sphagnum abundance

[wayne]

today i spend about 20 minutes collecting sphagnum moss, in total i gathered 3 carrier bags full. it must be a good time to harvest now. iv used it to line hanging baskets before and im now wondering what other uses it has?.
it always gives me a good feeling when harvest something from nature thats non-comercial, sustainable and free! also it does cost a fair bit from garden centres/shops for what it is.

[Birdie Wife]

Hi wayne,
Please be careful where you take sphagnum from - it might look abundant but many types of sphagnum are very slow growing and most places where it grows are now Sites of Special Scientific Interest and protected by law. I certainly wouldn't be encouraging anyone else to take carrier bags of spahgnum away. Sorry, don't mean to be harsh, but the stuff you get in the shops is billed as sustainable because they grow it themselves and not because they harvest it from the wild. Sorry, I have to say something, I live and work in the largest blanket bog in the world and I don't take any moss at all.

[JennieAtkinson]

Its the same up here, sphagnum moss is well protected from all development and harvest. I would reiterate Birdie Wife, please be careful what you are harvesting.

[wayne]

lack of infomation on my behalf sorry. dont know what to think now cos iv been collecting it from the same place along the path to the lotties for a few years now and so to the other plot holders and its still in abundance??we are responsible people taking what we need and not taking it all
i might add my allotment is in the middle of a massive council estate and nowhere near any bogs or protected land

[Birdie Wife]

It doesn't sound like a place that would be SSSI but I would check with Natural England or whatever they are calling themselves these days. In some local places the sphagnum grows fairly quickly, especially if it's fed by mineral springs rather than just rainwater, and as long as there is some self-regualtion going on and you're sure collection is at a level where the moss can sustain itself, it's not a huge problem. I'm just saying, it might be okay in your area, but I wouldn't want to encourage other Grapes to go out and find their own sphagnum, because in other places, collection would be a damaging activity.

[wayne]

good advice birdie thanks

[wayne]

Peat is a desirable commodity. It has traditionally been cut for thousands of years on a small-scale by locals to burn on their fires to cook, and to heat their homes. The small-scale use does not adversely affect the bogs, and is in fact desirable as it continually opens up small areas of bare peat allowing regeneration by bare-peat colonisers such as Sphagnum tenellum, and creating a succession of varied habitats. The problem is the commercial extraction of peat, both for fuelling peat-burning power stations in Ireland and for making potting composts. This commercial extraction involves scraping off and dumping the top living layer of the bog, then mining the lower layers with large mechanised machines which can strip thousands of tonnes a day. To allow these machines to operate, the bogs need to be drained to dry them out enough so that the machines do not sink. This harvesting process basically destroys the bog at a far faster rate than the peat can be formed, and is not sustainable.
please be responsible and use commen sense...cheers wayne

[Birdie Wife]

Apparently when peat was first brought in as a growing medium in the victorain age, gardeners hated it because it wasn't as good as the coir-based products they were used to! I think themessage here is that there are alternatives but we need to know how they behave to get the best out of them. You can't expect to treat, eg. coconut fibre, like moss and expect it to behave in the same way. Gardeners World did trials last year and for every use of peat, they showed there was another product out there that was better. There are some really good peat-free alternatives on the market now, just shop around and do a bit of homework!