Guide: Growing Without Peat

Description

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Everyone will tell you to use coconut coir. Almost nobody will tell you it arrives loaded with sodium and potassium, that it needs three to six rinses, and that without a TDS meter you will never know when to stop.

That is why most peat-free attempts fail — not immediately, but six months later, with no apparent cause.

This guide explains what a growing medium actually does, why peat does it so well, and how to get the same result another way.

Inside

· The full coir rinsing protocol, with the numbers to aim for

· Eight materials rated honestly: pH, lifespan, what they do well, where they let you down

· Mixes genus by genus — Nepenthes, Sarracenia, Dionaea, Drosera, Pinguicula, Cephalotus, Utricularia, Heliamphora — with a realistic difficulty rating

· Water quality: the TDS thresholds that actually matter

· How to convert an established plant without losing it

· A diagnosis table: what you see, the likely cause, what to do

· Growing your own live sphagnum

· Where to source each material in Canada, plus a printable record sheet

Organized in two levels. Level 1 is enough to succeed with your first plants. Level 2 is for growers converting a whole collection who want to solve problems themselves.
What this guide does not promise: that it’s easy across the board. Nepenthes go peat-free almost effortlessly; terrestrial Utricularia defeat a lot of people. That’s stated plainly, genus by genus.