disturbing news about spaghnum moss

14 years ago

Sorry everyone, I apologize about putting a damper on everything, but I indirectly found out a few things about spaghnum/peat moss through the rose organics growing forum that leaked into the organics forum debate. A rose forumer found writings of Dr. Chalker-Smith from the University of Washington, which discussed various horticultural practices; it just coincidentally happened that in her papers was discussed conservation concerns about peat moss.

I think it's fine to use peat moss for our beloved orchids if they need it but I would like to re-encourage people to go back to their bark medium if that option is equally viable.

This first article discusses some of the issues involved.

conservation and peat moss

"Environmentalists rightly note that even reclaiming the land into a wetland alters the ecology of an area, puts some species at risk and can never bring back the historic features of the bog. Not only is recolonization by the native flora and fauna probably not going to happen, the complex water tables in adjacent undrained areas are also put under threat.

Some wetlands scientists point out that a managed bog bears little resemblance to a natural one. Like tree farms, these peatlands tend toward monoculture, lacking the biodiversity of an un-harvested bog."

The issue about peat moss is being contested by Canada because a lot of its industry is based on peat moss farming.

They claim that they are doing restoration. But this is the reality. Again photos paint a thousand words. The peat farm photos ironically are from those who defend peat moss farming.

Here is a photo of a peat bog being processed and upturned. There are hints here of what it once was.

Here is the natural peat bog

Another beautiful peat bog

Here is what is going on in Canada (photos ironically are from pro-peat farms).

So if we can help it I think we should try to use bark medium as much as possible instead of the spaghnum moss.

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Comments (9)

symbie
14 years ago
are we talking about sphagnum or peat moss?
xmpraedicta
14 years ago
Luckily, New Zealand, where most of us get our moss from, practices more sustainable harvesting methods. With that said, there are many alternatives, and it is always good to explore sustainable potting materials. Things like epiweb, made from old car tires, is a wonderful innovation that I am hoping will gain in popularity.
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Yes, you CAN catch Sporotrichosis, which is a fungal infection, from handling sphagnum moss. It's often referred to as the Rose Gardener's disease, since thorn pricks are a common way of introducing the fungus - barberry and brambles like blackberry and raspberry are also known sources. The fungus is also (u>commonly found in soil, on flowers and shrubs, on wood products, timber, forest litter, and various other mosses, so it is almost certain it could be found in potting soils that include any of these products (most commonly do). The most common source of infection is the house cat. It should also be understood that not all sphagnum moss carries Sporotrichosis. The Wisconsin Division of Health, Bureau of Community Health and Prevention (BCHP), investigated a 1981 diagnosis of Sporotrichosis found in two brothers employed at a garden centre in Wisconsin. The investigation revealed two additional cases of Sporotrichosis among the employees. The garden center had sixteen workers make funeral wreaths during the Winter of 1980. The infected moss used was harvested from bogs located in central Wisconsin and was purchased from a single wholesale dealer. However, in an investigation of a local cemetery where 12 employees produced 2,000-3,000 wreaths per autumn using sphagnum moss purchased from the same Wisconsin supplier, no additional cases were noted. Again, use your own judgment, but it appears that the source of the outbreak was limited to just one bad batch of sphagnum from a wholesale dealer who had also supplied countless quantities of Sphagnum free of Sporotrichosis. Bear in mind that the risk of Sporotrichosis is very small; in the US the incidence of infection is not precisely known but is estimated at only 1-2 cases per million people, and most of those cases are from sources OTHER than sphagnum. An estimated 200-250 cases occur per year, nationwide. Statistically speaking, it is far more dangerous to cross the road than to handle the moss. I know you'll use your own good judgment and common sense when/if you use it, but it is an effective antifungal/antibacterial medium, acting against those strains/species of fungi/bacteria that cause problems when we are trying to root. It's been used as a wound dressing for hundreds of years, and as a favored medium of experienced horticulturists for rapidly inducing roots in air layers and cuttings. Bonsai practitioners have long used it as intensive care for trees that have contracted root rot because they were grown in heavy mediums with excessive water retention, commercially prepared and packaged potting soil being a primary offender. Sphagnum moss has excellent internal water retention properties, however unlike sphagnum peat, in its live form it is able to retain its open structure and so is fast draining and well aerated. Less well known is that Sphagnum moss contains a high zinc content in the form of a naturally occurring antibiotics/antifungals called Tropolene and Sphagnan. The anaerobic bacteria common in heavier soils that cause the decay that inhibit woody cuttings from rooting are nullified by the antiseptic properties of Sphagnum moss. Hence, pure Sphagnum (without the addition of any other organic material) is considered by most experienced horticulturalists to be as close to a perfect medium for root induction as you will find. Al
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serenasyh
Original Author
14 years ago
Symbie, they mean the same thing. Our peat moss is that spaghnum peat moss.

