Peat Pellets

I have used peat pellets for years and love them for most things. I have never used them for morning glories.
They pH out at 5.3, which is way low, because of the peat. I think that the low pH gives us better control over damping off, if we can get the seed coats off without injury to the cotyledons. Have any of you folks out there used peat pellets for germinating morning glories ???

I have found them in 3 sizes. 30mm (1 1/4") #730 / 42mm ( 1 3/4") #703 and 50mm (2") #107
The 107s have a little lime to sweeten the pH up a little higher , as most garden vegetables don't feed at that low of
a pH. If you can work with that, then they are very handy. The 107s fit 15 to a plastic shoe box from HD, very nicely. This way I can mix into my water a surface breaker, micorrhizae, maybe some Voodoo juice, and they soak it all in in 5 minutes.

Anyone out there experienced with these on mgs? Does anyone know the pH feeding range of the I nhils or other mgs? Frank

in my climate I LOST my seedlings as the peat dried up too fast in the heat But it WAS my fault...in my new place and w/more experience now, it may be possible. But a word about them ~do NOT let them dry up!! LOL
:D

i lost some in transplating as they dried up pretty fast recently. then some i have good luck with. but for glories its a hard call on some things. trial and error

glad i am, sorry i am, not alone~ what ever, sorry you lost some too!

I have used peat pellets as a "stopper" in my upside down water bottle planters with a little vermiculite over them and plastic on top for germintating, then harden them off a little at a time.. keep the top end in the bottom of the water holder, peat doesn't dry out..

Right on Joes wife. I am doing the same thing with a different shaped bottle. Mine is 10" tall, and I leave the lid on. I drill a 3/8" hole in the cap, and put a 3.5" piece of braided 3/8" rope through the hole. I found it necessary to put tape around the end to stop fraying prior to threading it through the hole. Once it is throught the hole, the tape comes off.

I use a short 3.5 inch pringles container, lay a big sharpie pen across the top; then turn the cascade ice bottle upside down, so the cap is down, hod it against the marker and twist the bottle. This gives me a perfect line around the bottle. Then I cut it in half with a linolium knife on the line.
Actually I put the rope in last thing of all. This will hold any size of pellet you want to use, and if you fray both ends of the rope after you take the tape off, the wicking action goes to a larger surface area.

Actually, I think the mosser lee ground sphagnum holds moisture better than peat moss does, but the peat pellets are so cheap, and you can get them just about anywhere. I guess it is therefore important when using pellets, to use something like a detergent to break the surface tension of the water so it can soak in past the waxy coat on the peat. I have used Shaklee's Basic H for 25 years because the pH is 7.0 and that is perfect. It makes the peat soak that warm water up like a cotton mop, and it is 100% organic and biodegradable. And it lasts forever, since it takes so little.
From time to time, I will ad it to the water when I am watering and water with warm water too. Frank

I just found a new product that competes with peat moss. GROUND Coco fiber. It is fine like peat and comes in bitesize pellets. They are a pH 7, which is 2 points higher than peat moss. That is a really HUGE difference in pH. If bentonite clay is around pH 8 or 8.5, mixed with the coco fiber should raise the pH to 7.5 or so. I am thinking that this would ultimately be better for growing out those arid and desert species, if we mixed the fiber and bentonite 50/50. Now I am wanting some more of those C. floridus seeds again. Anyone out there know where to get them, short of a trip to the Canaries or Africa.??? Frank

Where did you find the coco pellets Frank, a garden center, nursery? i am interested....
:D

Frank - post the link for the ground coir...

frank... i got mine from rareplants.de
http://www.rareplants.de/shop/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=0&P_ID=6523&strPageHistory=search&numSearchStartRecord=1

The C. floridus plant is a bush/tree??? Has anyone grown this out and have photos. I was wondering how small the blooms are. It is supposed to bloom ALL DAY LONG! Sounds like a winner!

take a look at this link by a DG'r is this the same product? They had it at the Garden show in square foot 8 inch chuncks for sale. I didn't buy it at 69. something..

http://shop.instagarden.com/category.sc?categoryId=2

I bout the ground coir pellets at Fred Meyer/Kohls. 30 in the package for $3. This is the first time I have come across the ground form. I really like it. The brand name is Planter's Pride, and has a web address saveourpeatbogs.com. Frank

Sorry that was so brief, but suddenly now the type is awfully small, and the message box keeps jumping all over the place as more crap downloads to this page. I guess it the beginning of the end of what we had here. Now we have pop ups. Frank

ut oh.. I havn't had any yet?

