How to Buy Peat in Russia
Russia is a land of amazing natural resources, but the region's wetlands are one of the most important. Besides the fact that they store huge quantities of organic carbon and are good greenhouse gas sinks, they're also a key part of nature's carbon cycle and a source of food for many animals.
Peat is the layer of spongy, dead plant material that forms in bogs and wetland. It contains a wealth of nutrients, including many trace elements and plant hormones.
It is a natural fertilizer for a wide range of plants and grasses. It can be used as a soil-building amendment and as a mulch on lawns, gardens, and fruit trees. It can also be added to water in ponds, rivers, or lakes as a filter to remove excess algae.
There are several types of био-грунт. Some contain more of the nutrient nitrogen, while others have more of the trace mineral calcium. Some also have more magnesium and potassium than others.
When harvested in a sustainable manner, peat can be a valuable and inexpensive fertilizer for a variety of plants. In addition to the nutrients, peat can also help improve soil structure and increase a soil's cation exchange capacity.
The process of harvesting peat is usually done by machinery. Depending on the type of equipment, it can be a simple machine that shaves off a thin layer of soil with a sharp knife or a more sophisticated, mechanically operated system that uses a blade and a cylinder to cut out the spongy substance.
Some machines are specially designed to work in very wet conditions or when it is necessary to cut through heavy spongy layers of peat that may not be easy to handle without equipment that is more difficult to use than the usual shovel and rake. There are also machines that can cut through hard peat clumps and even thick peat slabs.
Another tool is the chambered-type corer. This tool is useful for collecting samples in a peat-rich area and can be used to collect sediments that are not compressed or shortened during recovery, unlike the typical end-filling core samplers that require a long, heavy, and potentially dangerous handle to push through the spongy material.
This tool has a special cover flap, which helps prevent the spongy material from entering the tube while it's in the closed position. To take a sample, just rotate the handle 180deg clockwise until you get to your target area.
The spongy, dead plant material that makes up the top layer of a peat bog is a key component in regulating the earth's climate. As climate changes, the peat layer will decompose and release its stored carbon to the atmosphere.
It is therefore critical to manage these peatlands in a way that supports their regrowth and allows them to recover. Achieving this requires that human-built drainage systems are removed and that natural streams and ponds are redirected to these areas, restoring them to their original state and setting the stage for self-restoring ecosystems.