Is There Such a Thing as Too Much?

Jennifer Zurko

Have you ever heard the saying, “Too much of a good thing is never good”?

It’s an idiom that can be traced back hundreds of years, when Greek storyteller Aesop said, “It is possible to have too much of a good thing.”

In 1623, William Shakespeare wrote in “As You Like It”: “Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?” And other famous authors, like Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald, have used it to ruminate on the appropriate amounts of spirits to imbibe.

Because there can be inappropriate amounts. Of anything, really. Many of us have experienced the consequences of a night of imbibing. (A quote I like to say, usually with a shrug, “You play, you pay.”) A mango is delicious and nutritious. So are dried apricots. But eating many mangoes or a whole bag of apricots makes for a bad night.

But are there instances where too much is still not enough? Like, puppies and kittens and shoes and purses and Drake albums …? Okay, yeah, those are the things I would like more of. But you could probably fill the blanks with something you wouldn’t mind having more of.

Like, say, an unlimited supply of peat. The worries over peat shortages have been well-documented in conversations at trade shows and in these pages. And it still seems to be weighing on growers’ minds. To that end, we’ve decided to dedicate more space to addressing growing media challenges—including the shortages on peat—and offering some other options.

I can always count on my friend Dr. Brian Jackson to help me out when it comes to tackling the issues on growing media. As an expert on the subject, his knowledge is invaluable. He’s been all over the world, traveling to find and learn more about growing substrates, and how they can be used in production. This month, he provides some options for extending the life of your peat-based mixes.

Would you ever think that sugarcane could be a possible alternative to peat? Dr. Jeb Fields (editor of our Nursery & Landscape Insider newsletter and professor at Louisiana State University) is part of a team of researchers looking into it. You can see the results of their sugarcane bagasse trials.

Shiv Reddy, longtime technical expert for SunGro Horticulture, provides the answers to some common questions about how using coir in your peat-based mixes can compensate and complement each other.

Is that too much about peat? Maybe you’d say, “There’s no such thing!” Okay, we do have articles about other things, too. Like tips for hydrating URCs, results from a study on evolving market channels in horticulture and supplemental lighting for cut flowers.

So you see? There’s so much of the good stuff in here no one would ever accuse us of over-indulging!

On the flip side of that, as I write this, it’s right before the Christmas holidays, and the Ball Publishing office has been overcome with chocolates, cheese and crackers, donuts, etc. Which, as happens every year, has shown to be a very good example of having waaaaay too much of a good thing. GT