and cuttings. JI2 was for growing on and JI3 for long term planting. That is it basically. So question is how can you add John Innes to anything?

I make my own with 7 parts loam from my turf stacks, 3 parts peat or leaf mould and 2 parts sharp sand, for JIP no. 1, add 1 and a half ounces hoof & horn, 1 and a half ounces super phosphate, 3 quarters of an ounce sulphate of potash, 3 quarters of an ounce of chalk, to each bushell you are mixing. Leave out the chalk if you are potting Ericas. Leave the mixture to slack for at least 2 days. Bag it up to stop it drying out. A normal small plastic dustbin will equal 2 bushells.

Hi DocBob, how much do you charge for a ton of yours - I would love some. :-)

Hi Dawn, I will send you a PM and tell you how much you can make it for yourself.

I found the compost which contained the words "with john innes" in our local Cherry lane garden centre(QD Stores) it was called Growmore 60litres

Growmore is a fertiliser and a recognised trade name John Innes is explained above and it looks like someone is playing on the names to encourage sales. I would be wary of buying something like this unless I knew what I was doing. I do not know what they are charging for the bags but most supermarkets will sell you 'Compost' in a growbag for 99p - £1.49. You need to pay extra for a real JI because it is guaranteed to be to the recognised recipe. I have had a look at the QD website the name is not Growmore but GROWMOOR.

I am afraid that I don't agree with the last sentence, Scotsgran. You can buy some absolute rubbish named John Innes compost. For a start, the loam should be made from rotted turves - where do they do that, commercially, these days. They use any old silty soil and so the compost is of poor texture.
I make my own JI style potting composts to my simpilfied form of Doctorbob's recipie but buy in seed compost to reduce the number of weed seeds in it. I used to buy JI Seed compost but have been so disappointed with it that I now buy various organic, peat free seed composts and add a lot of grit and concreting sand to it.

I do not buy JI either Bulbaholic but many people do and are happy with what they buy. I agree with Owdboddy et al it is a complete nonsense to say contains JI. It is easy to be misled and the name on the bags in QD stores is not GROWMORE but GROWMOOR. It is a trade name like J Arthur Bowers.

You can have any mixture of soil, sand, leafmould or compost to which you can add JI based fertiliser, that is what is being sold today. The JI horticultural institution worked on JI seed compost 2 parts sterilised loam, 1 part peat, 1 part sand to each bushel, add 1 and a half ouncs of superphosphate, 3 quarters ounce of chalk. As already explained JI potting compost No. 1, No. 2 is twice the amount of fertiliser, No. 3 is three times as much fertiliser per bushel. I used tons in the 60's, 70's and 80's. As I have said before many composts today are sold wet so you are buying water, irish peat mos s came dry in large bales. If you want good results which don't cost a fortune do as BB does and make your own. You should be able to buy the fertilisers from your local allotment association. Growmore is a concentrated inorganic fertiliser sold in granular form for easy application either by hand or machine, without this many crops would have failed during the war. I am not familiar with Growmoor.

This is so facinating! I have been gardening for years but never really got to grips with all the technical stuff. I know what peat and compost is and how to feed, well sort of, but have never understood actualy what loam is. please don't be too horrified! I have just cut a large chunk out of my grass to enlarge a flower boarder and these clods of turf are bagged and ready to be taken to the dump. I have a small new compost heap that wont take this much grass. before I bagged them I did chop as much of the earth off as I could and put it on the garden. How can I make use of all this grass so it doesn't get wasted or have I taken off too much of the soil already? some great tips for me. Sorry this has turned out to be a question, but at least ithe original has already been answered

You may notice that in my original answer to the question, I did not go into the quality of material being sold, nor what I use myself, I merely answered the question which was asked.
If you find a make of any compost etc. which is good then stick with it, there are some out there. I could make my own, but in the quantity I use there is little point and one thing not mentioned is that the stuff degrades quite quickly after mixing if not properly stored, so only make large quantities if you are going to use it within a reasonable time or have some means of dry storng it.
Droopydraws, I might be better to ask about your 'turf' as a separate question. I am sure there would be a fair number of answers to it which might prove useful to other questioners.

Most of us do not need to know the tech.stuff most of the time and do not want to get bogged down by it but it can be irritating not knowing what is being referred to when garden products cost so much nowadays. I think the strength of this site is that the experts do not talk down to us lesser mortals but are true friends and tell it how it is in easy to understand language. I know for example that if I was lifting turves they would be placed green side down in a heap and left to rot down and then popped in to the compost bins. It works for me. I try not to throw anything away. I was advised to add Chempak products to my old compost to revive it. Because I did not need to I never tried it but it works for some. I think we will all need to be a bit more savvy and less interested in fashion gardening if we are not to poison everything that was good left by some of the slow and steady does it methods of yesteryear. Drbob Growmoor is a family owned business in Northern Ireland and started off as a peat provider as far as I can find out on the Internet.

Droopydraws. Don't throw it away, make a small stack, one layer grass down, dust with lime, next layer grass up, put compost or horse manure, continue as high as you like, watering each layer as you go. Tread it down as well.

I just make a neat stack of the turves in a corner of the garden and leave them. I find that it will turn into usable loam within a couple of years though what I am using at the moment is several years old.