2 replies to this topic

[danthecpman]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone had managed to find a stable peat free growing medium? I was also wondering if any of the guys who were trying out the pine needles for there VFTs had any good reults from them?

look forward to your replies

Dan

[Richard Bunn]

Hi Dan

Moorland Gold is a good 'peat free' medium. There's actually peat in it but it's not harvested in the usual way. It's from the water table or something.  Google will answer what it is. There's a link in gardenofeden's signature if you look at his posts in the topic 'Stephen Morley's open day' that's current. It's about going peat free.

I'm doing the pine needle thing and it's working out really well.  When it comes time to repot other plants next year I'm going to use that method on all my VFT's.  I use the same mix that Mantrid's most successful test subject is growing in (mix B) equal parts peat and pine needles.

[mantrid]

Pine needles work well as a substitute for things like perlite, and as mentioned above the 50:50 mix in my exp is working the best, but this exp is only on single plants so cant be relied on as a firm conclusion that pine needles is better than perlite or that 50:50 needles to peat is better than 30:70 needles peat.  However they have been in the mix for 2 seasons so the conclusion is that its safe and works as well as perlite, and is stable enough not require too frequent a re-pot.