It has several important characteristics that gardeners need, such as high absorbency, sterile material, acidic ph features, compaction prevention properties, and more.
On the other hand, it is important to understand that there are certain disadvantages to peat moss. You need to understand these downsides in order to know when to use peat moss in your garden. Photo credit: Doug Beckers via photopin cc. Does Peat Moss decay over time? The first three items that I have listed are stable and do not break down or biodegrade. What about the problem of the disappearing peatland ecosystems that are being destroyed to create this product? What about alternatives like coconut coir?
Your article is sadly lacking any information about the devastation to the planet as a result of using peat in gardens and the impact to climate change. So yes peat moss sucks up carbon dioxide, but its a myth of how the carbon dioxide is released when we harvest it.
Not so, the plant still holds it. Where coconut coir breaks down and more is needed. Read about how Peat Moss smouldering fires create more carbon in the atmosphere than all the Vehicles in the world on an annual basis.
Put down 50 pounds of lime per thousand square feet every year until moss disappears then 25 pounds of lime per sqft each year as maintenance. This would not be a good choice. It holds moisture, Succulents like a well drained soil.
Sand and vermiculite are added to the soil mix to facilitate that. You can easily 8 qt. Hope this helps. I used peat moss to top dress our front yard when we first moved onto a new building lot. The builder did not seed the lawn because there was no top soil only a compacted sandy clay.
Someone suggested I use peat moss to help it along and it was cheaper then trucking in a dump truck full of loam or top soil. Well it worked for a few years and I had some grass but now my front lawn has turned into a sheet of green moss. So I will have to live with the green mossy lawn-which almost looks fairy like….
Your email address will not be published. Despite coming with lots of nice characteristics for planting plants, peat moss is not commonly used as a standalone product, and in fact, it is not a good growing medium to grow alone. It is often mixed with other ingredients in one-third to two-thirds of the total amounts to improve the mixture quality.
For clay and heavy soils that get compact easily, it softens the soil structure and improves the drainage. For sandy soil, peat moss helps retain moisture and nutrients for plant roots. If you intend to use peat moss as a soil amendment, you should know that it changes the pH level of the soil.
Keep that in mind and, measure and watch out if the pH level drifts too much. Peat moss is also a good growing medium for the soilless culture. However, people do not use it alone, but often in conjunction with other growing media like perlite , vermiculite. If you wish to use peat moss for pure hydroponic growing, you should know some facts about why it is not appropriate. Because peat moss is an organic matter, if provided with plenty of oxygen and nitrogen, it will start to decompose.
When that happens, the material can compress around plant roots and will choke off your plants. So better to mix with other materials. Peat moss is often blended with growing media such as perlite, vermiculite to balance the moisture and aeration.
One of the most useful roles of peat moss is in seed starting because this material is very sterile. Its antiseptic qualities naturally prevent bacteria and fungi from the seeds. It also gives excellent drainage, good aeration, fine texture, and low fertile, making it very ideal for germination. For this purpose, you can use the peat moss alone or in mixture with some soils.
Or remove the hassle by getting the peat pellets sold on the market. Many people also prefer the soilless mix of peat moss, perlite, coconut coir, vermiculite and others in different amounts. This prevents the diseases, fungus, bacteria, weed seeds, and other bad things commonly found in the soils,.
Because of its low pH, peat moss is very suitable for vegetables and fruits that require an acidic environment. These include blueberries, pieris, heathers, azaleas, camellias, tomatoes, and so on. For a material that can not be renewed in several years, but takes millennials to do that, peat moss is not an environmental-aware growing medium to use.
Another concern is that harvesting peat moss is considered not a sustainable practice and must be regulated and done with careful analysis. As peatland stores a great percentage of carbon. Many environmental groups are beware of peat moss mining. The International Peat Society indicates that the harvesting process emits a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere.
And the emission continues even after the mining. This means ecosystem can be affected. And when global warming topics are getting hotter, people are more beware of the material. In fact, there are debates between peat manufacturer and conservationist about the long-term effects of peat moss.
People are also looking for a substitute for peat moss, and mostly it boils down to the cost, grower preference, and environmental awareness. And the alternatives to peat moss mostly share some great qualities with peat moss but is often blended with one another to get its best traits. Compost is made from the decayed organic materials like rotted plants, leaves, vegetable scraps and animal manures.
