soil vs peat

[BurnOne]

In my area they have a product called nutrapeat from orchard supply hardware. Its peat and cocco mixed. Its $6.49 for 1.5 cu ft. Thinking about giving it a try. Im gonna mix it 50/50 with perlite. So if cocco and peat are organic products, this would be soiless organic mix right? or not you guys confuse me

That sounds like good "organic" stuff. 50/50 is a little dry IMO. 20% perlite for indicas and 30% to 40% perlite for sativas is how I mix mine. You'll also need compost or worm castings in there along with 2 tbs. powdered dolomite lime per gallon of mix.
Good luck with your grow.
Burn1

 

[darthvapor]

burn1 thanks. I was gonna use more perlite because cocco holds alot of water. I was gonna mix a bunch of stuff but didnt want to list because the thread was going of topic a bit.

 

[Guest]

LOL....

I dont see how, unless you are making it up as you go along....

that you can consider peat soil.....

Soilless includes both organic and inorganic substrates...

The most distinctive factor is soil contains bacteria....and fungi....

where soilless medium do not....

Examples of soilless medium include.....

peat, coco, perlite, vermiculite, rockwool, sawdust and many others...

They may be inert such as clay... and rockwoll or not....

since virtually the entire world considers peat non soil it seems silly to try to convince the world thats not the case.....

Soil on the other hand is the stuff where plants grow outside.....

it is about half mineral and half organic.... and contains bacteria.... both beneficial and otherwise....

 

[darthvapor]

I use mychorizza fungi and bacillus subtillus and I use tricoderma bacteria along with molasses in my peat/cocco. So now it has all the benefits of soil and none of the short comings. Plus roots penetrate easier and I get faster growth. In flower I use guanos for taste and smell.I have no Idea now if its soil or soiless....It works for me so good enough. Any improvments are welcome.

 

[vonforne]

No I just put quote tags on it for fun.

 

[Bennythejet]

Soil is made up of numerous particles and organic matter and whatever else. Of course peat is soiless because its 100% itself.
People could get away with sayin worm castings is a soil if it didnt say so but its not, its 100% worm shit. People just like to grow in pure materials like these.
Top soil should not be called a soil because if its all 100% one component and particle size it should be called DIRT and there should be different kinds of DIRT to made.
Soil is what you make it. Dont call it a soil of its a pure substance. Call it what it is.
What are all the different kinds of peat? We buy peat moss and it nothing but rich smelling wood particles. Is it just not very old so it looks like that. I am sur there are peat farms where people collect deacayed material. Do the people mining it and th ones decaying themselves supply us with there different aged and plant material peat.
I am sure it is very difficult to decay your own peat because it can take up to a lifetime.
what do you guys think

 

[facelift]

My mom just tossed a partial bag of peat moss into the garbage along with some manure. I can't tell you why, she just said she didn;t trust the stuff and tired of using it.

So I was thinking about taking a few cups of each and mix it into my soil mixture I recently started making when low and behold several bags of MG Garden Soil showed up around here.

I'm guessing that 2 cups of peat won;t really harm the properties of the garden soil/potting soil mix I have. And 1 cup of manure might be useful.

I'm not the most knowledgeable gardener, so I thought I would come here for a little advice. Like how much of each I should add? I have an unknown quantity of soil mix, but can measure it out before adding the peat and or manure.

Thanks.....

 

[Bennythejet]

your soil sounds a bit like mine, i have an unknown quantity also. My soil is peat based, u can tell when it hardens up when dry. It does have other dirt particles also.
My mom helps me out a bit too. She doesnt grow dope tho, just smokes it

 

[pumpkin2006]

I'd just like to point a few things out. I have my degree in Sustainable Agriculture. Part of being sustainable is not using many inputs and if you do use inputs, use renewable ones. Peat takes millions of years to be created and were mining it all out; destroying those local Canadian ecosystems.

On the non-hippy liberal duesh (south park) side, and on the science side.

Soil, from a scientific side, is composed of worn parent material (minerals), organic matter, air and water.

The ratios go:
45% minerals
25% Water
25% Air
5% O.M. (organic matter).

This^ is an ideal soil, or course it varies all around the world.

Now considering that peat (despite having no real nutrient qualities) is O.M. it would not be considered a true soil. All potting soils are not scientifically considered soil. Almost all of them are composed of 100% O.M. Is this a bad thing, when it comes to plants? No, of course not, it grows plants wonderfully. The humus (hu mas) acts like clay partials that act for cation exchange sites for nutrient ions. There is often something that has good water retention like clay (usually peat or coco) and then there is something that provides aeration and good percolation (often perlite).

The positives of using actual soil are that, if you can add a lot of O.M., you don't have much leeching of nutrients; unlike potting soils. To name a few NOH-, S- both leech out of soil easily. The most organic matter you can add to any medium, the better off you will be.

Yes soil would be better then 100% peat, but who the fuck grows in 100%; except hydroponic growers. May I suggest using coco instead of peat, from a moral standpoint, we shouldn't be depleting this wonderful resource. Coco will give the same effect as peat and is 100% renewable.

 

[vonforne]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to pumpkin2006 again.

Another good answer. I knew there was something different about your outlook on growing and why.

V

 

[Bennythejet]

would'ny fine wood fibers be considered peat also?

I never knew about the peat situation but its sounds like it can be pretty serious but then again there are gardens with no peat at all and they look amazing