Here is another new to me coir product, taking the place of jiffy pellets, I guess.

http://cgi.ebay.com/6-Packs-of-Netted-Coir-Pellets-NEW_W0QQitemZ170313023226QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item170313023226&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

Here are some coir related links...seems that salt content and consistency of granule size may be a consideration

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/getting-to-the-coir-of-the-matter.aspx
Salt and size of grains varies and if the product / supplier does not address salt content or consistency of granule size,then the product may be high in salt and have inconsistencies in the coir granule size
http://www.hawaiianfloralnursery.com/Retail/rCultureMedia.html

from inland and rinsed in fresh water to be salt free
http://fibredust.com/
http://flrec.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/Environmental/Media_Nutrition/COIR%20potential.htm
http://fibredust.com/about.htm
http://www.fiberdust.com/FIBERDUST_files/frame.htm
http://fibredust.com/lbox/coir14.jpg
http://fibredust.com/lbox/coir15.jpg
http://fibredust.com/Briquettes.htm
http://fibredust.com/contact.htm

available
http://www.hydro-gardens.com/newitems.htm


TTY,...


Ron


This message was edited Mar 21, 2009 4:16 AM

A word to the wise, and thanks Ron for all those links, "Caveat Emptor", about the Coir products.
The basic fiber is about the same pH as peat, but salt adds pH points, and is basically toxic to young rootlets. Some of the coir product some from coconuts that spent their lives in a salt spray or mist. This gets included into the processing of the raw coco husks with some of the processors. The better ones don't include this type oc husk into their processing. If a packager says it is in a higher pH, find out why.

It is probably best in the long run to learn how to buffer the peat and the coir ourselves. There are some table out there about how much lime to use, etc. But if the literature is old, it is talking about using lime for boosting and sweetening the pH.

I don't know about the rest of the gang, but I haven't seen garden lime in a while. What I see is the slower acting lime, which in the long run is better, but the old formulas for sweetening were based on the fast acting lime.

Even some of the Jiffy pellets have lime added during processing to boost the pH a little .

Better go. The pictures in the pop up keep the message box hopping. Frank

POP UP blockers should work, thta may be why i have seen none Debra, do you have a setting for them?
:D
Daves' gotta make money & keep our going....I gues I should've ordered that t-shirt! lol

I thought as a DG paying member, that we could turn off the pop-ups? I also do have a pop-up blocker on my system which works quite well as I never see any pop-ups at all.

Frank - Sorry to hear the pop-ups are getting overwhelming for you!

Hi fchilders,

I had the same problem and fixed it by going to MY TOOLS, PREFERENCES, and then you can choose ADS. Un-tic the boxes and save the changes.
Goodluck,
Elsa

Elsa - Thank you for giving Frank instructions to block those irritating pop-ups on DG. For the life of me, I couldn't remember where to do that at! LOL! That is exactly where to go to stop them. In the PREFERENCES, look to the far box on your right and choose "ADS". From there you check or uncheck what you want to see. :-) I hope that eliminates your pop-ups, Frank! Good luck!

I have never seen a pop up from any computor I have used to log in to DG with. ...

I wonder how the various gradations of ground rice husks compare to coir
http://ricehull.com/product%5Fline/

look like a great compost material at the VERY least.....plus in the interest of a ''greeener world, its a good use of material that was i am sure discarded in the past. Many things that were previously discarded are finding uses that are new now...whether for financial or green purposes, its a good thing~
:D

I think I am going to see how hard it is to get some of that to try..