Question
I bought some sphagnum peat moss at my local hard ware store but it is a litle different from the peat moss I bought from you guys the peat moss you guys have it looks a litle more like powder while this one is very rough and whole and seams to have pieces of wood in it I just wanted to know if this was ok to use and if its completely necessary to use perlite in the soil bacause I can't seem to find perlite that does not have plant food in it

Answer
Hi Albert,

What was the brand of peat moss, and size of the bag you got?  You only want to buy peat moss in the bales that you usually find outside in garden centers.  Smaller bags are very unpredictable on ingredients, and often contain fertilizer.

Small sticks are pretty common in peat moss.  We currently use Lakeland that we get at Home Depot.

Depending on what your planting, you do need something in the peat to break it up some to give it better drainage.  The best ingredients for that tend to be perlite, silica sand, or pumice.  Pumice is usually only available on the west coast.  If you go to a big box store you can usually find silica sand as "Commercial Grade Sand".  It'll be with the concrete products.  The catch is going to be quantity.  If you go out into the outdoor yard of big box store garden centers you can usually find untreated perlite in large bags.  It's the same issue with the sand.  You'll probably need to buy a 100lb. sack.  Neither of those two things are particularly expensive, it's just a lot.  Most cp dealers, us included, sell quite a bit of soil products for this reason.  The shipping is the deal-breaker unfortunately.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com