FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I recently bought the big green and white bale of Peat Moss from Home Depot. It is a chunky(cheap) mix with some fairly large pieces of bark and sticks. I screen the larger pieces out before using it with my plants.

I was curious about the TDS before usual rinsing so I let some of the Peat Moss sit in distilled water for about 10 minutes. My first reading from this was 128. Too high for VTFs.

After that I filled a 6" pot and ran more distilled water through it. After 3-4 rinsings, the TDS was still about 100. It took about 10 rinsings and a lot of wasted water to get the TDS to below 50.

I saved the water samples and re-tested them 3 days later with basically the same reading.

Next time I need Peat Moss, I will be sure to soak it for a few days first before rinsing.

My well water has a 92 TDS so I'm out of luck there.

I have read that it is best to soak it then squeeze the water out of the peat by grabbing handfuls, then rinsing.

What brand is the peat? I got mine at Home Depot too and though I've never tested it, I haven't had any issues using it. I generally do a brief soak and squeeze before mixing the soil up. I believe it is Lakeland brand.

The brand is Premier. Soak and squeeze for sure.

Honestly, I'm not so sure those ppm numbers are accurate, I got the premier stuff, and it comes out under 100ppm most of the time, I'll flush it a few times, but considering what it is I don't think it's a huge issue, I'm thinking it's a mismeasurement of the meter. the TDS meter actually measures conductivity, and gives you a ppm number for "total dissolved solids" assuming that the numbers are related, and they are not always (TDS causes an increase in conductivity, and both dissolved solids and ph among other things directly affect conductivity since it's actually a measure of ions, not "solids"). In short a low Ph will throw off your cheap TDS meter, and peat moss should have a low Ph.

Anyways, I started my collection of sundews and VFTs with peat moss that everyone said was great for VFTs on amazon and when I tested it with the TDS meter I had over 1000+ppm, I flushed it until the runoff was under 25 and then planted my VFTs, 6 months later they are growing great so I really don't trust that meter for measuring runoff.