Soils and layers
Live sphagnum moss
Living peat moss that keeps the surface wet and acid.
What the simulation uses
- Holds water
- 65 % by volume
- Water it keeps after draining; the rest runs down to the drainage.
- Pore space
- 93.5 % by volume
- Room for air and water between grains; low means roots suffocate when wet.
- Weight
- 40 g/L
- How heavy a litre is.
- pH
- 3.5 to 5 pH
- How acid it keeps the soil.
- Mould risk
- none
- How much fresh food it gives white mould; high-risk soils fuzz over in the first weeks.
- Nutrients
- low
- Plant food it brings.
- Presses down to
- 40 % of its loose depth
- How far pressing can pack it, keeping its weight.
Description
This living moss holds about twenty times its dry weight in water and resists rot. It grows when kept wet and bright, but turns brown or white if it dries out or gets hard water. Water it with distilled water.
Also called living sphagnum.
Estimated, where sources were thin: bulk density as a layer and growth-mat water % by volume estimated.