My neighbor called me out for using too much peat moss in my garden beds

Last spring, my neighbor Linda saw me dumping a full bale of peat moss into my new raised bed and told me harvesting peat destroys carbon-rich bogs. I switched to using coconut coir instead, which costs about $12 for a 3-block pack at the local nursery in Portland. Has anyone else made that swap and noticed a difference in how their soil holds moisture?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_smith221mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah @caleb_ross12 has a point but coir worked way better for my tomatoes after I switched.

caleb_ross121mo ago

Peat moss isn't exactly single-handedly destroying the planet. There's plenty of peat harvested responsibly, and a lot of those bogs regenerate faster than people think. Meanwhile, coir has its own issues - it has to be shipped halfway across the world, and it doesn't break down the same way in the soil. Linda probably read one article and now acts like you're strip-mining the Amazon. If you're just using it in a few raised beds, the environmental impact is basically invisible.

the_avery1mo ago

Coconut coir holds water way better than peat moss in my experience, you actually have to water less often with it. The trick is to break the blocks up in a bucket of warm water first, let them expand fully, then mix it with some perlite so it doesn't turn into soup. Also, get the buffered kind if you can, the unbuffered stuff can mess with your pH and make things go weird with tomatoes and peppers.