By Macduff
Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
my compost comes out quite loamy then I riddle it but when I use it to pot up plants,tomatoes etc I get an awful lot of weeds coming up .What am I doing wrong
- 11 Jun, 2010
Answers
Are you putting weeds with seeds on in to your compost? as they can then start to grow when you use it - if they have not got hot enough to be destroyed in the making.
11 Jun, 2010
My compost is riddled with weed seeds. I don't use it for potting for this reason but it is still invaluable in the vegetable garden.
12 Jun, 2010
Yes, I know what you mean Bh having nurtured seedlings only to find they are weeds lol
12 Jun, 2010
As the others say, if you're using your own garden compost for potting, that's not a good use for it - use it on the soil in the garden, where it is invaluable for all plants, whatever they are. this kind of compost is not potting compost, which is sterilised before sale, or produced using a hot composting system.
12 Jun, 2010
Nothing. The problem is that your compost just like mine does not get hot enogh to kill off all the seeds that are either added to the compost heap or blown in from else where.
Shop bought compost is steralised so that you dont get all matter of things growing from it.
All you can do is pick out the weeds. I am forever picking out tomatoe plants that have grown from seeds that are in the compost some where.
I only use my compost for potting on and adding to the borders.
I always buy fresh compost for raising seed.
Hope this helps.
11 Jun, 2010