Peat moss

Peat is an unconsolidated accumulation of partly decomposed plant material, used as a fuel source, as a mulch, and for other uses.

Peat has been burned for heating and cooking or used as soil since the New Stone (Neolithic) Age, at least fifty-five hundred years ago.

Peat has many uses in agriculture, industry, and energy generation because of its organic chemical content and combustion properties. Although abundant in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, it has been exploited as fuel primarily in northwestern Europe.

Like crude oil and coal, peat is composed of the remains of dead organisms compressed underground, and it can be burned in home stoves and fireplaces or in factories and public power plants. Because peat is lightly compressed plant matter, it also works well as soil for agriculture and horticulture.

There are 5 different peats recognised, differentiated mainly by their depth and mineral content. Peats formed by waterlogging by groundwater have received relatively little nutrients, and in their ‘unimproved’ state are therefore very infertile, and highly acidic. Those formed by flooding with surface water and trapped rainwater are generally much more fertile, because of higher nutrient loadings, and less acidic. Undeveloped peat has a very low bulk density – typically only 0.05 – 0.15 tonnes dry weight per cubic meter, which makes peat soil very spongy and easily pugged.