Peat

[Sunbeam]

Hi all -

As part of a freecycle (I went for plasterboard/plaster & a tree trunk) my generous donor passed on some bags of peat left in his garage by the previous owners... I usually try to avoid buying peat based composts etc for ecological reasons, but the stuff had already been bought, was going free and had to be used.....(trying to apease my guilty conscience!! )


So the question is what do I do with it - is it used to enrich soils, can I use it to grow seedling..? Any advice is appreciated... adrienne

[Snadger]

As far as I recall it used to be one of the key constituants of the John Innes type potting composts, suitably mixed with sand, loam and John Innes base fertilizer. I think they would probably use coir now for ecological reasons but if you have already got it, it could be used.
As far as i know it is fairly inert so has no feed value but is acidic so makes an ideal mulch for ericarous plants etc. Its a good water retainer so is useful on sandy, dry soils to increase water holding ability. It has a very long shelf life if its bagged so can be kept from one season to the next without detriment. If you suffer from scab on potatoes, use liberally when planting and it will help keep the tatties clean!

[NOG]

If it is just plain peat use it as a soil conditioner. If its Peat based compost Well nuf said.. I would mix it with multipurpose compost and use it to grow on seedlings.

[rustylady]

Peat on it's own has no food value for seeds or plants, but it has good water retention properties. You can mix it with sand & fertiliser to create compost, but the proportions I'm not sure of. Personally, I would use it as a top dressing or mulch

[Alice]

If it's just peat Sunbeam there's no food value in it, but it is a great soil conditioner. If you have heavy soil, mix it in, or if you want to grow acid loving plants - heather, rhododendron etc - make a bed for them with it, Or it makes a great mulch for plants that want a bit of winter protection - fuchsias - heap the peat round them to protect roots from frost. Or keep til next year and if you have tubers and corms you lift for the winter you can store them in dry peat.
If ecological damage there is, it's done now, so you may as well use it and get the best use from it you can.

[supersprout]

I buy a bag of peat every two or three years, and use it for making small clamps in large pots for winter veg, then afterwards sprinkled on the plot, over seed rows, or in seed or potting compost. The bag I got last year had some kind of ecological harvesting mark on it

[Snadger]

I buy a bag of peat every two or three years, and use it for making small clamps in large pots for winter veg, then afterwards sprinkled on the plot, over seed rows, or in seed or potting compost. The bag I got last year had some kind of ecological harvesting mark on it

I use a similar technique with my stored tatties and beetroot! I use coir based potting compost and 'Clamp' them in strong cardboard boxes in my shed!
Once I've eaten the beetroot/tatties I'll use the compost for it's intended purpose!

[supersprout]

Thanks for the tip snadger, I hadn't thought of trying coir-based PC for clamping, will give that a go. A bit of a relief to find someone else who's -pre-used potting compost. I stopped using peat-based PC and thought it was better to buy the little peat I need, this would be a few green points better!