Migros is committed to protecting the moors - or is it?
Die Migros setzt sich für den Schutz der Moore ein oder doch nicht
Guest
"The raw material peat comes from moors, which provide a habitat for rare animals and plants. In Switzerland, the protection of peatlands has been enshrined in law since 1987. But abroad - for example in Scandinavia or Russia - such wetlands continue to be destroyed by peat extraction. By not using peat, Migros is taking a stand against this overexploitation."
Verena Diener from the Green Party said the following in 2010:
>>> Although peat extraction is banned in Switzerland, an estimated 150,000 tons are imported from abroad every year, mainly for use in horticulture. While peatlands in Switzerland are protected by the Federal Constitution, the import of peat abroad causes major environmental damage. The destruction of peatlands, which are home to extremely rare animals and plants, irrevocably destroys important biotopes that have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. Peat is an efficient carbon store that is converted into carbon dioxide through decomposition in the soil. The peat imported into Switzerland each year causes greenhouse gas emissions of around 300,000 tons of CO2. The extraction and use of peat is therefore in no way sustainable. Switzerland is unnecessarily burdening its climate and ecological balance sheet, as alternative products are available, at least for hobby gardening. <<<
What many people don't know is that not all peatlands in Switzerland are protected. Peat can be legally extracted, sold and purchased in Switzerland. The packaging or delivery bill does not say peat but fertilizer. There are no truly peat-free gardens, green spaces or parks, despite popular claims to the contrary. If you care about the environment, you should also avoid using peat substitute products. These products almost always contain coconut fibers from coconut palms that do not grow here. There are also products based on bark humus, ready-made compost or wood fibers, but even these are no substitute for peat, although they are sold as such. The qualities of natural peat cannot be achieved with anything else. This is why you should maintain and preserve the peaty soil in your own bog bed. You can also acidify it yourself, organically, free of charge but not without work.
Blue hydrangea at Migros-Doit-Garten
The red hydrangeas are the same plants in ordinary potting soil. The blue color is due to the acidic substrate, the peat.
Guest
Thank you @deactivated user for your very informative input. I didn't know that about hydrangeas and immediately searched for it and found the following: "White and pure red hydrangeas retain their color regardless of the pH value of the soil and are not suitable for blue coloring."
Guest
That's not quite right. If you want to have hydrangeas in your garden, you are often disappointed because the plants you buy either die in the same year or don't survive the winter. It is best to buy a plant in January and take cuttings from it for propagation. In acidic soil they usually turn blue and in alkaline soil red, white or green like the mother plant. Cultivating cuttings is not difficult but not easy either, you have to love the plants and know what you are doing. In return, you get hydrangeas around the house that sprout wonderfully here. The location, substrate and watering are of course also important. I have an old, home-grown, meter-high bush that produces balls of blue and red flowers every year.
Nature can't be pigeonholed, it does what it wants, so we should protect and preserve it. Where nature feels at home, it thrives in unusual, beautiful ways and often gives us wonderful colors or fruit.
@Migros Are plants with peat in the substrate also available at Migros? Or is it safe to buy potted plants, vegetable seedlings, etc. without having to worry about buying peat as well?
Guest
There's no point in asking your first question here, because nobody at the MGB knows, they're just office workers. Probably not even a salesperson from the garden center knows this, as they don't take the plants out of the pots. Most commercially available garden soils consist mainly of peat or have a considerable proportion of peat. However, this is rarely declared. Even soils labeled "peat-free" contain peat because otherwise Ottilie's normal housewife would have flowers that dry out too quickly. That's why "peat-free" soil is usually fertilized. But that doesn't mean that you can't get peat-free soil anywhere. However, it is easier to buy the cheapest potting soil and mix it yourself until it is optimal for the respective needs of the plants. For plants in tubs or containers in garden centers, the composition of the soil is often unknown because the centers are supplied by different dealers and not, or only rarely, by one and the same nursery. If you buy callas in SG, ZH, LU, BS, BE and GE today, all six will have the same packaging but will most likely have been grown to retail size by completely different nurseries. Peat is in all the pots, as it makes it easier to control the humidity. Depending on the plant, it is either mixed with the potting soil, at the top, only at the edge or at the bottom of the pot. However, it is not only a moisture regulator but also a fertilizer and often the depot for administered growth hormones. With a little gardening experience, you can learn a lot about the plant and its cultivation from the position of the peat in the pot, but precise explanations would go beyond the scope of this article.
