I buy the pine fines by the bag (2 cubic feet) at my local nursery. It is sold as pine mulch only much more finely ground up. It works well as an organic and acidic additive in my soil. I have noticed a definite improvement in my ground soil since I started using it. My local nursery orders and sells a lot of it. I looked at the bag and it is just labeled as "Mulch" by Pine Tree Products, Pompano Beach, FL. You could ask your local nursery (NOT a big box store) to order some for you. I pay $3 a bag. I just mix it into my soil or potting mix as an additional organic. It does help to keep the soil moist longer. And I also use it on occasion as a top mulch for potted plants or a small garden area that has small plants in it.

Thanks Becky! I will definitely check a couple of nurseries here in Daytona. I've been buying the Orchid Bark Mix (the one with bark, charcoal and perlite) and sometimes the Coarse Bark Mix (with no other additives) and that gets expensive. It will be great if I can find the finely ground pine fines in a 2 cu ft bag!

Sorry to be late in replying; I have been cutting down trees today in all this heat.

According to Gerry Hood, who is the President of the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association ...well, here is a link so you can read what he says: http://www.peatmoss.com/blog/u...

There was a time when doctors did not know enough to wash their hands before performing surgery. They have learned.
There was a time when people did not wash their hands before consuming food. Most of them have learned.

If there is even a 1 in a million chance for a person to get sick from this fungus, and if wearing gloves, wearing a dust mask and washing hands after handling soil, plants and the moss will save even one person from disease, then I don't mind a few people dissing me here on ATP.

The article was about moss, so my statement was about moss. I did not see the need to list all the places where the fungus is present.

I was trained in scientific method, Greene. There are dangers in every single thing we touch, every single breath we take, and every single morsel we eat. I prefer NOT to live in a germ-free environment.

I have used sphagnum moss (I don't think it was peat since it was in a bag and was loose) but didn't know there was a difference, so am really glad to have this info. My sister has blueberries, so I will tell her about using peat.

Thanks!

Milled peat moss is not always sold in a compressed bale. There are smaller bags of milled peat moss now available in the stores and online - nice and loose and easy to use. Yes, it's a tad more expensive than buying a huge bale, but some people only need a small amount and don't have room to store leftover partial bales, so the smaller bags are a good thing.

The 3.9 compressed bale yields about 8 cubic feet of loose peat; some nursery stores sell milled peat moss loose (not compressed) 1 cu foot bags. There are other sizes; I just used these two as an example.

Good point, Greene. No one here (I'm in a very small town) carries "pure" peat, other than in bales. It would be handy to have a 1 cf. bag or even a smaller bag for those not wanting or needing a bale.

I had to purchase a new plastic trash can to store my huge bale of milled peat moss. People who garden on patios or in apartments can appreciate the smaller size packages.

When I went to buy my peat for the blueberries I didn't really notice that there were 2 sizes of bales -- so I asked for "a bale of the sphagnum peat moss" and the clerk asked if I wanted the large one... well, of course! But I would have taken the large one anyway, and I ended up with maybe 1/4 of it left... is there anything in particular that it would be good for?

I was recently in a temperate rainforest in Alaska and this is sphagnum moss close up.

Sandy, the peat can be used to make custom-potting soil mixes. Most tropical plants (houseplants) do well with peat mixes. Peat also can be used as starter material for germinating seeds. You can also amend your soil with it, particularly if you have some soil that you want to retain a bit more moisture.

Anna, that's an interesting picture. Sphagnum actually grows everywhere there is the right combination of moderate temperature, moisture, and shade. I even have a few patches at my house here in Mississippi.

Though this thread is several years old, since no one has posted the answer, I figure I will... To tell the difference:
Elementary, dear Watson : you grab the same kit you would use to test your soil pH, and test the moss products. If the test shows acid, it's peat, if pH neutral, you have sphagnum...

Six year old posts, Andrew, and still being read. Wow. It is now practically impossible to find milled sphagnum moss. It used to be a major component in my custom-made potting media, but hasn't been in probably 3 yr. Regular (long fibered) sphagnum is easily found and of course peat is available everywhere. You don't need an acid testing kit to tell the difference. Now that milled sphagnum is no longer available, this wouldn't be an issue. They look and feel of sphaghum moss and peat moss are completely different and are of course labeled completely differently.

It is interesting that these old posts are resurrected occasionally if for no other reason, to point out how things have changed.

Andrew! You've joined a great gardening site