And by the look of it, about 30% wool by volume. Wool is worth very little to farmers these days, according to Countryfile, so a lot of it is going into compost because it's hardly worth selling. It'll release a bit of slow-release nitrogen over five to ten years, but it won't do anything for this year's plants. Back to the depot, then, for a better quality product. It's tough being peat-free (or even reduced peat) when manufacturers are filling up with whatever comes out of the local authority bins on the day.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif)
I won't identify the offending brand, but it comes in big square bales which are normally 120 litres, but which have been reduced to 100 litres this year, presumably because the new blend is so incredibly heavy compared with last year's formulation. As soon as I opened the first bale, the smell of wet wool was overpowering. As I've said, it has a use as a soil conditioner but it won't help most of my plants a bit.
What about branded blends, then? Which? does comparative tests every couple of years, and not all of the reports are restricted to members only. A couple of years ago, its chemical analysis showed that some top-branded bales had grotesque amounts of added nutrients while other bales from the same product lines had virtually no nutrients at all. (Suggesting that somebody was adding chemicals to the bulk with a JCB and not stirring them in? Perish the thought.)
DYOR, anyway. Googling for "worst compost UK" sheds further light on these and similar reports. With the important proviso that most manufacturers are changing their blends regularly. Not always for the better, it would seem?
Finally (because somebody will surely ask?), yes, we do make our own compost - maybe a tonne and a half a year. But we still use shop-bought for some purposes because it's finer. Er, supposedly......
![Neutral :|](./images/smilies/icon_neutral.gif)
BJ