The latest edition of Which? Gardening magazine has compared various brands of compost for effectiveness and value for money. Their horticultural experts planted hundreds of flowers and vegetables in 21 different brands of compost – and guess what? Peat-free came top of the pots yet again.New Horizon Peat Free compost wins for the second consecutive year. This goes to show that peat-free can produce the kind of results gardeners demand. Kew Gardens already know this because they don’t use peat. Ditto, the National Trust, Monty Don, Charlie Dimmock and a host of others. Geoff Hamilton, the unofficial patron saint or all amateur garden potterers, was a great champion of peat-free gardening.Case closed, you’d think. But to quote from an RSPB report which went to ministers earlier this week,“The voluntary approach to resolving the problem has failed. Indeed, in recent years the transition towards alternatives has virtually stalled and peat use in the UK fell only 1.63% (around 50,000 m3) between 2007 and 2009. At this rate of decline, the horticulture industry will not be peat free for another 120 years.”So if there are decent alternatives available that don’t cost any more (10p a litre for New Horizon is about average for compost these days), why the snail’s pace progress in moving from the environmentally destructive, unsustainable, greenhouse gas emitting peat based brands to the harmless peat free alternatives?Well, let’s look a little closer. The brand which fared worst in the Which? Gardening survey was also peat-free (Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, you have been named and shamed) and several other peat-free brands produced poor results.And after a quick perusal of a few popular gardening forums it seems that although most decent gardeners know there is good peat-free stuff out there, they can’t buy it down their local garden centre.The Which? article comments: “It’s odd that some manufacturers seem to be further encouraging the use of peat. We have noticed three of the big compost producers are bringing out new peat-based products this year. The launch of these products comes at a time when the peat-free market has never looked so rosy. Sales of New Horizon (a Best Buy compost for containers in this year’s trial), shot up by 35 per cent between August 2009 and July 2010.”On this evidence neither peat producers nor retailers seem to be fully behind the push to phase out peat. The retailers aren’t producing enough high standard peat-free products whilst at the same time bringing out new peat based products, and the garden centres aren’t stocking bags of the proven decent stuff.Why? I’m sure they will cite ‘market forces’ and ‘commercial reasons’, but then they are businesses and can hardly be blamed for trying to make money. So why doesn’t the Government, which can’t hide behind such excuses, subtly change those market forces by introducing a levy on peat-based products, as we suggested in our report this week?If peat-free is cheaper, people will buy more of it and the industry will invest in production and distribution. It’s a no brainer really. The budget is on March 23, watch this space...
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Mark I am at a disadvantage here because i haven't seen the which report, but from reports on the internet possibly for a different year I read that New Horizon was the ONLY peat free compost that was worth buying. Also that it was not suitable for seed germination.
The anti peat use campaign is fuelled by lies and distortion of the facts. Even the RSPB press release contains untruths such as "in the UK 94% of peatland habitat has been lost". This is rubbish as anyone that has been to Scotland will know that nearly all of the country is covered in peat blanket bog. The statement presumably should have read that 94% of LOWLAND RAISED MIRE has been lost or DAMAGED.
The RSPB press release also states that 58% of products now sold are peat alternatives. This is not true, possibly 58% less peat is being sold but peat free composts only form 4% of the total sales.
On our retail plant nursery we have tried selling three different kinds of peat free composts basically unsuccessfully because they were useless!!
All peat free growing media have to be watered and fed much more frequently . The cells in the sphagnum are excellent long term reservoirs for both water and dissolved nutrients.
A DEFRA representative has stated that alternatives to peat have similar greenhouse gas ommissions associated with their production compared to peat.
Peat is a renewable resource similar to timber and where growth conditions are optimal such as in sweden it can be harvested on a sustainable basis.
Because the sphagnum on a harvested peat bog re-establishes quickly when harvesting ceases the bog will quickly revert back to a carbon sink .
There is a UK peat producers code of practice which states that peat on SSSIs may not be harvested and requires that the peat bog be restored near the end of use.
Mark i would like to hear your comments after reading the GlenDoick website on peat usage
www.glendoick.com/index.php