Sadly Calvin, there is no "sustainable" harvesting methods. You see it cannot be replaced. You can try to replant but it looks very, very ugly. Just like the photos show, the original water pools are completely drained away and forever erased. Do not be fooled. If you look up any peat moss farm what you will see is exactly what I've shown.

New Zealand is also known for its gorgeous scenery! Do you remember the wonderful chase scene between the Elven Princess Arwyn across the pools of water with her beautiful white horse--- that was a peat bog! Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand-- it really showcases that amazing scenery. It makes me very sad if those beautiful bogs were to be destroyed.

But at least we know that if we can use bark, we might as well try to use bark and just do the spaghnum peat moss only when absolutely necessary.

Thank goodness I chose to risk mixing my mediums. My orchids originally came with the moss, but thanks to everyone's ideas about how to combine them better, I went with the bark cushioning the original moss instead of buying more moss to match the original medium. I didn't know at the time about the inside story about the spaghnum peat moss, but truly, the orchids are doing just fine with that mixed medium too! They grow plenty fine with that bark mixed in. Indeed it can be done. I just wanted to say this in case anyone hesitated and worried about mixing the mediums if theirs came with that peat moss.

Again, thanks all for allowing me to express my concerns...
xmpraedicta
14 years ago
Actually, there is a difference - peat moss is the main constituent of potting mixes you buy at your garden centre and consists of the loose mix that is harvested from the decaying layer of sphagnum in peat bogs. The sphagnum we use for orchid growing is the live later that is on top of the decaying matter (the actual peat) below. I'm not too well researched on this but I believe sphagnum harvesting is much less damaging. The water filled holes you see are a result of peat harvesting. In new Zealand, The top later of sphagnum is harvest and brought out of the bogs by helicopter in order to prevent trampling and damage to the habitat. The harvested areas are quickly regrown by th existing live sphagnum since the peat remains undisturbed. I have a friend who grows sphagnum at home and once established, it propagates freely from cuttings and spores - he harvests it regularly!

I really think it's great that gardeners are becoming more environmentally minded, Serena. It's good that you brought this up because the real product that should be cautioned against is peat moss which you can buy at almost all gardening centres, conventionally sold as 'potting soil'

I'm going to do more reading on this when i have a minute as there are quite a few published papers on sustainable sphagnum harvesting
serenasyh
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks so much Calvin! It is very important to do share all the research! I would really appreciate any links you find.

The other peat moss links I found that claimed to be sustainable I got very disturbing images of, so it's good to keep sifting for the truth behind the matter. Yes, I would be happy/relieved if the spaghnum was just the top part, but all the images I have found so far are that the entire areas are drained from the water. All those images I sent were untouched pristine bog areas. Those water areas had not been tampered with. So if you can find actual bogs that are harvested by helicopter that would be a relief. I'm just worried because flying a helicopter is very expensive and it's difficult for me to imagine how it could possibly be harvested that way. But if it is indeed harvested in such a manner, what a relief that would be!

