MOOSland

Peat moss paludiculture as a sustainable agricultural use of raised bog soils

MOOSland is a model and demonstration project by the University of Greifswald and seven partners in Lower Saxony. It aims to make a small plant grow big - peat moss. It can be produced as a renewable raw material to replace peat in horticulture with great benefits for the climate and the economy on rewetted degraded raised bog areas. This has been demonstrated by the previous projects TORFMOOS, PROSUGA, MOOSGRÜN, MOOSWEIT and OptiMOOS. Over a ten-year period from October 2023, MOOSland now intends to implement the cultivation and utilization of peat moss biomass, which has already been researched in pilot projects, on a large scale.

In natural raised bogs, peat moss grows under nutrient-poor, wet conditions. Currently, however, most raised bogs are drained and used as grassland. In order to stop the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, these peatland areas must be rewetted. But even then, raised bog areas can still be used for agricultural purposes, e.g. for the cultivation of peat moss in paludiculture. Peat moss stores water in its cells, up to 30 times its own weight. It provides a renewable raw material with similar properties to the peat formed from it, which is currently the most important raw material for substrates in horticulture. Peat moss biomass is therefore an excellent substitute for peat. MOOSland will now help to investigate and implement peat moss paludiculture on a large scale in an ecologically, economically and socially acceptable way.

Therefore, it is optimizing two existing pilot areas in the districts of Ammerland and Diepholz in Lower Saxony, which together cover around 20 hectares, and expanding them by seven hectares. The project aims to use agricultural structure analysis and stakeholder participation to work out the obstacles and solutions for large-scale implementation and to initiate peat moss paludiculture on other areas in the two model regions and beyond. In order to facilitate marketing as a substrate, the preparation of a quality label for peat moss biomass is planned, as is the case for other common raw materials in the substrate sector. The development of suitable substrate mixtures and their use in nurseries are also on MOOSland's agenda.