Peat Moss - Love it or Hate It?
Love it or hate it, peat is a fact of gardening life. Pretty much every soilless potting mix contains peat. And as often as we hear to use a soilless mix, we hear not to buy peat because we’re depleting the supplies. Are we?
The National Gardening Association (NGA) has a very interesting article about peat and its sustainability. I always though peat was peat, wherever you harvested it. But apparently in cold climates peat is mainly formed from mosses. That’s the peat I know. In tropical climates it’s mostly trees. In general terms, peat is simply “...an organic material comprised of dead vegetation (leaves, stems, roots, trunks) that has partially decomposed in a water-saturated, oxygen-poor environment.” It’s also an incredible water absorbing medium, useful in a variety of gardening activities, from potting plants to rain gardens. In some parts of the world peat is so plentiful it’s used for everything from fuel to medicine.
It all comes down to how peat is harvested. Strip mining anything is never a positive thing. But 95% of the peat available in North American is from the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA). CSPMA adheres to sustainable harvesting and restoration. They’ve even been testing for carbon emissions caused by harvesting and “...determined that CSPMA's removal of sphagnum peat only contributed 0.006 percent of the world's total carbon emissions or 0.1 percent of Canada's emissions.” It’s a good article and I’d recommend you take a look at it. NGA concluded that the use of peat was an environmentally sound choice. So today’s poll asks: Do you use peat when gardening?
Photo Provided by Anne Sinivaara / stock.xchng. Used with Permission.
Comments
Thank you for your wonderful article on peat. It is true that we often simply use what is put before us in the stores and it is very good to know that Canadian peat is harvested in a sustainable fashion.
In our predominently clay garden, we rely on peat as a soil ammender, adding it once a year (usually in fall) to the beds and vegetable garden. In other applications, however, such us containers and houseplants, we use half peat and half organic soil. That covers both water retention and nutrient requirements in one fell swoop.
I stopped using peat when I discovered the joys of Coir. There’s a product called “Beats Peat” made of 100% renewable coir (coconut husk byproduct, all shaved down into peat-sized mass) which is, unlike peat moss, Ph neutral, not acidic. It’s even cheaper than peat moss (which was a deciding factor, since five years ago, it was more expensive) It’s endorced by the World Wildlife Federation, and is 100% organic. Great responsible choice.
>^,,^
Other people have mentioned coir, but I rarely see it sold locally. Are you beginning to see it more in stores?
I amend my clay soil with a combo of peat, my own compost and manure and then cover my soil around the flowers with bark mulch. My once hard, poorly draining clay soil is now crumbly black gold(after about 5 years).
I use peat moss in my gardens, around the fruit trees & hostas and mixing with compost and manure for my veggies. Excellent and very LOW amount of weeds to deal with (practically none, actually).
BE CAUTIOUS when using peat, wear a dustmask or some type of breathing protection. If you happen to inhale Peat fibers (which look like little fishhooks under magnification) you can give yourself pneumonia and serious lung damage. This is one of the reasons why I haven’t used peat in years, the other being it’s non-sustainability. Isn’t gardening ultimately about susttainability? I firmly believe there should be a caution label printed on each package of peat.
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Cheers! Sandra. R.