Folks, it's time to go peatless...
Mar 28, 2016 18:11:13 GMT -5
yosemite, rhizomatous, and 5 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Mar 28, 2016 18:11:13 GMT -5
Peat is a very difficult carnivorous plant medium to beat: it has a low pH, incredible water storage capacity, is well buffered, is usually low in salts (haha, not recently though) and lasts several years. You can add stuff to it, but it's not necessary: peat is perfect in its natural state. Challenge is, it takes hundreds or possibly thousands of years to make, so we will run out if we keep havesting it. We're also permanently destroying habitats by harvesting it.
Bark, coir, or even fern bark/stems: almost any acidic medium will work for carnivorous plants, but as Jeff hinted, it'll take experts to grow nice specimens in them. Will pine needles or any of the aforementioned media have the same water storage and buffering capacity as peat? Probably not. In their un-altered, natural state, will they break down quicker and not last as long as peat? Definitely. My thought is, why reinvent the wheel when nature already has it figured out? Why not turn to Spaghnum cultivation BABY! Only downside is it probably will break down quicker than peat, but it can store a whole ton of water, has a great buffering capacity, is naturally low in TDS, and anyone can grow a beautiful plant in it. To those who use sphagnum, how often do you have to repot?
I believe once it is realized that this moss can be commercially cultivated as a sustainable, renewable resource with great yields, it can replace peat. The challenge is making it profitable (which will drive people to do it), but the advantage is the cost to send wild collected bales of sphagnum half way around the glob (ie. from NZ to the US) is very high. Get an acre or two of land near the coast, level some beds and line it with plastic, cover in sphagnum moss "starts", install overhead irrigation heads with rain water collection or DI filters, fertilize 2x a month, harvest once a year and repeat. If six 10x20 trays yields a wheel barrel full in a year ($100+ retail): sarracenia.proboards.com/thread/2807/sphagnum-cultivation , imagine what you can get in an acre! Sphagnum moss is in very high demand too by not only CP enthusiasts, but orchid growers, floral designs, house plant growers, etc.
Bark, coir, or even fern bark/stems: almost any acidic medium will work for carnivorous plants, but as Jeff hinted, it'll take experts to grow nice specimens in them. Will pine needles or any of the aforementioned media have the same water storage and buffering capacity as peat? Probably not. In their un-altered, natural state, will they break down quicker and not last as long as peat? Definitely. My thought is, why reinvent the wheel when nature already has it figured out? Why not turn to Spaghnum cultivation BABY! Only downside is it probably will break down quicker than peat, but it can store a whole ton of water, has a great buffering capacity, is naturally low in TDS, and anyone can grow a beautiful plant in it. To those who use sphagnum, how often do you have to repot?
I believe once it is realized that this moss can be commercially cultivated as a sustainable, renewable resource with great yields, it can replace peat. The challenge is making it profitable (which will drive people to do it), but the advantage is the cost to send wild collected bales of sphagnum half way around the glob (ie. from NZ to the US) is very high. Get an acre or two of land near the coast, level some beds and line it with plastic, cover in sphagnum moss "starts", install overhead irrigation heads with rain water collection or DI filters, fertilize 2x a month, harvest once a year and repeat. If six 10x20 trays yields a wheel barrel full in a year ($100+ retail): sarracenia.proboards.com/thread/2807/sphagnum-cultivation , imagine what you can get in an acre! Sphagnum moss is in very high demand too by not only CP enthusiasts, but orchid growers, floral designs, house plant growers, etc.