Who uses peat?

Who uses peat?19

In the UK, the four main market sectors that use peat are amateur gardeners, the professional horticultural industry, the private landscaping industry and local authorities. Figure 1 shows the proportion of peat used by each market sector in 2001. Amateur gardeners and the professional horticultural industry account for 66% and 32.9% of the total peat usage respectively. The private landscaping sector and local authority sectors account for 0.4% and 0.7%.

Amateur gardeners
Amateur gardening is the sector that uses by far the largest amount of peat in the UK. There was a substantial increase in the total level of peat consumption between 1993 and 1996.20 This was largely due to the increase in ‘patio gardening’ and the relatively low price of peat grow bags and multi-purpose composts sold by the multiple retailers. The increase was partly fuelled by the popularity of gardening programmes on television and the public’s desire for ‘instant gardens’. However, in recent years the level of peat consumption has stayed fairly constant.
It should be noted that the figure for the amount of peat used by amateur gardeners does not include that purchased indirectly when pot plants are purchased from retail outlets. For pot plants produced in the UK this data is included in the professional grower peat consumption data. Data concerning the amount of peat used indirectly through the import of potted plants was not included in the data sets looked at.

Professional Growers
There are several thousand professional growers of horticultural crops, such as ornamental plants and glasshouse vegetables, in the UK who use substantial quantities of peat. The available data indicates that professional growers do not use peat as a soil improver. They are however important purchasers of growing media, the vast majority (92%) of which is peat. Table1 and Figure 2 show the peat used by the various sectors of professional growers in England and Wales in 2000.

Table 1: Peat use by professional growers by sector for England & Wales(2000)21

Sector	Peat use (thousand m3)	% of total
Container Nursery Stock	316	38
Mushrooms	147	18
Bedding Plants	145	18
Pot Plants	76	9
Soft Fruit	17	2
Bulbs	43	5
Vegetable Transplants	59	7
Glasshouse Salads	18	2
Cut Flowers	8	1
TOTAL	829

 

Container nursery stock
This sector of professional growers uses the most peat. Many nursery stock growers mix their own substrates and therefore purchase raw peat rather than ready-made products. Much of this is imported from the Baltic States where peat is cheaper.

Mushrooms
Peat is used by the mushroom industry as a casing material. Recent research by the Horticultural Research Institute has found that a mixture of bark fines and fine particle tailings22 provide a good alternative to peat casing and has no impact on yield when used to replace up to 30% of the peat. The 100% bark/tailings mixes trialled gave about 80-90% of the yield of peat casing however.23
Since bark is 30% more expensive than peat, it is not considered economic on a commercial scale to completely replace peat. The volume of peat used for casing in the UK has reduced since 2000. This is mainly due to farm closures, due to competition from imports, but is also due to an increase in the use of tailings in casing material (about 2500m3 is used per year).24 A list of some of the main UK mushroom producers can be found in Appendix 1.

Bedding plants
This sector is a major user of peat. Trials by the Horticultural Development Council25 and on commercial nurseries have shown that there are a range of materials that can be used to successfully grow bedding plants. The key to success is in the adaptation of management to the different media.

Pot plants
A larger percentage of pot plants sold in the UK, compared with bedding/nursery stock plants are imported, mainly from Holland. The growing medium used is often 100% peat, however data was not available concerning how much peat is imported into the UK in this way.

Soft fruit
This is the main sector showing a significant increase in peat use in the last few years, due to the increase in production of strawberries in peat bags rather than in the soil. This has been in response to problems with soil-borne diseases and demands from supermarkets for high quality standards. Reliable alternatives to peat for strawberry growing are already available. For example, there been widespread adoption of coir in strawberry bag systems in the Netherlands.

Bulbs
Peat is used for forcing of bulbs to produce cut flowers and also for pot bulbs sold in planted containers/bowls. It is likely that a wide range of materials could be used instead of peat for this purpose, although many would carry a higher cost.

Vegetable transplant/salads/cut flowers
Young plants are raised in either peat blocks or modules/plugs in trays. Peat blocks are widely used for raising seedlings of vegetables, lettuce and cut flower crops (e.g. Chrysanthemum, Alstroemeria). Suitable alternative materials for use in this sector include coir and fine bark, however management regimes may need to be adapted.

Private Sector Landscapers
There are approximately 2000 landscape contractors operating in the UK. They use very little peat, since they use mainly soil improvers rather than growing media and tend not to use peat based products for this purpose.

Local Authorities
There are over 500 local authorities in the UK which are responsible for the maintenance of amenities such as parks, gardens and playing fields. As with landscape contracting, local authorities tend to use mainly soil improvers rather than growing media, almost 100% of which are peat alternatives. 2001 saw an increased use of growing media by some local authorities however (41,900m3 compared to 13,800m3 in 1999), 60% of which were peat-based. Whilst some councils claim to have gone peat free, there may still be peat present in the pots of the plants which they obtain from commercial growers.