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media Peat vs coco fiber. What one study shows

Proud Marine Dad said:
Well since we are currently using .02% I think it would last a very long time. Just keep it here and don't sell it to the Europeans. :rofl:
One could also argue on other negatives of coir being harvested using child labor as well but that's another topic altogether.
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Unfortunately saying that we're ONLY using .02% of the available bogs in this country minimizes all the other issues with peat. Total amount of peat in a country is one thing, but the potential environmental effects is another all together.

http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/0712/asknlpeat.html

That said coco is not as environmentally as most would like either. I've seen papers on the toxic waist pools derived from washing coco during production in Sri-Lanka. When it comes to the environment, Corporations tend to do the bare legal minimum in order to keep costs low and profits high.


Neil
 
I don't know if coir and peat are really all that inter-changable. Aside from pH issues, peat seems to stay wet longer with less drainage than coir. Some of both in a mix is probably a good thing balanced toward the properties of each. Putting any soil in a plastic cup under artificial lights and expecting it to perform like Mother Nature intended is a stretch at best. But that's kind of the goal I guess. That kenaf plant looks very interesting. A sustainable, local harvest of fiber/growing medium would be my choosing as the world inches toward perfection  :rolleyes: 
 
Well the amount of info saying the peat bogs in North America are fine is overwhelming I think. No reason to doubt it because of heresay from the naysayers. :)
 
Probably lot of data and reports and essays to say that every ecosystem is arguably fine ... Stats can be flexed any which way you please ... From an Ecological viewpoint ...mining an area that took hundreds of years to build up and the associated issues that go along with that is not going to be "good" for earth is it??
JoynersHotPeppers said:
I am saying a believe 50% of what I see and 25% of what I hear, the Internet is full documents that support any and every side of an argument. 
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Isn't that true of any academic document ?? Usually written by PhD students and professors trying to prove a hypothesis?? Often just using stats and other documents written by other professors to back up there claims ... Quite often with no real world experience of the issues. That's what university teaches you in the most part... How to become a university researcher and rehash someone else's research. I have been to Uni for 4 years ...and the most intelligent people I have met in life either dropped out or never went.
 
As we live, history will be rewritten and has been already. :) Where did Pluto go....
 
Any way back to the thread at hand, just like poking bears on Wednesdays.
 
Believe what you want I will continue to use peat as it's the best for what I need it for and I am convinced the peat bogs are fine and will continue to be so for a long time. Too many Chicken Little's out there in my opinion.
 
I am just having fun, if i could just stick seeds in the ground I would but I have started to find I spend too much time and worry around seedlings. 2 years ago I had the best round of plants, since then I have read too much and changed too many things. If peat works for you, carry on. 
 
I agree, we should all believe what we ant and grow in what works best for each of us in our own circumstances. 
 
See what happens when we get too many snow storms, I get stir crazy!!!
 
Trippa said:
Probably lot of data and reports and essays to say that every ecosystem is arguably fine ... Stats can be flexed any which way you please ... From an Ecological viewpoint ...mining an area that took hundreds of years to build up and the associated issues that go along with that is not going to be "good" for earth is it??
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Did you read the link?

"Peat is renewable and in terms of its accumulation, peat in Canada is growing more than 70 times as fast as it is being harvested. [According to an issue paper entitled "Canadian Peat Harvesting and the Environment," published by the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Canada)"
 
Yeah in terms of its accumulation ... Not to mention the fact the actual ecosystem itself has grown and evolved over hundreds of years ...
The actual peat deposit being directly mined will not replenish itself probably ever ... Peat accumulates at an incredibly slow rate ...its like saying Kakapo's world wide are increasing in numbers but ignoring the fact they are dying in increasing numbers in certain eco systems where they used to thrive ... And the only reason they are increasing is because of captive breedin programs... Sort of ignores the problem at hand I think. Anyway like I said each to their own ... I am just trying to show there are pros and con's to any medium
 
True Trippa there are pros and cons to them all.
One I have been reading about on another forum is leaf mold but it takes about 2 years to make it. :)
 
True Trippa there are pros and cons to them all.
One I have been reading about on another forum is leaf mold but it takes about 2 years to make it. :)


Not necessarily if I'm not mistaken. Obviously the longer you wait the more complete the decomposition method becomes, but you can use it after several months.
 
Something else to consider.
 
Coco has a lower CeC (Cation Exchange Capacity) rating than Sphagnum Peat. Briefly, a soils CeC rating is it's ability to store and then release nutrients to plants. Sphagnum Peat does a much better job at this than Coco - for this fact alone, to me it's a no-brainer to use peat instead of coco. If you are interested in the science behind this go here - http://www.soilminer..._Simplified.htm
 
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