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Soil media mixes

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
When folks refer to their mixes being 50:50 sand and peat 1/3 peat/ 1/3 LFS/1/3 sand or whatever, do they mean homogeneous mixtures or layered? What motivates this question is that in an environmental job I used to have I sometimes went on drilling crews where the soils are logged by depth. Very often there is a few inch topsoil layer, followed by silt, then clay, then sand. The transition is rarely abrupt and rarely homogeneous. Things generally transition gradually. What are bogs like? How many inches of sphagmum is on top, followed by peat. I know it varies wherever it goes, but is there a general rule of thumb?
 
When Petflytrap had their bog it was a mix of peat and sand....not layered but mixed together. In bogs perlite tends to float a bit when it rains hard, sand doesn't have that problem. Guess everyone does their mixes a bit differently with different ratios and different components. Some folks prefer peat and perlite, others use peat and sand, some incorporate sphagnum moss. The inert ingredient is to provide for loosening of the peat and to allow drainage. Some people experiment with different ratios and media depending on the type of plants. You may want to read the section on bogs in the forums for additional help. But you also may want to just give one of the mixes a try and see how it works for you. And as far as I know people generally mix the media together rather than layering it. Good luck on your experimenting
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ Feb. 21 2004,19:55)]When folks refer to their mixes being 50:50 sand and peat 1/3 peat/ 1/3 LFS/1/3 sand or whatever, do they mean homogeneous mixtures or layered? What motivates this question is that in an environmental job I used to have I sometimes went on drilling crews where the soils are logged by depth. Very often there is a few inch topsoil layer, followed by silt, then clay, then sand. The transition is rarely abrupt and rarely homogeneous. Things generally transition gradually. What are bogs like? How many inches of sphagmum is on top, followed by peat. I know it varies wherever it goes, but is there a general rule of thumb?
Hi Jim,
Acording to this website  Basic Information About Peat Moss, only the top-most layer of the peatmoss is alive, followed by a layer of dead moss which gradually becomes a layer of peat.  As for a rule of thumb as to how thick each layer is, I don't think you could make one for all bogs in general, only for each bog in particular as there are a lot of things that will affect how deep the the dead sphagnum and peat has built up.

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BCK
 
I read the link. Thanks. Seems I read about the concept of somewhere else - perhaps a different post. Duplicating a bog in a pot or terrarium is not unlike trying to duplicate an ecosystem for tropical fish - salt, fresh & reefs.
 
You can duplicate a bog in a pot. Just put your peat based soil mix for the bottomost layer and top it off with live sphagnum. I have 1 pot of S. purpurea subsp. purpurea that is outdoors year round and the moss does unbelvably well. It was soo happy last year it was growing off the sides of the pot in the air.
 
This is a very interesting and informative topic. I enjoyed it very much. Where can I buy live sphagnum?  Does PFT sell it?
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I am not aware of having access to live sphagnum, but would the typical bagged LFS do? Doesn't THAT have the capability / potential to produce living sphagnum?
 
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