From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Heber City Utah

I was wondering what to mix with my peat moss my patch is 75 percent or more watering sometimes is like watering saw dust

2/28/2015 10:41:22 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Add a surfactant to your water...Ivory or the Original Dawn dish soap works

3/1/2015 8:46:14 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Other than real clean peat moss, adding a surfactant won't help your soil trac. It sure will help when you are foliar feeding your plants though..

Find a good source of compost and add that to your patch, funny I add peat moss to my patch cause I use so much compost and the natural soil is so sandy..

3/1/2015 11:57:53 AM

BC, Canada

If you are saying that your soil is 75% peat what you need is dirt. Clay, silt sand. There is a difference between peat moss and peat humus. Clay tilled in would be my first choice, but if you can find some reasonably priced "top soil" try adding that. You can always do a small area and see what it looks like after you work in some new material. A simple in hand water retention test is a good indicator of what it's doing. Good luck.

3/1/2015 12:58:49 PM

Torrance, Ca.

So surfactant can be used in the soil also?

3/1/2015 6:01:33 PM

Colorado

beni's is 75% organic material. hes got some clay and compost in there also.You may put a few bags of azomite in there.Its mined in your state and is a great source of micro nutients.ditto on the topsoil /clay suggestion.

3/1/2015 7:46:56 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

A surfactant improves the wetting of the peat.

3/1/2015 10:38:06 PM

Seattle, WA

Keep in mind that peat is hydrophobic, meaning if it dries out you have to re-wet it slowly. That means adding a small amount of water over a longer period of time. You can look up "pulse watering technique" for what I'm talking about.

For our top container soils and what I personally consider to be the best media ratio, we are using 50% peat, 33% medium/large pumice, 18-20% high quality compost.

3/3/2015 1:45:56 PM

BC, Canada

Ditto on the Azomite, great stuff, especially in absence of clay. Read the Wiki on it, very interesting. Also, glacial rock dust , or any rock dust does almost the same thing. I sprinkle a little bit in almost every time I pot something on. Since you are dealing with trace elements it only takes a very small amount, which makes it cost effective.

3/3/2015 3:27:27 PM

Torrance, Ca.

Good info Tad, thanks for that.

3/3/2015 4:27:42 PM