Go down to 26th (?) street, or wherever the plant district is, you can find probably find peat moss. I'm pretty sure either Home Depot has it, but I could be wrong.

An easier solution is to pick up a bag of potting mix at Home Depot, it is mostly peat anyway and will do the job perfectly well.

More importantly, where will you be storing the tubers? If it is cold (35-50F), then they can be pretty dry and the newspaper may work nicely. If it's warmer than that, the tuber may need to be watered occasionally to prevent it from shriveling and death, in which case the shredded paper won't do a good job.

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