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Help!  my pygmys are being choked by moss

I hate carpet moss, especially in my pygmy Drosera pots. I usually avoid its appearance by making sure all my potting media are well rinsed, removing all trace nutrients that would encourage their growth. I've mentioned how I let the weather of the season do my work, by pre-preparing my pots well in advance and letting the season's rains leach through the pots. In the winter all is frozen and I dont have this opportunity. The water in the winter down cellar is close to freezing, and it numbs the hands when wringing out the peat. As a result I do not rinse as well as I would like, with the predictable result that in my pots of sown winter gemmae, mosses sometimes find a home. Moss growth is announced by a green or brown discoloration that lies on the surface. Early and repeated spraying can leach this out, but if not successful moss will soon cover the pot and begin choking out the small gemmaeling plants which have trouble competing with the moss.

Here is a way to remove the moss without total transplant. Pygmy Drosera resent disturbance due to the fine hairlike roots which are easily damaged.

Make sure the pot is good and wet. You need to make a cup shape with your hand to catch the top of the root ball when you knock it out of its pot. Remember making sand castles with a bucket of wet sand turned over? A similar effect apples here. With care, the entire root ball will esaily slide out of the pot. The surface moss will prevent the rossets from getting soiled. Don't sneeze, and don't squeeze!

If the mix has eroded out of the pot (as is often the case) dropping the growing surface below the pot rim, add some new mix to the bottom of the vacant pot, enough to bring the new level about an inch above the rim. Pluck the root ball back in the pot, and go rinse your hand before it dissolves into mush, heh heh.

You now have before you a mossy mound. Using great care, you may now begin the removal of the moss. It will come out easily since you can now get at the base of the mosses. Close to the rosettes you must have a gentle touch. Sometimes I lightly pin the rosette with a finger as I tease the moss away from beneath it. The moss sheet tears out in nice plugs, leaving nothing behind but clean substrate with the plants sitting now a bit above the mix. If the plants are summer sensitive, I leave them on their root stilts since this is how they are often found growing in habitat. For the other species I replace fresh mix, working it around under the plants with a flat tool.

When finished, there will be a clean pot of lovely plants now sitting on a bit of a mound, the better to see their amazing flowers.

This protocol works well for all other overgrown species as well, of course. But with the other Drosera species, root sensitivity is not such an issue, and I generally transplant all my Drosera annually in the spring into fresh mix.
 
Since all or nearly all of us experience unwanted moss and algae, I would suggest that this article be pinned to the appropriate topic.
 
Cannot say I had much problems with moss in my pygmy sundew. I grow my pygmy sundew outdoors. Good air movement and lower humdity will stuff up the moss growth, also you get beautiful colouration on your plants.
 
last week my pot looked lie a pot of moss instead of pygmies
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I jus tpulled them out with tweesers though, and BURNED it
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Thank you - to whomever pinned the topic.
 
I have found that only after my seed has germinated the algae doesn't seem to be a problem (my baby doseras are happily grown on slimy algae covered LFS without any remorse), but algae in my seed pots will darn well give you problems (I learned after a long period of trail and error, should have read about sowing seed properly first. Thanks Tamlin for your article, it saved most of my seeds. Grrr...after I sorted out1 problem, I've always gotten another (first it was using perlite, then it was using rainwater, then it was giving light to the seeds before germination, and before I knew it I was being indunated in algae
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. Don't know why I haven't experienced moss yet, thought it would be one of the first problems a cp grower would encounter (only white mould), maybe its because there no moss spores in the air since I don't grow my plants outdoors.

Oh yes and I strongly reccomend reading thisTamlin's article + whatever articles this forum has, they've have me tons in the cultivation of cps. They all are a good source of cp knowledge, takes you step by step through the process of propogating, pollinating, dormancy, seed sowing etc. They good!
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Oh yes, my thanks too to whoever pinned the topic...maybe someone should add stuff about other kinds of pests, diseases, algae etc.
Pros, if you will...
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Jason
 
I pinned it because it is an excellent article! I must do this sometime! Moss is not goo for Droseraceae!
 
Can you use Zinc strips or other types of Zinc or will it harm the plants
 
Zinc is a metal and metals like Ca, MG, Na, and K are definitely harmful to CP's. But perhaps someone can shed some light on Zn, specifically?
 
  • #10
Not me I fear. When it comes to the use of anything other than peat, white silica sand, pure water and LFS I tend towards extreme caution. I add nothing to the mix that doesn't need to be there: no fungicides, fertilizers, perlite, vermiculite, superthrive, trichoderma. I grow in plastic pots only, and I rinse all my potting materials. Small things can make big differences over time, and this protocol always serves me well. No worries about what this or that may or may not do.
 
  • #11
I've heard some people have success using a top layer of pure sand < 1 cm thick. I have not yet tried this, however.
 
  • #12
While I do not yet have the sophistication as the experienced growers, having experimented with different media and conditions, I use a 2:1 ratio of sand to peat for pigmy dews. Normally, I just mix sand & peat and topdress with LFS for everything else.
 
  • #13
Just to clarify, is peat moss the green moss that grows on the surface? If so, is that stuff bad for CP's?
 
  • #14
Sphagnum moss tends to grow in a light almost airy layer. Carpet moss forms a dense green layer about ¾" inch thick. If this layer is allowed to dry and then watered, the water will tend to bead up and set on top at first before soaking in. If it's sphagnum moss, the water usually soaks into it quickly. Sphagnum moss can be a problem for small plants when it grows fast enough to cover them. This can be fixed by trimming it back to uncover the plant. Carpet moss causes problems by forming a dense fibrous matt that is difficult for small plants to penetrate to the soil beneath. It tends to squeeze the small plants out of its way. The only way to control it is to physically remove it from the pot which could result in damage to the CPs growing with it because of all the handling involved.
 
  • #15
lol! I guess I am the only one here who wants to fill my terrarium with sphagnum moss completely.
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  • #16
If I get anny gemmae from my pygmies, Varun, you are welcome to some, then we'll see what you think of all that moss
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  • #17
lol!
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depends on if the moss first grows successfully. I am trying two strategies just to be careful.

One is that the moss is in the terrarium....randomly placed...some in the peat directly and some on top of wet blond sphagnum

Two is that I got an empty container for the plants that arrived from Rick and I used the displaced peat + put some live blond sphagnum on top..kinda pressed it and put somegreen live sphag on it. This one I once in a while flood it with some water to emulate a bog.

Depending on how it goes...I can hopefully get moss to populate the terrarium..atleast until..your pygmy seeds come to me ;) lol!

cheers.
 
  • #18
Is a mixture of canadian spaghnum peat and perlite good for these plants? I just learned I will have to mail order long fiber-spaghum moss because no lone locally grows it. Makes me so mad sometimes! Those shipping charges really add up.

If I could use just the spaghnum peat, things would be easier.
 
  • #19
"Orchid Moss" is what I use as a LFS substitute. You may be able to find that more easily at your local home and garden center.

xvart.
 
  • #20
the orchid moss is Chilean LFS. its of much better quality and it more open IMHO i really like it...in fact i just got a new bag the other day!
Alex
 
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