Peat?

[Meaven]

this may seem weird, but for the life of me i can't find a place that sells peat. its driving me crazy and i desparately have to do some repotting. i've tried bachmans, home depot, and a local nursery, but none of those have any. can anyone think of some other places to try?

 

[Clint]

Are you looking outside with the mulches? That's where I get mine.

 

[joossa]

HomeDepot SHOULD have it. You can also try Wal-Mart, Target, and Lowes.

Good luck!

 

[Not a Number]

It's a bad time of the year to find growing materials to begin with. The Home Depots near me have been out of peat for a few weeks. And seedling pots and stuff like that have been flying off the shelves like crazy.

I think peat inventories are down because of the upcoming ban on peat usage in Europe and the European market is grabbing as much as they can before that takes effect.

 

[Clint]

Banning peat usage? Lmao, surely they can't ban buying all peat can they?

 

[herenorthere]

I see a ban as a good thing. It's mined in a completely unsustainable way, with a lot of collateral damage. But I wonder how the amount mined for horticultural use compares with the amount mined for energy use. I can't imagine burning being banned. At least not in Ireland

Most horticultural peat is used for things it's perfectly unsuitable for, but huge amounts are used because it's a bit cheaper than the alternatives. It absolutely doesn't belong in container plantings where it'll be subject to drying because it shrinks and becomes hydrophobic. But that's where megatons of it are used anyway. Places like HD & Lowes sell it as a soil amendment for lawns, another use it really sucks at. CP growers are among the rare people who use it for something it excels at.

 

[mabudon]

You likely would have a hard time banning the sale and or use of it, but banning the mines wouldn't be too hard, they PRETTY obvious, not like a stand of pot plants in a field say, you can see peat mines from a LONG way up, and it WOULD be a good thing if there were more peat conservation- it's sort of funny that can be so caught up in conserving CPs but can't understand the rationale behind conserving the source of the medium most of us use to grow them in

 

[Clint]

All we have to do is put some LFS in a blender and it's a good substitute. Too bad it's not as easy to buy LFS by the bale like it is peat lmao.

I can't imagine people burning peat. But I guess it's not that different from coal. I think coal comes from peat.

LFS>peat>coal>greenhouse gasses>X

 

[CP30]

Check out this article by Stephen (gardenofeden):

How to grow peat free

Pretty powerful stuff. Pretty good alternatives, although I have not noticed some of those products in the US.

 

[glider14]

i got my peat in a huge bale...itll last me a LONG time. my dad works for a wholesale nusery. he buys plants and re-sells them. he has a big..."barn" that has mountains of peat bales. any nursery that does that should have peat.
Alex

 

[herenorthere]

That Moorland Gold, which is mentioned in CP30's link, was included in a price list I saw somewhere recently. Too bad I can't remember where. I use a fair amount of cocopeat (coir), but I agree it breaks down too quickly to be a perfect substitute for bog plants. But it's far superior for most horticultural uses.

 

[jimscott]

It might be that it is too early in the season for H.D., Lowes, etc.... to have brought it in.

 

[herenorthere]

It can't be too early. They'll be putting out the Christmas stuff pretty soon.

 

[jimscott]

But seriously, if you're in the north, they may not have stocked the garden section yet, because that's a normally stocked product. Maybe call and ask.

 

[terrestrial_man]

Grow your own

If you can remember Victory Gardens then maybe growing your own is the way to go!! For CP growers the amount needed is infinitessimal compared to the amount that is marketed today.
What is not known is an easy way to grow it so that you can produce a viable harvest and yet be able to continue the plot. I know that I have a bog of sphagnum going but that came in a bale and I stuck it on top of a peat moss base in the growing tub.
Currently I am trying just live sphag fibers in a drinking cup to see how it does. I also have a larger amount in a large cottage cheese type container.
The mosses are growing but I had not even thought of trying to farm it.
Is anyone else growing their own for use on their carns??

 

[I_Pereira]

I just didn't find any peat por sale over here. Only mixes for orchids and stuff like that, when there was peat it already was fertilized. The only place was a private grower that orders fair amounts of peat and then himself does the mixes for his plants. He was nice to give me some peat and invited me to return when I needed more But I don't have lots of plants like some of you do. Btw anyone knows this brand of peat? Here goes some pics of the bag:



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