How much peat moss

Especially if you use peat moss in bulk and price is an issue, a better alternative is compost. Now that you have learned about the benefits and downsides of Peat Moss, you may have had some vague ideas about what peat moss is used for. 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. Some soil is clay-heavy, compacted, and moist, whereas other soils can be sandy, loose, and dry. Some are more acidic with a low pH, and some are more alkaline with a high pH. Healthy soils are nutrient-dense and full of organic material, while older soils may be totally depleted of nutrients.

Many different amendments can be added into the soil to help get it just right, and peat moss is unquestionably one of the most popular. The benefits of using a peat-based potting mix include:. What makes peat moss so magical? Well, maybe the fact that it takes thousands of years to develop! Of Canada's great reserves of peat, Cornell University states that only. An environmental evaluation is always done before a virgin Canadian peat bog is harvested.

Robert Lewis has been writing do-it-yourself and garden-related articles since He holds a B. Lewis is an antiques dealer specializing in Chinese and Japanese export porcelain. By Robert W. Lewis Updated December 10, Related Articles. You can find coconut coir from FibreDust through Amazon. Very few of the resources that we use in gardening are truly renewable.

Mulching and compost, via wasted plant materials and our garbage, are probably among the most sustainable options out there. If you find yourself using more materials and resources than necessary to avoid using this soil amendment, you might be doing more harm than good. A small amount of peat has the possibility of saving water, fuel for your tiller, or a drive to the recycling plant for DIY mulch ingredients.

If you are a good steward of the small amount of this product you purchase, it may be a worthwhile investment for your garden. Only you can determine the total cost of using this dearly loved gardening tool.

I know that many gardeners have weighed the impact of using just a small amount of this soil amendment wisely and have found it to be appropriate. Do you use this product in your garden? I appreciate your article, all are great amendments that are readily available. They are there to buy and someone is going to buy it and more will be delivered.

Buy it. Use it. Or someone else will. Excellent informative article. Much better than all the others i read on this topic. A simple question: should I use peat moss around my tomatoes to help reduce blight caused by water splashing up dirt onto the lower leaves? Seems peat moss would help stop the splash up while softening the soil and retaining water.

What do you think? Hey, thanks for the comments — we genuinely appreciate the feedback! I am a beginner in terrace Gardening from New Delhi, India Interested in learning and to practice at the same time share the information to my close contacts. This was very helpful thanks! I bought a cubic yard of black garden soil. It defintely is not holding onto moisture, and wondering what to add?

I added worm castings and plan to add compost, any suggestions on which of these options would be best for water retention? Glad our guide could help! Peat loam is different from peat moss. Peat loam is clay, sand, soil, and peat moss mixed together. Work in some extra peat, perlite, or coco coir to increase water retention.

Maybe you even know how to use it. But what is peat moss? And is its use in the garden necessary?