I’ve purchased big blocks of peat moss, and I’ve seen the greenish strands of sphagnum moss. (This is fig related BTW.) When I search ‘peat moss’ at the big box store I see something that is brown but isn’t the big solid peat block (that seems to have gone away)…it’s call sphagnum peat moss, it’s brown but it’s stringy/flaky like something in between the block and the greeny-brown moss. It may be what, in real life, is between the live green stuff and the expired base of the plant in the peat bog. I also see the terms ‘spagnum peat moss’ and (long strand) ‘sphagnum moss’ used in the same thread as though they are the same thing…which they don’t look like in the photos. I thought peat moss was acidic; and sphagnum moss, the greenish, recently alive stuff, was neutral, and that they were quite different. Both seem to get used to root fig cuttings. What is the difference? Is one acidic like the old peat blocks?
Sphagnum is harvested from (sub-)arctic peat bogs, most notably annually from those along the Athabasca River prior to “Spring” harvesting of coal sands. This is a renewable resource. Sphagnum is also notoriously harvested in Norway and Russia simply by scrapping the arctic grounds in an irreplaceable fashion, removing nutrient sources for caribous etc. Peat Moss sold in big box stores can also refer to peat from the southern U.S. states which is also a non-renewable resource.
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