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Green moss growing on top

B

busr25

Guest
I have 4 vft's. 2 red dragons & 2 green, although I don't know which is which any more. My 'problem' is that 2 of the plants don't look as healthy as the others. I just took them out of dormancy about a month ago, and was thrilled that they were still alive. The unhealthy looking ones both have a layer of green moss growing on the top of the 'soil'. The 2 healthy plants do not have this. The unhealthy ones do, however, have new growth. These plants are much smaller, and the new traps are very very tiny.

Is there correlation between healthy plants & no moss growing, and unhealthy plants with moss growing?
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Thanks
 
nope, the moss will not do anything. venus flytraps make small, sometimes wiry leaves and traps when they first come out of dormancy. They are perfectly healthy
 
What kind of moss are you referring to? If it is moss other than sphagnum, then you actually might have some concerns.

Carpet type mosses frequently grow when there are mineral salts to exploit, and are an indicator that things might not be right in the substrate.

Personally, I would probably just repot it to be on the safe side. Alternatively you could try flushing the pot from the top with at least a pint of pure water for a few days, or leave the plant out in the rain.

Maybe I am worrying too much, but I always get suspicious when moss all of a sudden starts growing the surface.
 
I can attest that mosses are a cause for concern, salts or no.  I have just spent the last 30 mins tweezing moss out of a clump of D. spathulata that it was positively strangling.  I am convinced that the moss has been killing the sundew simply through shading it out--it was growing in the clump as if the sundew were growing medium!

I'll be picking at the thing for months, probably, before I've eliminated the moss.  It's all over the terrarium, too.

Steve
 
Steveo...like you I am always tweezing moss out of pots. I just hate it. Some pots have none and some do. But I worry about the strangulation aspect too.

Suzanne
 
Oh seriously, I can't believe everyone is overlooking this, lol!  You have 2 red and 2 green?  2 look good, 2 bad?  Your ill looking ones are your Red Dragons, they are more sensitive then the Green Dragon and will always look like dirt after dormancy in conparison.  LOL!  As to moss, you probubly just have a temperent sphagnum.  They do their major growth in the winter, my pot got it's new layer over it's first winter too.  If the wimpy ones are indeed the same varient then they could of been exposed to spoor while the others where not.

If the moss is not sphagnum their is something wrong with your soil, but seeing as the plants are not dead your probubly fine.  But should you find you have the wrong soil, repot, otherwise don't mess with them, Red Dragons are loads pickyer then other varents and might go into shock.

As to those saying that sphagnum is bad, your right in that small plants and overwaterd plants can have issues, but normally, that moss protects the plant from a lot of nasties like fungi and water impurities.  It also improves humidity, buffers pH....

So anyhow, I'm putting my bet on the wimps being the Reds.
 
I guess I forgot to mention that that I got these plants from this site, so the 'soil' should be ok. I have all four pots sitting in 2 separate trays of water. One healthy, and one not so healthy, in each tray, so I'm not so sure that overwatering is the issue, but I'm still barely a novice here. I've noticed that people mention using pure water & distilled water. I have been using well water. am I lucky that they're still alive? Or is that the clue I've been searching for?

The moss is very short. Not like a couple pictures i've seen on this site where the moss is very 'hairy'.

Thanks.
 
It might be the well water, but it doesn't explain why 2 of the plants are doing ok while the other 2 are not.

I agree with Darcie - the 2 that are not doing so well are the Akai Ryu's (Red Dragons). They are much slower growers and generally weaker than the Green Dragons.
 
I would definitely get rid of the well water! Usually it has ALOT of minerals in it from the ground that it is filtered through. Get some distilled or R/O water at the grocery store and I bet you'll see a difference.

Good Luck
Tag
 
  • #10
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (busr25 @ Mar. 22 2003,10:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Is there correlation between healthy plants & no moss growing, and unhealthy plants with moss growing?
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Thanks[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I tend to agree. When ever I have moss growing in my soil it is a sure sign of death (sorry, busr25). I think it is a wrong mix of soil that causes it
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. As it seems when ever I transplant (Ok not every time) Cp's they get that green moss and then die. Gosh and Spring is suppose to be filled with growth and joy...
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O'well at least I can grow crab grass really good!
 
