AG's peat-free compost test: Part 3

Overall growth is more even and plants are bushing out after a patchy start

- Ruth Hayes

I am using cosmos 'Candy Stripe' to test different composts and all are now growing well

FOLLOWING correspondence from several AG readers who were having disappointing results with peat-free composts, we decided to put their claims to the test by growing, from seed, three sets of 10 identical cosmos 'Candy Stripe.

One set was sown in seed compost containing peat, another in a quality brand of peat-free seed compost and the third in my homemade seed compost made from equal measures of sieved compost and leafmould.

Pinching out flower buds

Differences were immediately obvious as soon as the seedlings developed, with the ones popping up in peat compost growing fastest and with most robust stems.