Substrate Frustrate
Here’s the thing. I grow peat-free, I made this decision from day one of deciding to grow. It’s just not a viable idea to continue destroying carbon sinks in order to grow plants. Trouble is, peat-free is seriously difficult to get the knack of! Some plants absolutely HATE it, it’s like a dark-art trying to guage watering even to those of us who have worked with it for years! It whittles away to nothing within a few months in some cases and depending on the brand, the consistency and quirks change for each bag! I’ve now started using one of the very high-end (costly) peat-free because I just can’t cope with the unpredictability of the garden centre brands. Every year I gradually tweak my own mixtures depending on the type of plants I’m potting on. The need for composted bark, grit/sand is pretty normal in most cases and adds extra cost and time in preparation. I also add slow release organic feed like blood and bone or horn as I’ve found plants in peat-free substrates go from not hungry to completely anaemic almost overnight! It’s an absolute pain in the arse! Especially considering if you decide to go peat-free you’re paying substantially more for the experience.
The other thing I worry about with peat-free is what is going to happen down the line? With the proliferation of coir in mixes, or as dried bricks, I do wonder if we’re not already on the way to creating a new environmental fuck-up at the scale of palm-oil or avocado production. It’s another case of the global south barely profitting and being forced to mangle their environment for the new whim of the global north! And then there’s the carbon involved in shipping the stuff! .. so, now I’m trying to source my peat-free substrate that doesn’t contain coir… Impossible so far in Ireland.
Unfortunately the only available peat-free on the market contains a large percentage of coir and normally contains wood-fibre of some kind, wood-fibre from the forestry industry… you know, that other fucking awful industry that annihilates biodiversity on an industrial scale and is responsible for the introduction of so many pests and diseases!
So, you see.. it’s all bollocks!
So, I have made the decision to have a go at growing a portion of my herbaceous stock in sand beds and sell them as bare-roots. If I can logistically/financially set it up. I realise the Irish gardening community on the whole is NOT going to be up for this, which is why I won’t be moving to this model with everything. BUT, times are changing, realisation on how fucked we are is moving slowly through the general public and its important as growers that we don’t, Not, do things, just because it might not be popular. I feel it’s our responsibility as growers to give people the option to do things differently and we need to be at the forefront of speeding “another way” along. I don’t want to play life in the protective self-serving bubble of capitalism. I want to grow and offer plants that I feel haven’t been created in a way that completely shits on the whole joy and point of growing and working with plants!
So, next year.. keep a weather-eye open… anyone know where to get crushed brick in Ireland?….. Better yet, anyone got any?… For free?…