It has a lot of commonalities with peat moss like excellent water holding capacity, and great material for soil amendment. Compost also consists of decomposed organic material, but it decomposed in the presence of the air. Meanwhile, for peat moss to form the air needs to be absent. Coco coir is the outer husk of the coconut, a by-product of the coconut processing industry.
And it is a definitely another excellent alternative for peat moss for over 20 years. This material is a lot coarser and has larger spaces between their particles, so it is better aerated. Coconut is often manufactured in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam because it is abundant in these places. Again coco coir shared some great traits with peat moss, including good water retainment, high porosity. When it gets to consumers, this somewhat spongy material is dry and brown, and is sold in bags or bales and marketed as an alternative to compost.
It absorbs water like nothing else, which is why it is often used to give seeds a good start in arid climates. But what do I mean by that? Soil that is mixed with peat is much less dense. It behaves like lignin decomposed wood cellulose.
In a word, peat is springy. Just squish it between your fingers. Gardeners also like that its introduction to the garden causes no disruptions. There are no pathogens, bacteria, bugs, weed seeds, or other nasties to worry about, like you might find in other soil amendments. In essence, you can add it in with no worries that you will introduce harmful elements to your soil.
Well, it can cause your soil to become more acidic. You will need to balance it out, usually with lime , to keep your pH from going awry. As it exists in nature, peat moss is made up of layers upon layers of partially decomposed plant remains — such as sedges, reeds, mosses, and grasses — and is formed over thousands of years when an abundance of water and the absence of oxygen affect the natural processes of decay , according to the Royal Horticultural Society, a British conservation group.
Peat moss is found in bogs — swampy, mucky, waterlogged areas primarily located in the northern hemisphere. In fact, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and Russia are the primary sources for the commercial product, according to Marianne C. Ophardt at the Washington State University Extension.
A plant called sphagnum moss is often found growing on top of the layers of peat moss, but this live plant material should not be confused with peat moss, which refers to the often-ancient layers of decomposed material.
Harvesting this soil amendment requires a bog to be drained of all near-surface water. Then, layers of native vegetation must be removed. Commercial harvesters use large vacuums to harvest up to acres of peat per day during the harvest season. The commercially more desirable material which is newer and less decomposed is found toward the surface and is marketed differently than the lower layers.
The scraping or harvesting process conducted to glean this product is under scrutiny, as the peat bogs provide a habitat for a variety of creatures, including certain species of plants and frogs that are unique to peat bogs and mires. In order to access peat, there is a considerable disruption to these living things, and the removal of peat acres also decreases overall production of necessary gasses and nutrients.
Manufacturers have found themselves defending the practice of mining and selling these products to consumers. They claim that they are using responsible practices to ensure that what they take is growing back at a healthy rate.
While Canada has done a good job of tracking overall reserves, other nations continue to harvest the material without any standard enforcement of sound ecological practices.
This has caused other regions to respond by issuing bans on certain uses of this soil amendment. Ireland, which has stopped peat mining for good in certain regions, is leading the charge for change.
Scotland is returning acres of peatland to their natural state after misguided timber companies seeded trees on ancient bogs decades ago. Scientists there found that peatlands are an important part of our ecosystem for their ability to absorb and retain carbon dioxide.
Government groups around the world continue to work with ecological experts, colleges, and industry leaders to adjust standards as needed to keep depletion at a minimum. Many of us consider peat a gardening necessity, even if it has only been popular in the last 20 years. That means generations before us found other means of amending their soil. One effective method of amending soil for density and drainage control is by adding a suitable compost.
But if we do have the time and foresight required, this is an excellent way to avoid the peat conflict altogether. You can certainly use what you have on hand, but compost made from crushed eggshells , shredded corn cobs, used coffee grounds , and fruit and veggie scraps is the easiest to work with.
For additional tips on making fantastic compost, see our beginners guide here. A special compost blend made from alternating layers of manure — from herbivores only — and straw is also recommended. As the manure breaks down the fibers in the straw, a lighter and airier compost forms that is comparable to peat moss in its density. In addition to fully decomposed compost, you might have success aerating the soil directly with other natural materials. Wood from a chipper may be produced finely enough to have a similar benefit.
Dried lawn clippings may work well too, as long as they have not been chemically treated in any way. If better drainage is all you are after, a fine layer of sand could do the trick.
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