I did find that instead of the peat moss (as Calvin mentions at the gardening center) we can use coconut husks, pine needles and other truly sustainable substitute materials. But there is a question about whether that would ever work for orchids-- it may take a braver soul to experiment, but it does make excellent material for other side uses of the actual peat. Here are some google images of the coconut husks which has a more spaghy-kind of look to it.

here are pine needle straw:

and here is rice hulls another substitute

Well, I guess this all is actually more of a crucial debate for me because I USE POTTING SOIL ARRRRRGH! for my roses and! I buy a more expensive type of potting soil from Fertilome in Canada! Now I have to find out if it has any peat moss in it. Thanks Calvin for the extra warning too! EEKS!!! I will have to be very careful from now on whenever I purchase potting soil.
sweetcicely
14 years ago
Thanks, Serena, for this heads-up, as it is a good reminder. Even so, there is some confusion, here.

Calvin is right about the difference between peat and Sphagnum. In order to avoid confusion, "Peat" is used for the old, decayed stuff that forms the deep and ancient part of these bogs (and is bagged and sold by the gallons as "potting soil"); "Sphagnum" is used for the live moss plant of the genus Sphagnum that grows on the surface of a peat bog.

New Zealand appears to have a well planned program for sustainable hand-harvest of Sphagnum (I believe Calvin was referring to transport by helicopter, rather than harvest by helicopter). For a quick reference to these points please see the URL below. (Please see, in particular, paragraph 1 and later section called "Conservation.")

I use Sphagnum (from New Zealand, exclusively). In the conditions, here, I prefer it--for some plants--to other media.

Sweetcicely

Here is a link that might be useful: Sphagnum
richardol
14 years ago
It is easy to get peat moss confused with sphagnum. They are the same plant in different stages. However, sphagnum is actively growing, can be harvested and will grow back just like any farm crop.

I would bet that there is far more peat used than sphagnum. And sphagnum is VERY expensive compared to peat.

The notice about the use of pictures that appears above reminds me to remind anybody who wants to use any of my pictures in a blog or society web page to copy the picture to another server instead of linking to my poor under-powered server. Any non-commercial use of my pictures is ok if you credit me and let me know about it.
garyfla_gw
14 years ago
Hi
I thought this was a heaads up on the health warnings that have started appearing on both spag and peat??
Have used both for years and I'm not dead yet!!
Anybody have any info on this?? gary
serenasyh
Original Author
14 years ago
Gaaa, I am so embarrassed; I better go to the original source and ask permission. Ugh! but now I can't find the site to ask permission. Sigh, this is so embarrassing I was hoping to just show that the coconut husks and the rice hulls have a very spaghnum-like quality/look to them. Next time I will have to do link references instead! Much more safe, legal and appropriate!

Trust a nimwit like me to make this mistake. I just know it was a Dave's Garden secondary link so I will have to try to retrace and get permission. Plus I need to ask the person/website owner how they got their rice hulls and coconut husks as well.

Well, looks like my potted roses are a huge offender-- almost all POTTING SOIL IS COMPRISED OF PEAT MOSS. Which is the worst part that I have to face. I was about ready to dump a bunch of potting soil, manure and mulch into a new raised bed come November and get a few more potted roses too, uggggggh!!!

P.S. I am soooo glad that many of you are getting your spaghnum moss from New Zealand. Indeed out of all the countries they seem to be the most careful and most conscientious.

Thank you for the link SweetCicely! Hopefully this will encourage everyone to get their spaghnum moss from New Zealand instead. Most other countries do the all at once tractor drainage type of scenario. For newbies and people who get the common ordinary orchids, I think that the bark is just fine. It's getting the potting soil substitute which is the huge challenge. Ugh! I will have quite "a shovelful" to deal with. I am definitely starting with pine straw too! It's not exactly cheap but I think it's good to support conservation whenever possible...

My action plan: put fall leaves, mixed in with manure, pine straw, try to find coconut husks and rice hulls as well. My concern is that the bed won't be ready for my climbing roses, but ah, well. I will have to take that risk.

disturbing news about spaghnum moss

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symbie

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disturbing news about spaghnum moss

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symbie

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