Hardy Tropicals UK

huporhaha wrote:I fully agree Conifers - small "cottage industry" peat gathering that has gone on for centuries is one thing - mass denuding of the countryside by the multinationals is another. I'll still gather enough peat to keep myself warm next winter without feeling guilty but I do use coir and other alternatives for a lot of my garden plants.

Yep; small-scale individual digging is actually good, as it creates small pools which are used by dragonflies for breeding.

I've been looking at wholesale compost recently and there are peat based and peat free available to the horticulture industry.

Many exotics are pretty stressed with being here in the first place, put them ina compost they are not happy with, and it could be 'good night Vienna'.

I have not found any peat free compost that performs well on the plants I grow. They seem to be shredded bark based and are far too moisture retentive, inviting rot during winter.

I am looking into stock compost which is more coarse allowing better drainage. Also I am looking at Melcourt potting bark, which are small bark chips increasing organic drainage. I have not found a non 'big bulk' supplier so far.

Dave Brown wrote: They seem to be shredded bark based and are far too moisture retentive, inviting rot during winter.

Coir-based compost is less water-retentive than peat, and in my experience, definitely better than peat for healthy plants. It also has the big advantage that it doesn't go water-repellant the way peat does when it gets dry.

Hard to find coir compost though, the stores up here don't sell it any more.

coir isn't a whole compost Conifers, Long term you need some loam

Dave Brown wrote:coir isn't a whole compost Conifers, Long term you need some loam

Agree in part; sorry, I should've said, for germinating seedlings. But equally, this tree (Pinus pinceana, a rare Mexican endemic) was grown in commercial coir mix and was over a metre tall and very healthy when I passed it on to RBG E. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done so well in a peat mix.