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The big spread

300 m³ of peat moss on 6 hectares

16/12/2025  A total of 300 m³ of peat moss was spread over 6 hectares in MOOSland. The project aims to help a small plant make it big – peat moss.

As a renewable raw material, it can replace peat in horticulture, e.g. in vegetable production. It can be cultivated in a climate-friendly manner on rewetted degraded raised bogs

and, with a total of only 10 t CO₂ eq/ha/year (including harvesting, cf. Daun et al. 2023), it performs three times better than raised bog grassland (32 tonnes) in terms of GHG emissions.

Research projects over the past 20 years have shown that sphagnum moss cultivation works. The cultivation method is now being optimised on the MOOSland trial areas in Hankhauser Moor and Barver Moor.

The land was prepared with particular care: only a minimal amount of topsoil was removed, access roads serve merely as boundaries, and the irrigation system has been minimised. Sowing was carried out using a caterpillar track to protect the sensitive peatland soil.

Scientists are now investigating how peat mosses grow in this new production system compared to the old one and what effects this has on greenhouse gas balance, biodiversity, hydrology, nutrients, economics, etc. The two sites differ in terms of climatic and hydrological conditions. The aim is to use this information to develop a handbook of measures for the successful implementation of peat moss paludiculture and its limitations. Both demonstration areas also serve as visual aids for numerous interested groups and, in particular, for the parallel stakeholder process in the two districts.

🔗 More about the MOOSland model and demonstration project at moosland.net.