How to Hydrate Peat Moss - When You Need it NOW

Your Sphagnum Peat Moss Is A Solid Block! Now What?

It’s time to go out and start prepping everything for spring. In my case, it would be getting things all ready to make more ( yes, more ) hypertufa pots and planters. But you may be prepping to plant your seedling for your windowsill or growing lights etc

But when you go to your storage spot for the peat moss, it is not scoop-able, or shovel-able……it is dried into a solid block!  But let me tell you how to rehydrate peat moss. It is so easy. Check out all my posts about hypertufa gardening here.

image of peat moss rehydration

So get ready to hear my easy method. I can let you know an old fashioned way of getting it back to normal. It is so simple, anyone can do it. If you trust them around boiling water.  Maybe you have one of those outdoor plumbed faucets that connects to the hot water line? Well, aren’t you the lucky one!

Note: Those old planters dried up from last year will work just the same. Just dump the whole block into a large bin and we can treat it the same way.

image of pan of boiling water

It is really simple. Just cut a hunk of the peat moss bale and place it in a container. Use a big container because the peat moss will hold lot of water. Your container will need to be a type which can have boiling water poured into it.

Lay the chunks in and pour the water on top. You will quickly see the water gone! Pour more. It holds a lot more than you think.  Check out the video on YouTube.

Found Your Peat Moss Is A Huge Solid Block? Fix It As Easy As This!

Leave it sit to cool or just leave it overnight.

Next morning just come back and start stirring and poking the lumps. After mixing and stirring a while, if you see remaining lumps, just boil and pour more water. Voila!

Your peat moss will now be just slightly damp or even almost dry.  I bag it at this stage in large zipper bags . I measure it in a gallon pitcher to start, but soon you can tell how thickly a bag needs to be packed.

For the hypertufa making, I have a gallon bag of peat moss to mix with a gallon bag of Portland cement. ( I feel like the perlite or vermiculite is so easy to access and scoop, I don’t bother bagging it in advance. But you may wish to do that too!)

All ready to go.

If I am mixing soil, I can take one of the gallons of peat and mix a lot of crushed granite or coarse sand with it to make a huge amount of soil mix for my succulents.  If I should need to amend the soil in the garden with it, I am sure to blend it down into and under the soil. IT WILL DRY OUT AGAIN SO KEEP IT SEALED OR MIXED  AND WATERED WELL INTO YOUR GARDEN.

How to Rehydrate Peat Moss - Even in old planters

Reminder: Don’t throw away those old garden pots that held hanging plants from last year. I usually have a few hanging in the shed. The old dried peat soil in them is lighter than air but just pop that lump out, pour on the hot water and there you go!  If I am mixing soil from a past year to use again, I add a few shakes of cinnamon in it to act as a kind of fungicide.
Add some time-release plant food and a bit of new soil or peat moss, and you are good to go another year.

Waste not, want not…eh?

Join us in the The Hypertufa Gardener Group on Facebook and talk with all of us who are interested in hypertufa and gardening in general. Show us your photos. We love new ideas.

2 Comments

  1. Mark Cameron says:

    Will Sphagnum peat moss burn like peat for heating.
    Thank you

    1. Peat was dried and burned in some countries as a source of fuel for centuries.

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