Sphagnum moss is a plant that can be used as an amendment or replacement of soil in living walls because of it’s unique chemical composition which can hold up to 20 times its weight in water. Sphagnum moss is a dense, fibrous plant that thrives in wet habitats. It is harvested in bogs primarily for use in horticulture and agriculture.

Sphagnum Moss Benefits:

  • Peat mosses are usually presented as one single group of plants, but they are actually a huge number of species of mosses, with a lot of different characteristics.
  • They live in wet environments and they have a thick cell wall that allows them to store a large quantity of water inside their cells.
  • These Mosses are able to endure long periods when there is no rainfall because of this characteristic.
  • Sphagnum moss is also beneficial because it helps reduce the loss of moisture in the soil and facilitates a healthier environment for roots.
  • Sphagnum moss can hold from 20 times its weight in water, making it extremely effective to maintain nutrients when wet.
  • Once planted, Sphagnum Moss is able to maintain its moisture and nutrients longer than other mosses making it an invaluable aid for plant growth.
  • Sphagnum moss also has antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral properties which can improve soil quality.

In addition, Sphagnum Moss has very good insulation properties because of the thickness of its cells. Another benefit of Sphagnum Moss is that unlike other mosses, it doesn’t have rhizoids. Rhizoids are the roots that occur in most mosses and they are very hard to remove when transplanting because they take many years to decompose.

This characteristic makes Sphagnum Moss an excellent alternative for soil because it can be easily separated from the roots of other plants and transplanted without worrying about it.

It also has a high resistance to drought conditions which are becoming more frequent due to climate change, making Sphagnum Moss an excellent plant that can adapt itself easily.

How is Sphagnum Moss beneficial in Living walls?

The main reason Sphagnum Moss is used in the Living Wall planting process is mostly due to the moss ability to retain water for a long period of time. The moss, provides a prolonged moist environment that is absorbed by the plants overtime. These plants are either drought tolerant or require very little water on a regular basis which can be provided by the sphagnum moss in tandem with the right irrigation interval.

Sphagnum Moss vs. Sphagnum Peat Moss

Since Sphagnum Moss and Peat Moss both come from the larger genus of “Sphagna,” they are technically not different plants. However, it is how they are harvested that distinguishes these two types; Peat Moss is harvested in its natural state while Sphagnum Moss is grown specifically for use in the horticulture industry. The harvesting of Sphagnum moss does not deplete the bogs where it grows, but rather enables the peatlands to recover even better than before because it allows light to penetrate deep into the bog.

Where is Sphagnum peat moss harvested?

Bog in Bruce Peninsula Canada. A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss.

There are over 350 species of sphagnum moss, but most of the varieties harvested for sphagnum moss products grow in wetlands of the northern hemisphere – mainly Canada, Michigan, Ireland and Scotland. Commercial sphagnum peat moss is also harvested in New Zealand and Peru. These varieties grow in bogs, which are sometimes drained to make harvesting the sphagnum peat moss (sometimes called peat moss) easier.

Peat moss is harvested by collecting the dead moss debris from the bottom of the bogs and wetlands where the sphagnum moss grows. This means that this dead moss material is also mixed with other decayed plant and insect material, making it extremely rich in organic nutrients.

Sphagnum moss is collected from still-living moss on the surface of bogs and wetlands. These chunks of living plant material are dried after harvesting, making the final product a pure chunk of the sphagnum moss, not a combination of other dried material.

Quality and Sustainability of Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum moss can be harvested much quicker than peat-based bedding plants. It’s also more sustainable and environmentally friendly, with a shorter development time that makes it easier on our environment too!

When looking at suppliers make sure they are reputable as well since sustainability should always come first no matter what. Some suppliers use chemicals in the growing process which then lack that natural quality that sphagnum moss is loved for. So always ask or contact them to get their organic certification if possible. It should be noted that because of this, sphagnum moss can be slightly pricier than traditional potting soil but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

In conclusion, we can say that Sphagnum moss is a great alternative to traditional potting soil and peat moss and it is because of its water storage capacity, thick cell structure, insulation value and its resistance to droughts.

For more information about our Cortiça Garden Cork system and our planting methods please read our planting instructions or download our planting guide here.