Allotments 4 All

Ok guys thought i would throw this in the air and see what your veiws are.

Votes and veiws appreciated.

Thanks

D

I was told by the nursery that supplies all of wigan with their planters, etc that most peat free doesn't do the job for them  :-\
I'd like to go peat free and am trying to make as much compost as I can but it takes time  :)

Can i ask the main reasons you would like to go peat free?

thanks


D

just what I read about peat bogs, if large nurseries are still using peat based compost, what difference would I make. I only use potting compost to start seeds off, try to use mushroom compost mixed with sand/feed for transplanting, plus our own made stuff.
I suppose it's just what I've read  :)

Ok thanks, im very nieve still with the politics but i have been advised to grow Winston spuds in peat and wondered what the fuss was.

THANKS

D

I think many "acid-loving" plants would be difficult to grow successfully without some amount of peat in potting mixture.
I do believe reducing the use peat is good and agreeable but total ban would be bit of 'chock for the system'..propably not impossible to manage but certainly difficult

So what are the cons of using peat?  Is it the affect on the environment through diminishing resources?

Yes. I think we should minimise use, but peat-free compost hasn't yet reached the same standard. Peat based is still best as a seed compost, but once plants become established, I don't see any reason to go on using it.

I think I'm in the same boat as many others... I don't use it as a soil improver, the council stuff is so cheap and manure for me is free, but we're still sort of stuck with it for a sensibly priced seed-starting mix. I go through 240 litres a year starting seeds, but I would guess I used at least 1000 litres of council compost last year for potting on and twice that for the greenhouse tomato beds..... Last year Which magazine did a round up of colmposts and they did say that one of the peat frees (New Horizons I think, not sure) matched or even beat the peat-based for seed germination.... but it is quite expensive compared to the B+Q best buy (which I found excellent last year)

chrisc

Quote from: chriscross1966 on February 09, 2011, 23:28:30
I think I'm in the same boat as many others... I don't use it as a soil improver, the council stuff is so cheap and manure for me is free, but we're still sort of stuck with it for a sensibly priced seed-starting mix. I go through 240 litres a year starting seeds, but I would guess I used at least 1000 litres of council compost last year for potting on and twice that for the greenhouse tomato beds..... Last year Which magazine did a round up of colmposts and they did say that one of the peat frees (New Horizons I think, not sure) matched or even beat the peat-based for seed germination.... but it is quite expensive compared to the B+Q best buy (which I found excellent last year)

chrisc

My experience is just the same, I wanted and have used peat-free for seedlings. However, even the New Horizons can give patchy results-I have lost 100s of seedling through using it in the past. This year I am not going to risk it and will start everything off with Westlands Organic Vegetable Compost - until someone comes up with a really reliable peat free alternative.

This will be my third year of using New Horizons peat free compost and I do not have any complaints.  All the seed germinates and I also use it to pot on. 

Destruction of peatland habitat and contribution of peat to climate change through decomposition may be two reasons for avoiding using peat. 

I completely agree, but I think we're going to be reduced to mixing our own if we want to stop using it. I used to grow cacti in a home-made variant using John Innes formulae, but substituting leafmould for peat. It might be worth trying for seeds.

I just don't feel morally able to use peat even though it is better for seeds than peat-free (although not much better I find).

The idea of destroying 1000 year old irreplaceable wetland habitats, (even a tiny bit of irreplaceable wetland habitat) just to grow some veg (important though that is) is something I feel really uncomfortable about. Allottmenting for me is about contributing to nature not destroying it.

Just my opinion of course :)

That's pretty much how I feel, though I'm not exactly immaculate in the implementation.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on February 10, 2011, 19:00:38
I completely agree, but I think we're going to be reduced to mixing our own if we want to stop using it. I used to grow cacti in a home-made variant using John Innes formulae, but substituting leafmould for peat. It might be worth trying for seeds.

According to Mr Sherman, HDRA's Director of Gardens and Gardening, a good choice for seed sowing is to mix mole hill soil with leafmould, apparently a Victorian 'recipe' that's just as good today. 

I had lots of moles last year, but right now they are very quiet, else I would have tried it.  Perhaps the mole hill soil needs collecting and storing in readiness.  I went with New Horizon peatfree compost, especially as it was on special offer a few weeks ago.

I try to be peatfree with a few lapses, when I cannot get peatfree compost.  Having been on holiday on a Scottish island where all the heating and cooking is done with peat as fuel, I fear that this far outweighs what peat I could possible use  in the garden.  Even so, I try not to use it anymore.

If you can't get mole soil -which probably is excellent as they're fussy about where they live, and it's normally on grassland - then a pile of rotted down turf should be a good alternative.

I haven't used this for a while but one of my favourite potting mixtures was:
Fibrous loam 4 parts
Well rotted leaf mould 2 parts
Coarse Sand 1 part
Well rotted manure or sieved compost 1 part.

As a novice gardener im trying to giove my seeds the best chance in life, but would like to become more Eco friendly in the future, so maybe a % could be peat free and we will see for sure how good the alternatives are/arnt.

Some cool ideas BTW

Thanks for posting all

D

Quote from: Tonythegardener on February 10, 2011, 20:29:43
I haven't used this for a while but one of my favourite potting mixtures was:
Fibrous loam 4 parts
Well rotted leaf mould 2 parts
Coarse Sand 1 part
Well rotted manure or sieved compost 1 part.

I'd use more sand, but that's not far from my old cactus mixtures. Except, of course, that by the time I used the loam the fibres - usually dead grass roots - would have disappeared.

i am so glad there is no problems using peat in north America since the peat we use is harvested in more friendly and  responsible manner. 

Quote from: plainleaf on February 12, 2011, 06:30:27
i am so glad there is no problems using peat in north America since the peat we use is harvested in more friendly and  responsible manner. 

you think!

How's it harvested over there? Whereabouts is the industry based?

I think a lot of peat used in europe comes from russai ( peat bogs the size of the UK). However i think that a lot of the supposed problems concerning peat extraction are overplayed to some extent by the green goblins, abit like global warming etc.

peat in Canada is not harvest below waterline.

I think a lot of peat used in europe comes from russai ..and Finland..cousin of mine works in one of these places..and it ain't pretty sight.
My uncle who does veg growing on my granparents old place showed me other year his potato patch..and :o....it was just black peat...sea of it..the whole field was just black peat! Ohhh..I wish I could bag it up and ship it over ::)
But my uncle is not too happy as growing in peat does have its own problems....but it did look beautiful 'soil' ::)

Harvesting peat above the water table may not create lakes (our Norfolk Broads originated like this), but it still removes a resource which only renews at a slow rate, and it breaks down a carbon sink; once in the soil, the peat decomposes, and the CO2 is returned to the atmosphere. So it's not true to say that there are no environmental problems.

Wether above or bellow waterlevel..the harvesting itself distroy whole ecosystem on the surface ..all plant growth, insects, fungi etc is all scraped away...and the food source & homes for various living things gone..from tiny things to big bears. And the scars from the peat harvest will be visible for years and years before new plant growth is able to take over again.
Like I said...not pretty sight.

The January edition of the RHS magazine The Garden gives the results of a trial they conducted using peat-based, loam-based, green waste, wood fibre and coir.

The trial included the germination rates of lobelia, lettuce and beans.

The peat-based results were by far the best, second was green waste.  The worst was coir.

valmarg