Granulating sphag - pics later

Yesterday night came home stoned by the pharmaceutical industry paper - realised missed out some of the important points in the first question (last question attempted) - shame on me since I had been typing SOPs for some time in the Army =.=

Some times I do not know what exactly examiners are asking for. My answers are often like adding legs to a drawing of a snake. Tried to cover as much as I can regurgitate. The paper was well balanced - very often I could answer only either of the question in any option but not in full =.= Still can pass ar.

I'll be uploading pics only when my card seems full and when I'm freed from my basic degree.

Left the cut up sphag to soak in distilled water for the past 4 days. Opened the container and the smell of the tannins and fermenting sphag was XP - smelt like molten plastic. Had to wash the mixture another 2-3 times until the amount of foam decreased and water starts running clear - distilled water from Watsons not cheap xp. Another round of snipping through with scissors and another round of washing.

When washing, only sieve the top floating material and about 80% of the sunken material. Do not collect the dark bits below - these are the stems (containing quite a lot of tannins). Tannins may act as astringents - after soaking my hands in to scoop up sphag, I can say may skin feels better ^^ . Tannins also act as herbicides against certain plants - you can't see any other surviving plants in the vicinity of pine tree plantations or near the rivers contaminated by tannins.

After a few rounds of cutting and washing, the sphag will start releasing gums - these act as binding agents during granulations. Also, the water will start running clean. But if you use Chinese sphag, you may not get the gumminess from processed New Zealand moss.

Drain out all the water and spread the moss to dry partially before passing through a 3mm seize. If the moss is too wet, it's a bit hard to sieve into fine semi-dried granules, if not you'll end up squeezing water through and the moss will not pass through.