Canadian versus New Zealand sphagnum...

[drosera5150]

Hello All! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and over-ate as i did! Is New Zealand sphagnum really that much better than good Ol' Canadium sphag? Please tell me before i re-pot my whole greenhouse in Spring! Thanks, Brian.

 

[mabudon]

As a Canadian I have NO problems saying that our Sphagnum is pretty much garbage for potting CPs. It deteriorates in less than a year, meaning you have to repot stuff almost constantly.
Chilean and NZ LFS are both far better. I only have live NZ LFS and dried chilean stuff, but they are both very different from Canadian stuff in structure. Our sphagnum seems to only be good in bogs.
Hope this helps

 

[Finch]

The new zealand species that is the bulk of their exports, Sphagnum cristatum, has very close relatives in Canada, and they are of the same subsection there. Canada has a far higher diversity, but overall differences and variability in the morphology of the genus is minor. Any differences would be related to growing conditions, water quality, and means of extraction.

 

[mabudon]

Still it doesn't hold up as well, in the experience of myself and some folks I would not hesitate to call "experts" (I am NOT included in that description btw)

I wonder if more folks will chime in here- the best CP-er I know (not a member here unfortunately) is dead-set against the Canadian stuff and I have seen enough to understand why.

Just my experience is all

 

[vraev]

Firstly I need to say that I am not among the "experts of canada", I'll reserve such titles to Flytrap, Jay and so on. Basically yeah...the regular sphagnum moss here (local canadian sphagnum) is crap.... full of sticks and crap. However, I finally found newzealand moss which is soo much cleaner.

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

i dont like regular common canadian sphagnum either... although it has a plus, the twigs and debris which help with dranage, the other parts are phooey. i dont like the color, how it holds up, how long it takes for ugly green algea to form(like...a week) and i personally dont think 1 strand of it has enough "sphagnum" on it to do much. i mainly use chilean sphag. it still has twigs in it, beautiful color and it lasts forever. though....a bit moe expensive than canadian.
Alex

 

[herenorthere]

I think it's just that the high quality sphagnum has already been removed from Canada's commercial bogs, while Chile's and New Zealand's haven't been depleted yet. With the emphasis on "yet".

 

[mabudon]

Ahhh, THAT makes a lot of sense Bruce, that very well could explain the rather obvious differences in overall quality. I don't mind sticks and bits so much as super-fast decomposition of the medium

Funny thing, a few of us Canadian growers have actually had what are most definitely Sarrs pop in in what appears to be (and was sold as) NZ Sphag AND Chilean sphag which is puzzling to say the least

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

i have a D. binata that poped up in chilean sphagnum... and its not a rootlet of leaflet....its a seedling!!
Alex

 

[PlantAKiss]

I mostly found Chilean around here and I like it. Nice blonde sphagnum, relatively clean. It's just expensive...its usually sold in very small bales.

 

[rattler]

I mostly found Chilean around here and I like it. Nice blonde sphagnum, relatively clean. It's just expensive...its usually sold in very small bales.

its also full of reed seeds.............................but its still better than the Canadian stuff

 

[drosera5150]

Same here, PlantAkiss...The Chilean sphagnum is good stuff and actually has some "sphag" to it! It's a lot more denser and longer lasting and cleaner than good ol' Canadian stuff. I think i'm going to move all of my Heliamphora into a nice, lavish Chilean apartment, so to speak in Spring...

 

[herenorthere]

The Canadian product seems a lot like the partially decomposed sphagnum you see beneath the "good stuff" in a bog (or in a pot). Maybe people in the CP internet forums of 40 years ago praised the excellent Canadian sphagnum and said how much better it was than the American and English. We're running through the supply pretty quickly, unless we're willing to pillage every available wetland, or there's some we can strip mine on a nearby planet. Even that'll only delay the inevitable. Treat it like the gold that it is.

 

[vraev]

yeah! that is true. Canadian peat bog restoration efforts are going on. But the main problems are infrastructure. Bogs that aren't used for harvestation are drained out to be highways, cities, shopping malls and so on. Truly a sad state of affairs for the environmentally concerned.