> I heard that over in Europe, the UK, that they were trying to find a
> substitute for peat for this same reason. I think they did but don't
> remember if it worked out. Anybody hear about this? Judy Showers
I don't remember seeing the post that led to this. Over hear in the
UK, many people are trying to stop using peat - I should say that I
haven't studied the evidence enough myself to know the full
arguments. People can get quite heated on the subject - there was a
phase of people holding demonstrations at garden centres in an
attempt to persuade people to use something else, and to persuade the
garden centres to stock alternatives. This, like many 'green' issues
has proved a passing fad, and the garden centres are stocking as much
peat as ever.
Personally, I'm coming to believe that peat is generally
unsatisfactory for my (non-carnivorous) plants and methods of
cultivation, but I still use it for the CPs, for which it is,
afterall, as near to their natural habitat as we can manage.
The main 'alternative' was Coir - coconut fibre. I haven't tried this
for CP, and I'm not particularly happy with it for the long term
cultivation of other plants - perhaps OK for the annual bedding
plants. I'm not sure how it scores as a 'green' compost either, by
the time it has been shipped half way round the world (using
lots of ship-fuel of course). As for the CP - I guess it's whatever's
in solution between the granules of medium that matters - you could
use anything provided it had the right amount of air and things in
solution. Peat just seems to be the easy way to provide the correct
conditions.
-- Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)