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How to green up the moss

I had lots of really nice home grown sphagnum but I moved it to my new HL chamber and now it's bleaching out. I was wondering if it would be OK to mix up a very light high nitrogen low phosphorus fertilizer and mist it on the moss to hopefully green it back up without encouraging algae. I've got some pics.

Here's a pot of moss (and U. endresii) the day I moved it into the new tank (Sunday):
sphag1.jpg


and today (thursday):
sphag2.jpg


It's plenty wet and cool with 75*F days 50*F nights daily spraying the fog keeps the air 80-85% RH. But there is now 4 T5 HO lamps over the plants compared to the 2 there was previously but the lights are now 20" above the pot tops as compared to only 8" before.

Here's a shot of a random clump you can see the earlier green growth further down and the new bleached out top growth:
sphag3.jpg


You can see all the moss is bleaching in all the pots
sphag4.jpg


I want my rich green moss back, anyone have any suggestions?
 
it looks dry.. moisture may help.
 
Yup..it needs a good misting.
 
Like I said it gets soaked every day, it's wet.
 
Give it time to adjust and bulk up - the stringy stuff is touchy. Once it starts to grow more compact it'll be more durable in high light. In the mean time, try giving it a few short breaks in the daytime light cycle, or if you have multiple banks of lights, have a rolling break that goes across the lights, to simulate noontime shade. Also, surrounding the moss and partially covering it in something like lava rock will help it adjust faster.
~Joe
 
The incredibly little experience I have with live sphagnum tells me being wet isn't enough. I have some sphagnum that gets watered three times daily for 30 minutes by a pump on a timer (total of an hour and a half every day, spread throughout the day - trust me, it stays very wet) and it still bleaches out for me. The same moss, however, kept in a closed tank with 80%+ humidity is gorgeous and growing great. You mentioned yours is around 80%, too, so I don't know. Are you sure it's staying 80% all day, or is that just when you mist it and/or the humidifier kicks on and is actually running?
 
I don't think that misting is enough. Aren't sphagnum bogs usually wet underneath? I know my LFS is growing great with no misting, in a covered tank, and with a layer of standing water. Growing media for the LFS itself helps. Live LFS or peat works for me. Along with lots of soft light.. Bright T12 light seems best. It's not too hot, but still bright.

100_7629.jpg


100_7630.jpg
 
Constantly being wetted has actually had some markedly negative consequences on Sphagnum in my observation - I don't think it really likes to be in running water except in very cold temperatures. I've had much better luck circulating water beneath colonies, where it can wick up moisture as it pleases.
~Joe
 
mass's and seedjar's comments seem to add up! And I'm growing my sphagnum (which came from mass) in a tank very similar to mass's and it's growing great. Water table JUST at the level the sphagnum starts.
 
  • #10
The water level seems to work well with the moss. It stays moist and hasn't needed refilling at all in the past year.
 
  • #11
I just soaked everything good again and flushed all the pots and upped the humidity setting to 90% so now it'll kick on at 85% and run til 95%. I suppose like anything the moss also has to adjust, it was in a closed terrarium and now it's in here with a constant slight breeze and a real good breeze at night so it probably dries it out much faster than I'm used to. I'll just have to keep on it for a while I guess.

My "sprayer" is a one gallon pump up pesticide type sprayer (never had anything but R/O in it though) it delivers a lot more water than one of those little plant misters.
 
  • #12
that's another thing.. no fans in my tanks.
 
  • #13
I don't think that misting is enough. Aren't sphagnum bogs usually wet underneath? I know my LFS is growing great with no misting, in a covered tank, and with a layer of standing water. Growing media for the LFS itself helps. Live LFS or peat works for me. Along with lots of soft light.. Bright T12 light seems best. It's not too hot, but still bright.

