FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

A recent post by forum member Chhewy got me thinking.

He mentioned that we wet his peat before mixing in the sand. I assume that he measured the peat after wetting it, even if he didn't I'm sure others have.

I personally measure my peat and sand dry and then add water. Wet peat is going to be a lot more dense than dry peat and therefore you will have a much greater peat to sand ratio if you wet the peat before measuring by volume. Is the recommendation of using a 50/50 sand/peat ratio based on wet or dry peat? Or maybe it doesn't matter at all since there are other ratios that get recommended. Just food for thought.

I'm curious what methods you all use to make your soil.

I measure all of the quantities dry, but I don't know that the difference in volume would be significant enough to make much of a difference in the consistency of the soil if the peat were wet.

There will be more peat than sand if wet. The peat will compact. I think the mix is more of 70/30 when wet.

When you guys measure peat dry do you try and compress it into the measuring container? Or just scoop it up.

I wouldnt worry too much. Pesonnaly i just measure it by the handfull i.e. one handfull of peat to one handfull of sand/perlite, exact quantities are not really required and small variations in volumes wont make too much difference, after all I'm fairly sure that old mother nature does not have an exactly the same mix for all the wild VFTs.

Also if you wanted to be pedantic the difference in the air spaces between the particulate matter (peat would be different to sand which would be different to perlite) would cause variation in the aparant volume.

Cheers
Steve

jamez wrote:There will be more peat than sand if wet. The peat will compact. I think the mix is more of 70/30 when wet.

That's what I was thinking. Though even when I measure dry I tend to use more peat since it tends to scoop out in a higher volume than the sand. Since I grow exclusively outside I've never had issue with there being more peat.

Chhewy wrote:When you guys measure peat dry do you try and compress it into the measuring container? Or just scoop it up.

I don't compress it when I measure. I either use a small gardening shovel or a measuring cup from the kitchen. Mostly it's just approximations, sometimes the scoop is level, sometimes it's it's rounded.


Overall I feel it probably doesn't matter one way or the other and long as you pay attention to how wet your soil is. But I thought it was a good thing to think about since you can have a big difference the the soil proportions. It reminds me of using flour for baking. The best way is to weigh flour because it can compact greatly. A cup of compacted flour can be equal to as much as 2 cups of aerated flour. Such is the problem with using volume to measure compactable materials.

It seems the general consensus thus far is that while it may make a difference in the ratio, the plants may not care either way. To paraphrase Steve, mother nature isn't using a triple beam scale to make the soil the plants grow in naturally.

Commercially it is done with dry volumes and a front-end loader. I only know of one exception. Aggregate companies want to keep their truck and transfer(30 cubic yards of material per delivery) as light as possible to avoid fines.

209 wrote:Commercially it is done with dry volumes and a front-end loader. I only know of one exception. Aggregate companies want to keep their truck and transfer(30 cubic yards of material per delivery) as light as possible to avoid fines.

LoL, I can only dream of owning enough CP's to require a front end loader to mix my soil.

parker679 wrote:

209 wrote:Commercially it is done with dry volumes and a front-end loader. I only know of one exception. Aggregate companies want to keep their truck and transfer(30 cubic yards of material per delivery) as light as possible to avoid fines.

LoL, I can only dream of owning enough CP's to require a front end loader to mix my soil.

I sold and lost a bunch of plants last year but I used to go buy like 50 3.3cu bales of peat and don't get me started on the sand and perlite.

I'm currently filling a 30'x90' greenhouse. Imagine all the peat I'll need for that...

But I'm trying to turn it into a on site nursery. mainly for field trips for schools to see my plants in the GH. I hope to get it bigger when more people than just GA can come.

30'x90' with 3x8' wide beds would be 2160 sq ft of production space. With standard 3" pots that would be 540 cubic feet of soil. ~164 3.3cu bales. You can get a better deal from an aggregate wholesaler.

209 wrote:30'x90' with 3x8' wide beds would be 2160 sq ft of production space. With standard 3" pots that would be 540 cubic feet of soil. ~164 3.3cu bales. You can get a better deal from an aggregate wholesaler.

Will I need that much media to need wholesale? I get high quality peat moss so I'm not sure if it's avaliable wholesale. I'll need more than that too. Nepenthes will be hanging. The greenhouse is like 20' tall.

jamez wrote: I'm currently filling a 30'x90' greenhouse. Imagine all the peat I'll need for that...

Wow jamez, with a greenhouse that size your collection must be massive!

You should post some pictures on the forums

I agree with pieguy haha lets get some pictures up! Jamez your idea sounds amazing, after i finish up optometry school and get a house i want to have a nice green house in my backyard for CPs.

You guys are killing me. And here I thought using a whole bale of peat in a year was hardcore.....

50+ bales, geez.

I don't have a camera.