  • #11
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Travis @ Mar. 25 2003,10:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
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4--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (busr25 @ Mar. 22 2003,10
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4)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Is there correlation between healthy plants & no moss growing, and unhealthy plants with moss growing?
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Thanks[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I tend to agree.  When ever I have moss growing in my soil it is a sure sign of death (sorry, busr25). I think it is a wrong mix of soil that causes it
confused.gif
. As it seems when ever I transplant (Ok not every time) Cp's they get that green moss and then die. Gosh and Spring is suppose to be filled with growth and joy...
confused.gif
 
wink.gif
O'well at least I can grow crab grass really good![/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
mmm, you need a lot of water for moss to grow, and your red dragons need a little less water then others so it tends to sit in the pot, but well water could be letting a bad moss in, but I'm still betting on the ill looking ones being the reds. Are that skinny and sort of narled looking? Twisted around and such? If so, thats just the way red dragons sometimes grow.
 
  • #12
hey i got some moss in my vft pot. it is a young plant. It doesn't look to healthy. The moss is like single pieces and not bushy moss its kinda like very small furry blades of grass.
 
  • #13
There are lots of mosses other than Sphagnum that grow in CP pots.
Here are links to a few photos of some common mosses that you might find in your pots.
Rhytidiadelphus (Shaggy Moss) http://www.borealforest.org/lichens/lichen13.htm
Polytrichum (Hair Cap Mosses) http://www.borealforest.org/lichens/lichen10.htm
http://www.science.siu.edu/landpla....om.JPEG
Hypnum http://www.science.siu.edu/landplants/Bryophyta/images/Hypnum.JPEG
Breutalia http://www.kaimaibush.co.nz/Bryophyta/Mosses/Bartramiaceae.html
 
  • #14
My S. minor has a thin carpet of that moss on the surface of the media, but it hast always done well.
 
  • #16
I have Hypnum moss on some of my pots, but they are all doing fine.(&#33
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  • #17
Quick Point:

Well water (something I am fairly familiar with having two wells on our land) is likely full of dissolved solids, and is at the very least feeding your algae/moss growth.

Flush your pots with distilled water and discontinue it's use. THe effects are cumulative, but they will build up and they will damage your plants eventually, maybe even to death.

If you are willing to re-pot, do so in a nice mix of peat and perlite, or you can buy horticultural sand, or a product called Gro-Cor from petflytrap (Gro-Cor is washed and sterilized Hydroponics Grade Coco-fiber) Gro-Cor is great stuff. I used it in a 50/50 mix when re-doing my terrarium, and I now use it in ALL of my plantings. Perlite is ugly.

Anyhow, imho, I would unpot the plants, leaving a little medium around the roots, preferrably an intact as possible ball, and re-pot them, that lets you flush and rejuvenate the soil at the same time your ridding the pots of the moss.

(Oh, and you can always nuke your media in the microwave if you truly want it to be sterile, but I think this is only good if your starting seedlings.
 
  • #18
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (RamPuppy @ June 04 2003,7:56)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">(Oh, and you can always nuke your media in the microwave if you truly want it to be sterile, but I think this is only good if your starting seedlings.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
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  • #19
Bob, thanks for posting those links, very useful information is there.

Generally, the fact that there are enough nutrients to support non-sphagnum moss species is a fine indicator that something needs attending to as regards your water or your mix.

Sheet moss, even when not visably overwhelming the plant is an indicator that unless steps are taken, plants will be lost. This is especially true for seedlings: their delicate roots are easily lost in mediums with mineral content, similat to "fertilizer burn" in non-CP species.

The process is an escalating one, but the initial micronutrients present in the mix are the real culprit: avoid these and you are on the right road. Once moss lives, it also dies, and the decomposing moss in turn adds nutrients into an already stressed system.
 
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