*Draft* Peat-free Potting Soil Mixes

Climate sensitive products at Plant Sales:

The annual Plant Sale in most counties across Washington is both a top fund-raiser for our Foundations and is a key time of year for the public to engage with the Master Gardener Program.
The Master Gardener Mission focuses on both horticulture and environmental stewardship. One way to drive home the environmental stewardship mission is to merchandise your Plant Sale with products that demonstrate climate awareness.
Offering Peat-free Potting Soil is one way to demonstrate our environmental stewardship.

The need to reduce Peat Moss use:

Peat moss is an organic substance formed from mosses, reeds, and sedges that accumulates and decomposes very slowly in waterlogged soils (bogs). It is harvested from bogs and fens around the world, but primarily in Canada and Russia. Peatlands hold 30% of the earth’s soil carbon and occur mostly in cold, temperate regions. Peat moss is used as a soil amendment because of its water holding capacity, and at the same time, it promotes water drainage.
Peat moss is a non-renewable resource whose replacement takes centuries.  “Bogs represent 5% of the earth’s surface and yet they contain more carbon than all the planet’s forests combined, It’s a huge storage unit for carbon dioxide. As soon as we start tinkering with it, carbon is released.”¹

The problem with using peat in horticulture is three-fold:

• Stripping off peat from peatlands 
• Disturbs complex ecosystems; excavation releases enormous amounts of CO2, a major greenhouse gas driving climate change; and 
• Demand for peat-based soilless media is growing.

Coconut coir