You will often find lava granules in the pots of purchased plants, but rarely peat. Like peat, the stones serve to stabilize moisture, but also supply the roots with oxygen and sodium. Lava is the natural form of seramis or the previously used expanded clay, both of which are too expensive for large nurseries. Plants from cheap productions often have something like cat litter in their pots, which is not the worst method from a biological point of view, but they tend to smell and the plants usually come from greenhouse plantations. With herb plants you often find pumice stone and sometimes even chisel stones or broken bricks. All these different additions to the potting soil have one or more meanings.
If peat is used correctly in the garden, the most beautiful plants will sprout and thrive, but it would be good to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. It would be bad to condemn peat out of ignorance or to avoid it altogether. However, if you really want to know whether there is peat in the pot of the plant you have bought, you should get yourself a pH meter and read a few books on the subject of soil and substrate beforehand. Based on the measured value, the color and consistency of the soil in the pot, together with the weight and moisture, you can already draw some visual conclusions. It's not rocket science, you don't even have to be a gardener, I'm not one either. But you should enjoy it and love plants, otherwise even a self-taught study will be a bland story.
To your second question: You don't have to be afraid of peat. If you have a garden that was prepared by a gardener at some point, perhaps after the house was built, then you already have peat in your garden. Even if you bought potting soil or garden soil at some point or it was delivered to you, you will have peat in your garden. There are only a few potted plants that do not tolerate peat and most vegetable seedlings were sown in peat pots. But that's no reason to despair. Grow your own vegetables from seed next year and buy two Bokashi buckets so that you have peat-free soil by then. This soil is then guaranteed to be peat-free.
To your link: Peat substitutes are not better than natural peat, that's just a sales slogan. As you can read in the article, these so-called substitute products do not provide a good growing medium. Corn straw, wood chippings or bark compost consist of cellulose, do not provide any nutrients themselves and must therefore be mixed with soil. Land soil is nothing more than a part of the humus-rich arable soil in which agricultural products grow. Agricultural soil is fertilized, mainly with animal manure but also with vegetable manure, which usually contains large amounts of peat. As I mentioned in my first post here, peat is almost always declared as a fertilizer. The mixtures therefore also contain peat, usually imported peat. With the substitute products, the acidity is achieved through the decomposition of the cellulose in the substrate, but it does not last and acidification is hardly possible with it, and certainly not controlled. I like the fact that you mentioned poinsettias, because growing them really isn't an art. These so-called substitute products are intended for pot plants, like poinsettias, so that you can advertise with low CO2 values. What's more, farmers need new markets for their products until export subsidies are finally lifted in 2020. Trying to fool the wholesalers into thinking they're doing an X for a U can't hurt. In the end, however, it is the consumer who is the loser, because peat substitutes really are a case for the organic waste garbage can. They are useless for gardens and peat beds.
Anyone who doesn't want to believe that peat substitutes are no substitute for peat should ask Migros to plant their beloved oil palms in them. They need the peat soils of former rainforests to thrive and provide enough oil. I wonder whether Migros will face up to its responsibilities in 10 to 20 years' time, when the soil of the palm oil plantations has been depleted. Anyone who commits overexploitation of nature for the sake of short-term profits is acting recklessly. But this also applies to the Southeast Asians who are now prepared to destroy their lush and magnificent nature for a handful of dollars.
Guest
Migros just doesn't like to answer such (sensitive) questions, it still (!) has far too "good" an image! Unfortunately, it doesn't usually look so good in reality!
Guest
Hello everyone
Since 2013, Migros has completely dispensed with the sale of peat-containing soils for all soil products (Migros own brands and third-party brands) and is continuously increasing the proportion of organic soils (organic fertilization).
We are working closely with our producers and suppliers to further reduce the proportion of other products containing peat. In doing so, however, we are dependent on the availability of alternatives on the production market. Producers are guided by existing standards, laws and regulations and look for the best production options within these guidelines. In the area of plants, we are not yet in a position to completely dispense with peat-based soils in these pots due to insufficient quantities of alternative products, as peat continues to be used by the majority of producers due to its positive properties.
However, we are already working on the first conversions to peat-free substrates. In the area of growing products, for example, we will be able to switch to peat-free products from the 2017 season, and other products will follow.
http://www.doitgarden.ch/de/garten/gartenbedarf/anzucht/toepfe/torf-anzuchttoepfe--6cm-rund/pp.631253500000
