This is only the 2nd time I've mixed my own soil. Before my first mix I used fox farms line of nutrients and soil religiously. The first batch I mixed I used roots organic soil as my base. This time I'm using sphagnum peat moss. My question is when it comes to watering, is there any major differences between the too? This is the first time I've had peat moss in my hand and of course it feels foreign to me. Also I read that if peat dries out, it won't hold moisture. I read aloe vera juice is a good fix, any truth to that? I have av juice on hand, and am getting ready to moisten this new mix. The peat isn't dry, but its not what I would call moist either. Any help would be appreciated.
Basically the reason we source minimally processed sphagnum peat moss from Premier is because in the peat trade there is limited amounts available for harvest each year (in canada at least; strictly controlled) and as such the bigger companies (Premier) get a bigger share of the allotted harvest, mostly by buying up smaller companies shares. This makes it very hard for small companies to start up and maintain a market, so most simply source it through one of the major players in the peat trade, then process and repackage it for their own brand (Roots organic, fox farms, etc. all buy their peat from Premier or one of the other big guys). So in addition to an unnecessary mark up due to how economics works they also tend to further process the peat, thus physically degrading it's value in long term soils like we use here. This site describes the scale used for peat humification. http://www.science.ulst.ac.uk/vft/vonPost.htm And here's a pdf of it for future reference. View attachment THE VON POST SCALE OF HUMIFICATION.pdf
No big difference. RootsOrganic is mostly peat moss as are about all bagged mixes. No aloe? No problem. A bit of Ivory liquid or Dawn dish soap will work fine as wetting agents. Dr Bonners is also great if you can find it. Cd
Sweet thank you. I have aloe vera juice...Ya I definitely noticed the price difference. After the guy at the farm store spent an hour digging the pallet out of the back of the warehouse and then got his fork truck stuck in a snow drift bringing it to the front of the store, I didn't have the heart to tell him I only wanted 1 bale....so I got 4. I'm trying to get my buddy to switch over just so I have something to do with the other 3, wouldn't have done that for the price of roots....lol
Sorry, I didn't directly address your question but rather the title of the thread in my previous response. Basically roots, ff, etc. are of a lower quality for long term soil management, as they will physically degrade faster than the less processed peat bales from Premier, etc. Yes, peat does tend to become hydrophobic when dried out but a surfactant (wetting agent) that is high in saponins will help minimize the time spent rehydrating the material. Aloe, horse chestnut, dr. bronners soap and yucca root powder all offer high saponin content (the stuff that makes bubbles) which will help disperse the water tension and allow it to permeate substances faster. Making sure the peat is moistened before mixing soil is one step I take every time, usually by soaking it in a 5 gallon bucket or in the bag itself overnight. If mixing drier peat into soil, water it in passes, spread out by ~15 minutes as you mix or before you store it. Aloe and other wetting agents will lower this time frame greatly; I do roughly 5 minutes between passes and it tends to take less water to achieve the same moisture level as without any.
Yeah GiMiK, I was just addressing the watering aspect and not the quality difference. Would just be guessing anyway since I've never bought or used a bagged mix, always made from scratch. I did buy a small bag of seed starting mix a few years back to stay honest. LOL Cd
Thanks everyone. I know the other soils are made with peat, I just wasn't sure if anything should be handled differently. After handling just straight peat for the first time, I was a bit thrown by the texture. Not that there's much difference. After I got everything mixed and watered up it felt more like what I'm used too. Drainage was my main concern. I guess I wasn't figuring that with bagged soil there's already worm castings and such mixed in it and that's why I noticed a difference. Got the worm poo, compost, etc in there and it feels right now. I went with an ounce of aloe juice per gallon of water. Does that seem about right?
I wouldn’t use dawn, it does act as a wetting agent because of the concentrated surfactants but go to the homosexual depot or Lowe’s or whatever your are has and they should have an aloe Vera plant for less than 5 bucks, put her in some super soil and take a leaf off her every now and again. There is a great post on GC someone makes dehydrated aloe gel and grinds it into a powder. But ultimately pre mixed soil and the cspm In them has been limed and the ph is adjusted whereas the raw peat is going to be acidic and needs to be limed with dolomite pulverized garden lime. Probably too late of an answer for this question but I don’t think anyone mentioned the lime bit Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum