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Re:Peat for Grindal Worms
> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 17:19:48 -0500
> From: "ksimolo" <ksimolo at frontiernet_net>
> Subject: Re:Peat for Grindal Worms
>
> Hi Tomoko,
>
> One of the fish that I breed are killifish and I incubate their eggs on a
> small amount of damp peat. The peat I use is from Jiffy Pellets. These are
> flat disks of dried compressed peat wrapped with a thin net webbing. When
> placed in water, they swell up significantly. Gardeners use them to start
> seeds in. This peat is very fine. I use the kind without added fertilizers
> (somewhere I have the code number for these). I bought a case which has
> lasted for over two years. After using it to incubate eggs, I take the used
> peat and recycle it by using it for for my Grindal worms and my red
> wrigglers <who recycle one more time :) >.
The ability to make plain peat work for grindals seems tied to the ability
to keep pH high in the growing container. The peat naturally wants to push
pH down with humic acids, but the worms seem to die off if it goes too low.
I could never get pure peat to work, but my friend up in Napa has great
results with it. The main difference I can detect is that my Fremont water
is 270 ppm tds out of the tap, while her's is about 470 ppm.
Fresh pellets do usually contain some alkaline buffers (not listed on the
labels, BTW) to prevent damp-off in new shoots, but boiling, rinsing and
long use can use those up. I guess I need to try a culture with some added
baking soda, and see if that cures my problem. Until then, I have done OK
with "Black Magic" potting soil, or a potting-soil/peat mixture.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 wright at killi dot net
http://www.atchison.com/Killifish/BAKA-WCW-10.html
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