John Innes ?
The Pierre Cardin of Compost ? The Betty Crocker of the Potting Shed?
I’ve often wondered about Mr I – Who was he? Why, for so many growing purposes, is his compost the Chesney? How did his name come to be on quite so many bags of compost ?
As it turns out he knew nothing about this eponymous compost; it wasn’t formulated until over 3o years after his death.
My questions were finally answered by clicking and tripping around the John Innes Centre website.
I’d urge you to take a look. It’s heavy on science, littered with Professors and oversyllabled words but also draws you in with talk of conflict, crisis and the promised gen on promiscuity in fruit flies.
This is what I discovered:
- John Innes, born 1829 (Hampstead). Died 1904.
- Bequeathed a legacy for the establishment of a School of Horticulture
- 1909 marked the founding of The John Innes Horticultural Institute. Its purpose: investigating and researching the scientific and practical growth of trees and plants
- In 1960 it became the John Innes Institute
- In1994 it changed again; became the John Innes Centre and is currently celebrating its centenary.
The composting story goes back to the 1930’s. Set in a time when folk mixed their own; which sounds a worthy and back to nature kind of thing to do, except it wasn’t. It tended instead, to result in unreliable, diseased soil and dead plants.
The nemesis of which was in 1933, the loss of 78% of that years’ Primula sinensis seeds. To us this may sound no more heart rendering than waving Jedward goodbye but to the Institutes’ geneticists, this was the Jungle equivalent of losing Gino & George to Bush Tucker disaster and being left with just Joe & Justin to keep camp fires and red buttons burning.
Something had to be done. And so began the quest to produce a sterile, well balanced growing medium in which the Institutes’ Primulas would thrive. Unfortunately 1934 saw more lost to the cause but come 1935 the Institute experienced its best Primula crop. Ever.
The question then became, could this carefully controlled compost formula work for all plant species ?
It could and in 1938 the John Innes formula for compost was released to the public (with no resulting financial benefit to the Institute which answers the Pierre Cardin question).
Come back Saturday to find out what’s in that Primula pumping/all round winning compost.
Photo by Jenny Neal