100_7629.jpg


100_7630.jpg


That's freakin tall and beutiful moss mass. :0o:
 
  • #14
There are maybe around 300 known species of Sphagnum moss with many variations on the environmental niche they're adapted to. Some prefer colder conditions, some prefer warmer. Some prefer lower light levels. Almost all will grow from almost flooded conditions. Most will grow in much drier conditions. Quaking bogs are mats of Sphagnum moss growing on the surface of water. Other bogs are sandy peat moss underneath the living and not yet decomposed layers.

As Joe says it takes time for the moss to adapt to changes of light or water levels. It can be grown as semi-aquatic or much drier. It takes weeks sometimes months for it to adapt. And it's possible that under higher light conditions the species will just get lighter in color. I've seen Chilean stuff go from green to blond to red to crimson depending on the light levels.

Some of my Sarracenia pots have toppings of live Sphagnum. I normally top water the moss daily in the morning. On hot, dry days I top water it in the morning and the late afternoon/early evening. The water in the tray never gets to less than 4-5 inches to the surface of the peat moss. The moss grows compact - short, fat and fluffy. When grown indoors or as a semi-aquatic it grows stringy - long and narrow.

Average annual RH - min 50 - max 85. On the rare hot dry days RH drops to 20% or lower.

When I move my Sphagnum moss from lower light-wetter conditions to higher light drier conditions (i.e. from tub to planter topping) it often bleaches out until it can adapt.

Bottom line is you can grow Sphagnum very wet or a lot drier. It just takes time - months sometimes - to go from wet to drier conditions.

Here's some Hawaiian Sphagnum moss - left gown under lights, right outdoors (3-4 hours direct sunlight). Both containers started with roughly the same amount of moss. None has been harvested. All of these get top watered at least once daily. I'll flood the container grown moss maybe twice a month and not water again until the level drops to the layer of peat moss on the bottom.
_IGP0347a.jpg

indoors
_IGP0351a.jpg

outdoors
_IGP0352.jpg

This is the first batch of live Sphagnum moss I acquired from one of the nurseries in CA. I grow it under the same lights as the Hawaiian Sphagnum and use it as a propagation tray for cuttings.
_IGP0353a.jpg

Same species used as a topping for seed grown Darlingtonia californica. Top watered only, the pot will sit in water maybe 10-15 days out of the year when we have our infamous "Santa Ana" weather conditions. (Read also Raymond Chandler's short story "Red Wind")
_IGP0356a.jpg

same species grown outdoors in a cup.
_IGP0357a.jpg


Humidity and light levels - below are three samples of Chilean Sphagnum moss the germinated from the same batch of long fiber sphagnum. All grown indoors.

Covered (100% humidity), low light levels.
_IGP0358.jpg

on the right - uncovered same light levels. Left - uncovered, higher light levels. In case you have sharp eyes and are wondering those are Drosera meristocaulis seedlings in the left hand pot.
_IGP0359.jpg



See also this thread: "can sphagnum have too much water?" (sic)
 
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  • #15
Thanks for the descriptions and photos NAN!
 
  • #16
I think they need side protection to help get water to the growing point. Overall they seem limited in height by having some sort of support from the sides that conducts water.

Keep in mind that this is S. palustris and it is known to be a brown species when given full sun optimal conditions

Overrunning a U. longifolia:
DSC_00030001_17.jpg


DSC_00050002_2.jpg


so far in other vases similar to that one I have seen it grow to the top of the vase and then stop growing.
DSC_00040002_4.jpg


Given different levels of light:
Higher light levels
DSC_00050003_3.jpg


intermediate (under bench )
DSC_00030001_14.jpg


under bench with additional shade cloth 50% shade. gets very green and very stringy.
DSC_00060004_2.jpg



I have some red/pink forms that sprouted in the inside tanks under lights that I need to see how well they do outside with more light.

D. X obovata 'Ivan's Paddle' growing in S. palustris
DSC_00570022.jpg


I tend to ever once in a while heavy duty top water to flush the sphagnum. Brown/discolored tips are due to mineral accumulation left behind from water evaporating from the sphagnum
 
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  • #17
Get that stuff I sent you?
 
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