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Best compost for palm trees

Updated: October 2026

You are standing over a tired palm, and amazon.co.uk is offering coco, topsoil and liquid feed in the same search as a bag of compost. Best compost for palm trees, on this page, means the checks before a model is chosen: stated use, drainage, species, a pack size the specification agrees with, and a feed window you can read. The five bags, with the prices we captured, are on the [palm soil comparison](/hub/trees-and-palms/palm-soil). Products Compared read those listings and Royal Horticultural Society notes on 20 October 2026, without a lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

You are standing over a tired palm, and amazon.co.uk is offering coco, topsoil and liquid feed in the same search as a bag of compost.

Our top picks

Invigortex Invigortex houseplant mix, 3 litre title

Best overall

Invigortex Invigortex houseplant mix, 3 litre title
5.5/10about £8.99
View offer
COMPO COMPO Sana palm compost, 10 litres

Rank 2

COMPO COMPO Sana palm compost, 10 litres
9.2/10about £26.84
View offer
COMPO COMPO Sana palm earth, 5 litres

Best value

COMPO COMPO Sana palm earth, 5 litres
8.6/10about £20.59
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.What counts as palm soil
  2. 2.Six checks before you compare bags
  3. 3.Peat-free is a label, not a law yet
  4. 4.How to choose from there

What counts as palm soil

Palm soil, in a UK shop, is bagged potting compost for a palm in a container. The comparison kept two COMPO bags that put palms in the title, and three Invigortex houseplant mixes whose bullets list palms with ferns and other foliage plants. Coco coir, landscaping topsoil, a 100 ml bottle of palm fertiliser, seed compost and an ericaceous rhododendron bag were taken out, because each is a different job. A coco brick has no loam. Topsoil stays dense above a drainage hole. Liquid feed is what you add after the starter charge has run out. Lechuza PALMPON appears on UK retailer sites at about £20 for 12 litres. It is a real palm product, and it is outside this set of five, so the checks below do not score it. The prices we captured run from £8.99 to £26.84.

Six checks before you compare bags

Stated use comes first. Palms and green plants is a clearer claim than a houseplant list that mentions palms beside pothos. They diverge for a parlour palm, which the RHS grows in a lighter ericaceous mix. Drainage is loose. COMPO says a lot of water and gives no rate. A UK review of the 10 litre bag still added bark and perlite. Where the only job is air, the RHS prefers grit or gravel. Peat-free John Innes No 2 is the usual RHS start for indoor palms, No 3 for hardy palms in containers, and an ericaceous mix for Chamaedorea. One palm bag does not cover that list. Pack size only counts when the lines agree. COMPO 5 litres is 1.98 kg at £20.59, about £4.12 a litre. COMPO 10 litres is 3.92 kg at £26.84, about £2.68 a litre. Invigortex titles say 3, 10 and 30 litres, at £8.99, £12.95 and £19.95, while each specification says 1 litre and 1 kg. COMPO states 8 weeks of feed. A review mentions 12 weeks. We use the bullet. Invigortex states no weeks. COMPO is 4.5 from 1,887 and from 8,462 reviews. The 10 litre file has 23 of the first 50 texts from the UK. Invigortex is 5.0 from one UK review dated 3 August 2026, shared across three sizes.
Invigortex Invigortex houseplant mix, 3 litre title

Testsieger

Invigortex Invigortex houseplant mix, 3 litre title
5.5/10about £8.99
View offer

Peat-free is a label, not a law yet

None of the five listings states peat or peat-free, so the word palm on the bag does not tell you which you are buying. GOV.UK announced on 27 August 2022 that amateur peat sales in England would be banned by 2024. A written answer on 19 March 2026 still says the Government will legislate when parliamentary time allows. The RHS recommends peat-free mixes. If a John Innes bag is peat-free, the bag itself has to say so. John Innes is a compost type, not a brand here, and some bags of that type still contain peat. PAS 100:2018 covers composted material from separated waste. The RHS notes it inside peat-free mixes. It does not measure whether water leaves the pot. These five listings do not say peat-free.

How to choose from there

Once the six checks are clear, the decision is which page to open next. If you want one bag from the five, with a skip beside it, best palm compost UK puts the 10 litre COMPO against the 5 litre bag and against the 5.0 houseplant mix. Read the use line, then the litre line, then the feed weeks, then whether a UK review describes this bag under a palm. Price comes after the litres are believable. This page does not turn those prices into a winner.

Common questions

Is peat-free already the law in England?
The 2022 GOV.UK announcement set a 2024 target for banning amateur peat sales in England. On 19 March 2026 the written answer was that the Government would legislate when parliamentary time allows. Prefer a bag that says peat-free. These five listings do not.
Is John Innes the same as a bag that says palm?
John Innes is a family of loam-based composts, numbered for the stage of the plant. The RHS points indoor palms toward peat-free No 2 and hardy palms in containers toward No 3. A bag with palm in the title can be a different recipe, and it may still contain peat unless it says otherwise.
Why does the pack size on the title disagree with the specification line?
On the three Invigortex listings the title says 3, 10 or 30 litres, while the specification says 1 litre and 1 kg. COMPO’s 5 litre and 10 litre bags agree with themselves. When the lines clash, you cannot price the compost per litre or plan a repot around the title.
How long does the feed in the bag last?
COMPO’s bullets on these amazon.co.uk listings say 8 weeks of nutrition. One review mentions 12 weeks. We use the 8-week bullet, and we do not copy a longer claim from a German product page onto the UK listing. Invigortex does not state a number of weeks. After that, container palms still need feed in the growing season.
When is a houseplant mix that only mentions palms the wrong buy?
It is the wrong buy when you need a compost named for palms, a litre count you can verify, or the ericaceous mix a parlour palm is given by the RHS. The 5.0 from one review dated 3 August 2026 is not a reason to prefer it over COMPO’s much larger file.

Related pages

Compost for an indoor palm

Palm soil that stays wet

Palm soil

Best palm compost UK: the named bag and a clear skip

How to repot a palm: spring timing, width and bag size

Sources

Public UK sources listed below, used for this page in October 2026. Prices, stars and review counts are from the amazon.co.uk listings in this comparison. This is not a laboratory test.

  1. RHS, Indoor palms (retrieved October 2026)
  2. RHS, Hardy palms (retrieved October 2026)
  3. RHS, Chamaedorea growing guide (retrieved October 2026)
  4. RHS, Peat-free compost choices (retrieved October 2026)
  5. RHS, Fungus gnats (retrieved October 2026)
  6. GOV.UK, Sale of horticultural peat to be banned (retrieved October 2026)
  7. TheyWorkForYou, written answer 19 March 2026 (retrieved October 2026)
  8. BSI, PAS 100:2018 composted materials (retrieved October 2026)