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Scotts peat

I was reading one of the older topics and read something where someone said their vfts were lucky they didn't get planted in Scotts Peat. I have some and I was going to use it for my vfts, but now i'm not so sure.
Is there anything bad about Scotts Peat moss?
 
AF, You bet your bow shootin' butt there is! Scotts peat is not all sphagnum peat, but sedge peat and fertilizer is added in. WILL KILL VFT'S! Take any bag of Scotts peat you find, and take it to the archery range, and punch holes in it all day long. Won't win any NFAA tounaments that way, but you won't kill your plants either!!!
(I too am an archer.)
 
Oh boy. Great. I wish I had know THAT earlier.

My LFS is Mosser Lee, and given that it's produced spores, and I now have live LFS in many pots, I don't think that it is bad...

But for the peat itself, I have two choices locally... Scotts Sphagnum Peat and Miracle-Gro. As Miracle-Gro clearly labelled itself as having fertilizer added, I avoided it. Scotts was labelled as 100% sphagnum peat, so I chose that. I cut it with clean sand and the LFS.

So far (3-4 months) none of my CPs have died other than 2 that got severely damaged in shipping. My VFTs appear to be healthy enough.

If Scotts is really bad, how long before you see ill-effect? I will have to hit some satellite communities and try to find another brand. But I don't know what I can trust anymore, if you can't even go by what is on the package!

Can any of you long-time growers recommend a GOOD brand?
 
I'm not a long-time grower, but I haven't had any problems with the good-sized bags at the competition - Nirom brand (Canadian peat). Just don't tell you know who...
 
I just bought a bag of scotts peat moss and the bag said 100% sphag peat if there is anything else in there then its false advertizing. Any ideas? I would like to know how fast ill effect would show up if used? I have some sarr seeds in the fridge and will need to be potted soon. If this stuff really is bad I need to know so I can go take it back to home depot and hopefully get some good stuff from lowes when they get some in.

Josh
 
I was the one who started the whole Scotts peat moss deal. It all started when I bought some and potted almost half my collection in the stuff, mainly a lot of Venus Flytraps. Over time the plants never took off or anything and started declining in health over a few months.
I don't reccommend this product to anyone, just go out and buy those big compressed blocked of sphagnum peat moss for a few bucks, smaller packages seem risky since they might contain some fertilizers or impurities poisonious to cp's.
 
GAAHH! That could explain A LOT! >.< I used Scott's all last year! Maybe that's why I had to rebuild my collection again! It said 100% sphagnum peat moss! Come ooonnn!! Pfft, at least I don't have it anymore...I used it all. >.<; Now I have this huge bag of canadian peat moss that will last me years.... *smacks Scott of "Scott's" for false labeling*
 
All I know for sure is what they used to be like 10 years ago. Maybe complaints reached their ears, and they changed their way of doing peat. Many in our CP society all complained of dead plants because of Scotts. If Scotts has since changed their peat moss to 100% sphagnum, with no ill effects on anyones plants, give it a shot. I have not used Scott's for 15 years.
 
  • #10
Hmmmm well, I went to lowes today and they still didnt have any of the peat I bought in, but I still haven't opened this bag of scotts peat moss. The bag does say 100 Sphag peat, but you guys have me afraid to use it now. <Shaking in my boots> I want to give my sarr seeds every chance to grow, not to mention I have PLANTS on the way. EEEEgads I need to do something in the next few days. LOL Thanks everyone
 
  • #11
Try Home Depot. They have the bags of Canadian peat as well.
 
  • #12
Well, this is where I got this bag of scotts peat from and from what I remember it was the only kind mine had. I might have to go check again though and take this bag back. I hope I still have the recipt. LOL Thanks
 
  • #13
Well, all Lowe's had was the Miracle-Gro peat. I got the Scott's at H.D. as that was the only other choice I had without a roadtrip to another city. The canadian stuff Lowe's have here is all LFS, not sphagnum peat. And only in bales so large I couldn't store them! So I guess for a little while I'm stuck.

Let's call this the great experiment (homage to Jim!). I'll post updates on my plants. We'll see if Scott's has improved over the last few years, or if it's still rotten. Perhaps my cutting it with the LFS will help. But we'll see if the Ping and Byblis seeds I've planted recently germinate at all... And how well or poorly the others are doing.

For reference sake, all my plants (except for the seeds) were Lowe's/Walmart rescues, or mailed from Jimscott. They were all alive, though their conditions varied from excellent (Jim's plants) to poor (walmart). They are 'tray water' method, and under artificial lights. I use only distilled, RO, or rainwater. The ones I've had longest were purchased in May. Those have generally improved in condition from the time of purchase. My Lowe's ping even bloomed recently.

For what I'm growing, see my growlist.
 
  • #14
Make sure you rinse the heck out of it if you use it. I'd microwave it and rinse it several times.

Capslock
 
  • #15
Just out of curiosity what does rinsing the peat do? besides get the brown water phase out? Still new here LOL
 
  • #16
My last post was made from the road, it's Renfair/convention season for me, so I'm away from home half the week. I got home to find half my terrarium was overrun by algae *again*! I just cleaned out the whole kaboodle, pots, terrarium, and all last week! I didn't replace all the pot media though, just the top layers on the worst afflicted plants. My mistake!

Experiment is officially over before it begins! Everything is getting scrubbed out today again, and every afflicted pot will now be cleaned out and completely new media put in. All water will be totally replaced.

Given the general bad reports for the Scott's peat, I'm gonna dump it in the flower bed outside. I'll just move all my CPs to pure LFS. I'll wet down the new LFS and microwave it before adding it to the pots to keep it from sprouting and overwhelming the smaller plants. I'll carefully rinse all the plants to keep them from carrying the algae over. I hate algae! Grrr....
mad.gif
 
  • #17
i've had good luck with schultz brand peat moss. fyi, when you're looking at bags for peat moss, just look at the back. 99% of the time, there is a little table that tells you what, exactly, is in the product.

tech...
 
  • #18
H.D. has Nirom & Southland brand peat.
 
  • #19
confused.gif
Huh, that's weird, when I repotted my VFTs in Scotts Sphagnum Peat Moss, my plants went into shock for about three days but now they are doing just fine, the traps are now closing and I now see another offshoot appearing.
 
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