I just saw a Reddit thread where a dude grew this REALLY nice looking Permanent Marker, and the thread title was “Peat moss run”. Strange, I thought. Why is peat worth mentioning? Isn’t that like a major component of most soil mixes?
Then there are tons of comments like “woah! just straight peat? how??!” and “if this is all peat, that’s crazy!”
Then I see some guy say “how do you grow in peat? when i grew in peat i was constantly overwatering, i could never water little enough. then i used coco in the mix and boom the plants love it”.
I struggled with overwatering for SO long. Is peat the problem? I grow in 50% peat, 25% perlite, 25% castings. I guess, actually, at this point it’s that mix, but recycled. It now also has some extra castings and root fibers in it from feeding and recycling.
Was/am I insane? Is peat the reason I was overwatering so much?
Most times I used (peat+perlite)+casts+sand(almost same proportions as yours)and with this mix was “ok” drainage, after I switch to (peat+perlite, those pre made mixtures)+coco+casts(33% each±) the drainage got so much better that I wont switch back to old mix
It is acidic, yeah. I didn’t know it was so bad for the environment. Luckily I only bought one bale of it and I haven’t even used it up halfway LOL.
Honestly I think the pH of all my soil has more or less evened out by now after being used so throroughly. This is round 3 with the same soil, and I don’t think I’ll ever have to mix any more, thankfully.
Plus, now that I’m used to it, I don’t overwater nearly as often.
bad for the environment… not gonna debate that but is that a matter of opinion or based on some research somewhere?
All the left over sunshine mix 4 from my garden goes outside to my garden beds and planters and elsewhere in the yard I am building healthy vibrant life filled soils… which then support healthy thriving plants , insects, birds, mice, micro organisms, deer, moose… heck even the odd bear feeds on the plants that grow around my property. All made possible by peat moss and perlite… and my own organic ammendments/composts… then nothing but water.
so it’s all relative and what comes from the bog where not much grows but acid loving scrubs and grasses gets a new life in my productive soils outside… which is good for the environment. Rockwools and other such mediums can not make that claim.
I’ve never ran just straight peat for a medium but religiously use Sunshine Mix 4. The trick to watering sunshine mix 4 is 1/6th volume of the container. It is what I was taught way back in 89… and 36 years later it’s still how I roll. Put a bag with no holes in the container, whatever size it is. Fill it with water up to where you would fill it to with soilless mix. Then measure how much water that is and divide by 6. This gives you the amount to apply each time. My garden runs on 48hr cycle and in a “3 gallon” I’m giving them 8 cups of liquid exactly… every 48hrs. Later in bloom as the plants begin to go into senescence, when they slow uptake a little it goes to 60-72hrs between applications, depending on the plant/strain
These water-logged bogs have taken carbon from the atmosphere and sequestered it for 10,000 to 12,000 years, according to Linda Brewer, soil scientist in the Department of Horticulture in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. As it’s harvested, the carbon is released the carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to a warming climate. Harvesting peat moss also destroys a native habitat essential to the survival of many birds, reptiles, insects and small mammals.
“Bogs represent 5% of the earth’s surface and yet they contain more carbon than all the planet’s forests combined,” Brewer said. “It’s a huge storage unit for carbon dioxide. As soon as we start tinkering with it, carbon is released.”
But don’t get me wrong, from the looks of that flower above, if it can produce that, i’d probly use it too, if i had the ballz to be a grower.
I mix my own soil, have for years, and for outdoors, I find peat to be much easier than coco… but then again my area is also pretty dry, so what happens with coco in the sun, it usually gets overdry, all hard and stiff, whereas peat doesn’t… None of this means anything… Gotta add nutes though… Neither peat nor coco have much of them on their own.
Here I run in Peat & Vermiculite (75%)+ Perlite (25%) and i grow in 100% peat & Vermiculite and runs well… Some people tell me that i can use like 50% perlite + 50% peat & Vermiculite or also 75%perlite 25% Peat+vermiculite. But i’ve dont got all day to giving food-watering to the plants so for me more peat less watering time.
I’m using salts…
i hear ya but I wasn’t here to debate environmental ethics or climate change.
Cannabis growers have been utilizing peat moss for many decades now… just because i am one of untold thousands doesn’t mean I am willing to take the ethical preachings of others.
We all polute the environment in one way or another… I don’t do so with my gardening… not intentionally. And that is all that matters to me.
I don’t use rockwool or hydroton because disposing of it is a pain in the ass and I’m sure both have thier own environmental impacts from manufacture to disposal… but I don’t enter threads about using and watering a medium and preach my personal opinions.
Not trying to be a dick… so lets leave the debates about climate and environment to other discussions. If you don’t like peat… for whatever reason… don’t use it. I won’t judge you
I grow in straight hp promix nowadays, which is mostly peat with perlite. I feed every other day and find it’s fairly difficult to over-water once the roots are established.
