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Hi all. Have any UK growers used or had problems using Westland peat moss? I’m looking to buy a 100 litre bag but I’ve heard that Westland sometimes bulk their peat moss with normal compost so don’t use for CP’s. What brand of peat moss is everybody using? Thanks

Yesterday I got a baby N. x ventrata, all nice and healthy looking, but the soil is pure peat, black, little bit gunky and with some algae on the top, so you can see it has been watered quite a bit, my question is; should I wait for acclimation to repot or do I do it right away? I don't wanna lose it to root rot, I also don't want to lose it to shock though. Right now it's in a transparent mini greenhouse where I keep humidity at 90%, indirect bright light, temperature around 20ºC, and I have peat, perlite, and Sphagnum for repotting it. Thanks for the answers.

I've been using the same old bag of peat moss since starting the hobby. But last week it ran out just before I got in an order of Plants... So based on advice seen on this forum I went out and got Shamrock branded peat, but I now think I've done something wrong, like get the wrong bag or something. My plants arrived in the post this morning and were all potted up and stuck in a terrarium with high humidity (instead of using a bag) and they all got top watered. But out of curiosity I checked the TDS of the water that collected in the bottom of the terrarium and it had gone from 7ppm to 62ppm. So I'm just wondering is this normal for peat to change the water parameters so much? Could it be the sphagnum, sand or perlite doing this? Have I bought the wrong peat, it says all natural on the bad(picture of bag below)? If this is normal should I just keep watering until the parameters come back within 30ppm?

Hi, So, I am extremely new to mixing my own potting media and have been reading in various places online about peat and which types to use and the lessened availability of late etc. I am still looking into peat substitutes and how to use them but am not having too much luck finding solid info at the mo. Any info on peat substitutes would be great! In the meantime, I asked my friends/family to keep an eye open for sphagnum moss peat on their travels & today I came home to a 100litre bale of Irish moss peat... Unfortunately it's Westland brand which, upon investigating on this forum, I have learned has a pretty bad rep! I don't know what to do with it as I can't return it. Is it completely unusable? Is there anything I can do with it to make it less potentially damaging? I can always palm it off on my mum for use in her garden, but if I can get any use out of it at all, I'd like to as I can't find anything else in this area! Thanks :) Edit: I should mention that I was hoping to use it in seed growing experiments as well as repotting. A couple of the recipes for seed sowing mixes (for Nepenthes) I have found online have given peat moss, sphagnum and perlite as ingredients. Also, for seeds, is live sphag recommended? I have some Gardman 'Fresh' sphag. Any good?

Like many growers on here I use Moorland Gold as an alternative to peat in a lot of my compost mixes. My fairly simplistic understanding is that it is derived from peat sediment running off the Yorkshire Moors into reservoirs. The reservoir filter systems collect the sediment which is then bagged and sold. Great stuff too! So, my ears pricked up one day recently when a local TV news item mentioned Yorkshire Water's Moors For The Future project. If I got it right they were saying that they were going to "manage" the moors better to make the water cleaner by preventing the sediment getting into the reservoirs. See quote below. "What's been done We are blocking up grips - channels that were cut in the past to attempt to drain the land and make it suitable for grazing - and natural gullies. This will increase water levels and slow the water flow. It also traps peat sediment and helps prevents it getting into water destined for our water supply." Does anybody know any more about this project? I wonder if this will mean that we will shortly be looking for an alternative to our peat alternative?

Hi there, usually I´m repotting my Sarracenia´s every year in spring to let them have good condition to grow. Now I have read, that this is not the best for them, every repotting disturbs their growing. After repotting a small seedling in autumn it stopped growing and producing tubes. I heared, that the right time to repot is only, when the plants are getting too large and needs more space. The problem for me is, that every spring, when I repot them, the peat at the bottom of the pot, that stands in water all the time, is rotted and smells like this. I can not imagine that this is healthy for the plants! And this is after 1 year, how does it look like after 3 or 4 years? I use only rainwater. Please, could you help me with your experiences to help me with this? Thanks a lot, regards, Mike