using "old" shop bought soil

[greenthumbs]

Hi there . im forever buying bags of compost sometimes i haven't used them all ,some haven't been opened .. im pretty new to gardening and growing food and ive read & understand that the age of composts can affect results .

my question is how long is the shelf life of an unopened bag of seedling compost?? , if like me you'd rather buy a bag of new compost so that it doesn't affect the chances of your new seedlings!!

can it be added to a compost heap to help make compost ?? and does this apply to other shop bought multi-purpose composts ? what if any are the uses of it ?

[paulsherwin]

It doesn't seem to make any difference in my experience. I just use it one bag at a time, and buy a new bag when the current one is half empty. It's sometimes been over a year old. I'm not the world's most painstaking gardener though

If you really think it's past it for germinating seeds you can use it when planting out seedlings or in the bottom of containers. Temperature, light and planting depth are much more important than compost when starting seeds though.

Spent compost can go on the surface of the ground in the autumn, and the worms will incorporate it without your having to dig it in.

Paul

[greenthumbs]

Thanks Paul, well i guess well soon see , i decided to crack it open just to have a look and it seems ok, so ive planted up a good few veggies ready to transfer into containers for this years attempt... my local well known garden centre has now changed its seedling soil from the high performance one to normal..

it was after watching the gardeners world special on peat, its reduction in potting and multi purpose composts. the guy from which gardening trials reminded me about something id read on the age of composts & their performance etc and was just wondering what people classed as "old".. the only way to find out is try it so, i have