PAS100 compost

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I have acquired a dumpy bag of PAS100 compost . I am interested to know how anyone else uses it.
I got it because I am trying to go peat free and the two brands that I have tried, germinated seeds well, but potting on, after a couple of weeks, my plants leaves yellowed.

can I use PSA100 neat for seedlings?
 
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Although I'm still on the peat based compost, I would very much like to hear again how you get on with this please :unsure:
 
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I have acquired a dumpy bag of PAS100 compost . I am interested to know how anyone else uses it.
I got it because I am trying to go peat free and the two brands that I have tried, germinated seeds well, but potting on, after a couple of weeks, my plants leaves yellowed.

can I use PSA100 neat for seedlings?
Yellowing leaves has nothing to do with peat as peat has ZERO nutritional value. On young seedlings a lack of nitrogen is probably the reason.
 
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Although I'm still on the peat based compost, I would very much like to hear again how you get on with this please :unsure:
I stopped using peat about 10 years ago when coconut coir became available. The main reason I don't use peat is that it is anti-microbial and I want all of the soil microbes I can possibly have.
 
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I stopped using peat about 10 years ago when coconut coir became available. The main reason I don't use peat is that it is anti-microbial and I want all of the soil microbes I can possibly have.
Thank you for that comment @Chuck - I think you have just converted me to going peat free as well. You got what's left of my grey matter working :D
 
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A question for @Chuck .... Did you start using coconut coir when it became available in place of peat? I believe that the coconut coir is just as antimicrobial as peat is? Do you use soil that has been sterilised for propagation and seed sowing, or would you use the coir for this purpose? Is it right that there are good and bad microbes? Do the young plants (either seedlings or cuttings) need the microbes in the soil at this point in their lives in order to feed and get strong?
 
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A question for @Chuck .... Did you start using coconut coir when it became available in place of peat? I believe that the coconut coir is just as antimicrobial as peat is? Do you use soil that has been sterilised for propagation and seed sowing, or would you use the coir for this purpose? Is it right that there are good and bad microbes? Do the young plants (either seedlings or cuttings) need the microbes in the soil at this point in their lives in order to feed and get strong?
Coconut coir does have some antimicrobial properties, mainly for fungal pathogens such as damping off fungus. Coconut coir is even used against oral pathogens in humans. Peat, on the other hand is known for its ability to destroy all microbes even the good ones. A case in point are the human bodies found in peat bogs which are basically mummified. This state of the bodies is only possible by the lack of any fungal or bacterial activity. I don't really know all that much about the differences between the two, I just know that by using coconut coir my seedling loss due to damping off as dropped to zero, for years. Depending on what I am seeding I usually sterilize my seed starting mix. I use the coconut coir about 50% coconut, 50% sifted leaf mold. The leaf mold I rake up is really just compost that is so composted it is almost soil. There are good and bad microbes. Thankfully most soil microbes are beneficial . And yes, plants need microbes. Soil microbes do many different things. Some soil microbes break down organic matter in to form plants can uptake. Others attack and kill harmful microbes. Only when bad microbes outnumber good microbes does a plant get a bacterial disease or even a fungal disease. Fungal pathogens are, by far, the most common, but fungal pathogens are usually caused by events such as overwatering, watering at the wrong time of the day or splashing. Even these avoidable events can be mitigated by growing more beneficial microbes, thus the use of whole ground cornmeal which enables many more trichoderma to grow. I could go on but this old man is tired and going to bed.
 
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I wonder about the acidity of peat. I generally find it around 4pH. Thats pickling things. Like Vinegar. And fungi.
 
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Well old man @Chuck..... I'm not too old to learn, and thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. This will change the face of how things are grown here. Hope you had a good night's sleep.
Thank you too @Judith Ayers for starting such a useful and important thread. When I've hear Monty and his friends on Gardener's World talk about their ''free from peat'' compost, it hasn't actually grabbed my attention in the same way. It is all too easy to stick with what you know, without considering change.
 
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I have always used my own compost for the big seeds like peas and beans, but weeds are a problem for the smaller seedlings, which are which. I recently realised a basic microwave is actually pretty cheap. Anyone got any comments about the idea of sterelising seed compost that way? I am seriously considering it.
 
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Coconut coir does have some antimicrobial properties, mainly for fungal pathogens such as damping off fungus. Coconut coir is even used against oral pathogens in humans. Peat, on the other hand is known for its ability to destroy all microbes even the good ones. A case in point are the human bodies found in peat bogs which are basically mummified. This state of the bodies is only possible by the lack of any fungal or bacterial activity. I don't really know all that much about the differences between the two, I just know that by using coconut coir my seedling loss due to damping off as dropped to zero, for years. Depending on what I am seeding I usually sterilize my seed starting mix. I use the coconut coir about 50% coconut, 50% sifted leaf mold. The leaf mold I rake up is really just compost that is so composted it is almost soil. There are good and bad microbes. Thankfully most soil microbes are beneficial . And yes, plants need microbes. Soil microbes do many different things. Some soil microbes break down organic matter in to form plants can uptake. Others attack and kill harmful microbes. Only when bad microbes outnumber good microbes does a plant get a bacterial disease or even a fungal disease. Fungal pathogens are, by far, the most common, but fungal pathogens are usually caused by events such as overwatering, watering at the wrong time of the day or splashing. Even these avoidable events can be mitigated by growing more beneficial microbes, thus the use of whole ground cornmeal which enables many more trichoderma to grow. I could go on but this old man is tired and going to bed.
great post :)
 
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I have always used my own compost for the big seeds like peas and beans, but weeds are a problem for the smaller seedlings, which are which. I recently realised a basic microwave is actually pretty cheap. Anyone got any comments about the idea of sterelising seed compost that way? I am seriously considering it.
Just today, Zigs said he'd just finished sieving some garden soil to add to his cactus mix, and he found some baby earthworms in it - he reckoned if he had put the soil in a microwave he would have cooked the worms :eek: I wonder what they would be like in a pie :unsure:
 
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Just today, Zigs said he'd just finished sieving some garden soil to add to his cactus mix, and he found some baby earthworms in it - he reckoned if he had put the soil in a microwave he would have cooked the worms :eek: I wonder what they would be like in a pie :unsure:
Sooo European. Probably gritty. You should feed them creamed corn for a week to sweeten them up. Our countrified ancestors found this technique useful for Opossum and feral critters of the scavenging mindset.
 

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