note: I perfer the light peat moss you may not. Either way, this post should help you. ;-)
Ok so before I just took my peat moss got it wet and squeezed it out until the ppm tester read approx 20 ppm. This usually took about 9-12 times. Today while I was transplanting some of my for the round pot giveaway I took a 3 gal bucket filled it halfway with water and stirred in some peat moss. I got a phone call and when I came out it was floating. so I skimmed the top and squeezed this out and placed it in a different bucket. originally the ppm of this peat moss was 212 ppm. after I was done skimming the top I reached to the bottom for anything that had fallen. to my surprise all that was down there was this crap that I didn't want to use. the water with the crap was reading 164 ppm and the peat moss that was skimmed was down to 32. here is a pic of what I had skimmed from the top (left) and what was left in the bucket after I dumped the water out (right).
the stuff on the left stays fluffy and doesn't pack. the stuff on the right I can't keep from packing. so I was happy to get rid of this. I would say I came out with 75% good moss and 25% of the bad. I am sure these rates will change with each bag since it all depends on where the moss was pulled from in the bog. but at least now I know how to use only the good stuff!! the last step is add the perlite, moisten, mix then put in a 10 inch pot and run 1 gall ro water through it. here I got the final mix down to 15 ppm.
anyone else already use this method? or have a better method?
LATER!
Ok so before I just took my peat moss got it wet and squeezed it out until the ppm tester read approx 20 ppm. This usually took about 9-12 times. Today while I was transplanting some of my for the round pot giveaway I took a 3 gal bucket filled it halfway with water and stirred in some peat moss. I got a phone call and when I came out it was floating. so I skimmed the top and squeezed this out and placed it in a different bucket. originally the ppm of this peat moss was 212 ppm. after I was done skimming the top I reached to the bottom for anything that had fallen. to my surprise all that was down there was this crap that I didn't want to use. the water with the crap was reading 164 ppm and the peat moss that was skimmed was down to 32. here is a pic of what I had skimmed from the top (left) and what was left in the bucket after I dumped the water out (right).
the stuff on the left stays fluffy and doesn't pack. the stuff on the right I can't keep from packing. so I was happy to get rid of this. I would say I came out with 75% good moss and 25% of the bad. I am sure these rates will change with each bag since it all depends on where the moss was pulled from in the bog. but at least now I know how to use only the good stuff!! the last step is add the perlite, moisten, mix then put in a 10 inch pot and run 1 gall ro water through it. here I got the final mix down to 15 ppm.
anyone else already use this method? or have a better method?
LATER!