What is unique about peat?
Modern, efficient commercial horticulture is not conceivable without peat substrates that have exactly defined qualities and requirement profiles.
A high water holding capacity and a simultaneously high amount of air promotes plant growth. Peat has a stable structure and due to the raw material’s low amount of nutrients and low pH, it is possible to produce optimal mixtures with suitable additives for all sorts of plant species. Peat as an essential basis of substrates therefore forms the foundation for the cultivation and propagation of plants.
Professional substrates with a peat basis have become just as important for production as seeds, fertilizers or young plants.
The essential features of peat substrates include the following:
- Stable composition, low dimensional weight
- Permanent availability
- Guaranteed structure
- Structural stability over long periods of time
- High pore volume
- High water and air capacity
- High capillarity
- Good absorbing capacity
- Exact range of fractions
- Free of pollutants and diseases
- Rather inactive against microbes
- Favorable pH buffering against pH adjustment
- Low nutrient content
- Fast re-wetting after desiccation
With additives such as fertilizer, calcium carbonate, clay, sand, perlite, coco fiber, humus, etc. the already good physical and chemical qualities of the raw material peat get optimized in the substrates corresponding to the requirements of the cultivated plants.
