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Growing Sphagnum

I haven't came across too many threads on this topic so I thought I would share the things I have had the most success with.

I put my spare sphagnum in a large orchid basket that has a few holes drilled in the bottom and is filled with about 1-2 inches of perlite. The perlite is to keep the sphagnum just above the water line.

Next, I place the basket in a tray of water and fill at or below the perlite. This insures that the sphagnum is not submerged for extended periods but has plenty of water.

Under heavy flourescent lights, I find that I have had plenty of sphagnum to top dress many pots and also have some handy nurseries availble for various cuttings.

Here is a pic of my sphagnum garden/CP Nursery complete with red and green sphagnum. I just received the red and would really like to split it into two baskets if I only had the room. Under these conditions, sparse areas become dense in a matter of weeks.

 
I too use live sphagnum a great deal, especially as a top dressing for Nepenthes, Cephalotus, and Heliamphora -- and as a component in mixes for most plants. While it is now far more common to obtain in its live form, I have always had good luck with the germination of spores in the dried New Zealand sphagnum. The live moss I raise outdoors in undrained germination trays and keep partially submerged.

Here was a thread of mine from Summer 2008: http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114240&highlight=bigbella
 
It must be a west coast thing. I too have had sphagnum spontaneously start growing from dried. But only from material received from other forum members. The kind I buy here has never once sprouted anything green. I get it in the compressed sheets that you wouldn't even think was sphagnum until you add water and the material blows up like a ballon. I am talking compressed! So much so that it looks like a piece of particle board.
 
It must be a west coast thing. I too have had sphagnum spontaneously start growing from dried. But only from material received from other forum members. The kind I buy here has never once sprouted anything green. I get it in the compressed sheets that you wouldn't even think was sphagnum until you add water and the material blows up like a ballon. I am talking compressed! So much so that it looks like a piece of particle board.

Perhaps that compressed sphagnum is processed all to hell ( I think that I have seen it before), but the standard New Zealand or Chilean sphagnum all seem to "sprout" -- regardless of any and all sterilization claims. Both are readily available online from most carnivorous plant and orchid suppliers . . .
 
I have a bag's with in a tub on the porch. I toss leaves and sundew seeds in there:
Picture040-1.jpg
 
I just got one of those plastic tubs about the size of a shoebox and plopped some standard peat in the bottom. After that I just shred a few live moss plugs over the wet peat, cover it, and it takes off like gangbusters. I'll try and get a pic later today.
 
Jim,

Does yours grow? Mine always seems to rot when it is that wet. But I do grow mine indoors without the assistance of sunlight and fresh air to stave off those pesky mold spores and algae plooms (spellling?).

EdaxFlamma,
That sounds like a good method as well. Does your moss get black tips as a result of the lower layer of peat?
 
"Algal blooms . . ."

Indoor growing with insufficient light and arir movement poses the biggest problem with cultivating sphagnum, considering their high moisture requirements; and I was only truly successful growing it outdoors in full sun where it outstripped any algae that managed to form . . .
 
Man! I was way off. :)
 
  • #10
Um... the tips can get black if it gets over 100 (live in a house with no AC) or if I forget to keep the water level up on the peat. I've got it in this little tub that I covered with a gallon baggie (sliced down both sides). I punched some holes in the cover so it could breathe and placed it under my lights. I gets no sunlight and just does what it does best. *shrugs*

3666018084_e0fe8db2aa.jpg
 
  • #11
Jim,

Does yours grow? Mine always seems to rot when it is that wet. But I do grow mine indoors without the assistance of sunlight and fresh air to stave off those pesky mold spores and algae plumes (spellling?).
That's a new bag, but I've never had any go bad. I use it mainly for my pots and packing.
 
  • #12
EdaxFlamma,
Nice. I love that kind of sphagnum.

I had read that sphagnum can soak up the peat or something and cause the tips to turn black. Is that incorrect? I used perlite for that reason and honestly have never tried a layer of peat.
 
  • #13
I've always used a thin layer of peat and never seen this "black tip" thing so I'd assume that's incorrect...

i've bit hit or miss on getting spores to grow out of dead LFS but i' have had it work... and with time and patience you can use that to get a whole colony.

its probably easier though to buy some and chop it up and grow it out so you have a good growing stock...

I have 3 or 4 tubs with LFSM growing so I've always got some available its very handy
 
  • #14
EdaxFlamma,
Nice. I love that kind of sphagnum.

I had read that sphagnum can soak up the peat or something and cause the tips to turn black. Is that incorrect? I used perlite for that reason and honestly have never tried a layer of peat.

The tips of the sphagnum are blackened -- burned by harsh or intense sunlight; the peat doesn't affect a thing . . .
 
  • #15
In nature, peat is underneath the living LFS. Peat is the dead version of LFS.
 
  • #16
Yep, not sure why I thought that, but I did! :) Now I know.
 
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