moisture content in soil

[john]

Could anyone tell me what peat with a 70% moisture content would look and feel like. I would appreciate any help

John

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Why? What source is suggesting 70%, and for what reason?

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from john contains these words:

Dry peat is odourless ,dark brown, crumbly, friable, soft and loose. It can absorb a lot of water like a sponge. When it's wet, it's still odourless, almost black, and heavier.

Janet.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Odourless? That's crazy. Peat's got a great smell. You can even get a slight hint of it in some single malt scotch made from water which flowed through peat. Lagavulin is one, if I recall.

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from "JoeSpareBedroom" contains these words:

Only when burning :-)

You can even get a

Lagavulin's nose is also supposed to be reminiscent of seaweed, salt and smoke :-)

Even fresh water that's brown with peat, does not smell when you drink it.

Janet (Scotland).

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Janet, one of two things is happening here. Either peat moss from Canada has a scent not present in what you've got there, or you have had a mild stroke which has affected your sense of smell.

As far as the brand of scotch, my experience was at a scotch tasting event. If not Lagavulin, then a different brand. By the end of the party, nobody could remember their own names.

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from "JoeSpareBedroom" contains these words:

Or, you suffer from some kind of alcohol-fuelled delusions*.

• Yep, as I thought. You are a drunken amnesiac lying face down in a puddle you made, mumbling "Hell, this amber liquid sure smells and tastes like Scotch".

Janet.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

So, when I grab a handful of peat moss to make potting soil mix, the smell is a hallucination?

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from "JoeSpareBedroom" contains these words:

Halitosis. Someone had to tell you :-)

Janet

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Speaking of inebrialated (and our president would say)....what time is it there? :-)

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from "JoeSpareBedroom" contains these words:

Thursday, 20.10.

Janet,

[Alexander Miller]

|The message |from "JoeSpareBedroom" contains these words:

|> So, when I grab a handful of peat moss to make potting soil mix, the smell |> is a hallucination? | | Halitosis. Someone had to tell you :-) | | Janet

Joe, Janet is just having you on. It's a habit in which the Scots take great delight, having honed it to a fine art by long practice on the English. Let me re-peat here what I said in another thread :

Isle of Jura "Superstition" has just the proper, somewhat subdued level of PEATY TASTE; although if I'm feeling particularly robust - and affluent - I might splurge on a glass of Laphroaig, which absolutely reeks of the stuff.

Alexander

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from Alexander Miller contains these words:

Psssst Joe, Alexander is a Scot, I am not.

Janet.

[Alexander Miller]

| Psssst Joe, Alexander is a Scot, I am not. | | Janet.

Oh, a "plant."

Psssst Joe, I'm actually Canadian now but enjoy my Scots heritage - well, most of it.

Scotland doesn't yet require folks like Janet to have citizenship, but just you wait .....

Now I think I'll quit this thread while I'm ahead :-))

Alexander

[john]

I found the answer and as no one in this group seems to know I will explain.

You get completely dry peat and weigh it - say 100g.

You then add water and weigh it again. If it weights 150g it contains

50% water content. If it weights 170g it contains 70% moisture content.

Simple!

John

[xPosTech]

Isn't peat able to absorb several times its own weight in water? That being the case, I don't think it would feel wet. Maybe a tad damp, but I've never made that particular test.

But it wouldn't take very much water at all to reach 70%. I've bought huge bales of the stuff that weighed very little for their size. It was marked 'peat mulch'. Fine, dusty stuff. I think it works better as a soil amendment than sitting on top. Didn't want to put it down in windy conditions.

God Bless

[John McWilliams]

Perhaps simple, but wrong. In your first example, if it weighed 200g, it'd be at 50% water.

[john]

Well John

It is really important that i know this so could you explain further. For 100g of dry peat what would it weight with 70% moisture content?

John

[Bill Rose]

john, if 70% of the wetted peat's weight is water, then the dry peat represents 30% or .3(x) = 100g where "x" equals the total weight. Rearrange: x = 100g/.3 = 333.3333g

So you would have 3 1/3 times more water than peat in the final product.

- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

[John McWilliams]

Having thought a bit further on this, it may be that volume by weight and volume by mass may have gotten mixed in the first formula.

In any event, john, what is the final application to which you are trying to find the optimum mixture of peat and water?