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Live LFS as a Top Layer

Vbkid

Getting There...
I have a relatively basic question about LFS as a top layer in my Nepenthes pots. I've been growing just a couple Neps (ventratas) for about 6 months, and they have a top layer of LFS. They are groing in houseplant conditions and doing very well as far as I can tell...pitchering, increasing in size, etc. Unfortunately, I can't seem to encourage the LFS to do quite as well. Both plants have some live spagh on the top, but most is dead, and even the live pieces have blackened ends.
Question: What do I need to do to encourage healthier growth of it so it looks more presentable and possibly means better growing conditions for the Neps. I use distilled water, have the pots on sunny windowsills, and mist daily (although I do miss a day pretty often).
Thanks,
Kyle
 
Your humidity is probably too low to gow LFS at a top dressing. To grow LFS in a non humid environment, it needs to be kept waterlogged.....and you can't do that with a nep in the pot.
 
Exo is 100% right.. as always.
Increase the humidity to 85%+ and your moss will start growing. Dead or alive, doesn't matter. It only takes humidity to get it growing. I've got some moss that's almost 2" tall with next to no light, just 100% humidity.
 
Exo is 100% right.. as always.
Increase the humidity to 85%+ and your moss will start growing. Dead or alive, doesn't matter. It only takes humidity to get it growing. I've got some moss that's almost 2" tall with next to no light, just 100% humidity.

I actually find that the moss will grow in 75% humidity....it needs to be misted everyday though. 80% and up and is better though.
 
I don't agree with that assessment, entirely. Once established, live LFS doesn't need a tremendous amount of humidity or water. Below is a sundew with a top layer of live LFS, just on an ordinary grow rack. The apartment is rather dry and I can't get more than 1.5" of water in the tray.

Picture016-7.jpg
 
I'm talking about getting the moss to it's full potential though. Here's a couple examples of some moss grown in low light, and high humidity:

100_6605.jpg


100_6625.jpg
 
ok, so maybe this should be a better question. And I know that this information is on the forums, and I've read it, but I want some personal opinions. What is an easy way I can create conditions to grow LFS (starting with dead stuff mostly) easily, and then just add it to pots as necessary?
 
pot it up in a zip lock bag, mist it a bit, and watch it grow.
 
ok, so maybe this should be a better question. And I know that this information is on the forums, and I've read it, but I want some personal opinions. What is an easy way I can create conditions to grow LFS (starting with dead stuff mostly) easily, and then just add it to pots as necessary?

Well, I mostly get the stuff already alive from other peeps, but I have grown my own....I just soak some of the dead stuff overnight in RO or distilled water, and then lay this down on some moist peat, cover it with a bag or clear lid, and put it under bright lights in a cool location. It usually sprouts in a few months.
 
  • #10
It usually sprouts in a few months.

Mine starts showing growth in a couple weeks. Wonder if there's any significance in it's long-term health, in relation to it's growth rate? ???
 
  • #11
Mine starts showing growth in a couple weeks. Wonder if there's any significance in it's long-term health, in relation to it's growth rate? ???

Huh...Not sure, the fastest I've ever had LFS sprout from the dry stuff was a month....it seems that to get it to sprout, it needed bright and warm conditions, but if I kept it too warm for too long, it turned brown and died.
 
  • #12
This moss is growing outside. Daytime RH averages around 70%, but can drop much lower. I use RO H2O, as ofetn as twice a day, in the Summer.

9beb04a0.jpg
 
  • #13
This moss is growing outside. Daytime RH averages around 70%, but can drop much lower. I use RO H2O, as ofetn as twice a day, in the Summer.

9beb04a0.jpg

The twice a day watering is why it does so well....very nice, BTW.
 
  • #14
An easy way to get moss to grow without a terrarium/bag/etc. is to have the pot be a little larger than the plant itself. If the rim of the pot comes up above the moss, it generally keeps growing. Any moss that creeps above the rim will turn black though.

If you want to try growing the moss in quantity the easiest thing to do would be to start making a mini-bog sort of setup and just fill it with moss and make sure it's consistently waterlogged. It should sprout growth within not too long, especially if you have a bit of good sun on it.
 
  • #15
An easy way to get moss to grow without a terrarium/bag/etc. is to have the pot be a little larger than the plant itself. If the rim of the pot comes up above the moss, it generally keeps growing. Any moss that creeps above the rim will turn black though.

If you want to try growing the moss in quantity the easiest thing to do would be to start making a mini-bog sort of setup and just fill it with moss and make sure it's consistently waterlogged. It should sprout growth within not too long, especially if you have a bit of good sun on it.

.... and the more surface area the better....
 
  • #16
I just saw this thread. I proposed a closely related question here:

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1000556#post1000556

My question is not how to grow moss (actually I've grow lots of green moss), but is how to grow such Beautiful moss, with such uniform perfect green color, without any black end and dead-looking parts.

High humidity in my eyes indicates algae or fungus. And I really once met this problem and found it is difficult to get rid of it. My air movement is good. But when moss layer is thick, some corners won't get much air movement and thus fungus shows (maybe the air movement is not thorough?).
 
  • #17
I never had fungus on LFS before....didn't even know it was possible.
 
  • #18
Something else to be noted, there are countless different species of moss.

The moss that I collect from my area is clearly a temperate growing moss. So, when it grows in my tropical tank it does not grow uniform and perfect like what you are looking for.

It could be a matter of getting all the variables that have been discussed right, as well as having a moss which thrives in tropical conditions year round.
 
  • #19
Afaik lfs takes up anything in the water.
So if the water is full of nitrates, the lfs will get full of nitrates eventually.
And thats what the fungus is feeding on imho.
 
  • #20
Your humidity is probably too low to gow LFS at a top dressing. To grow LFS in a non humid environment, it needs to be kept waterlogged.....and you can't do that with a nep in the pot.

I'd agree. I've found I cannot keep LFS in good shape no matter what I do, unless I keep the humidity high. I used to keep a live LFS top dressing in all my nep and heli pots, but the nep roots all grew into the layer. In addition, it was a royal pain to spray the LFS down in each and every pot each and every day to keep it doing well. So I scrapped it. It looked great but was too much hassle. But as a side effect, many of my neps went into bad shock! I couldn't avoid breaking many roots, and they missed having that nice wet sponge around their base.

This is when it looked good. My neps never looked better either. They thrive in high humidity. I kept the humidity 80+% with daily spraydowns to get it to this point. I don't have the time for that upkeep anymore. My neps don't look this well anymore either. It's taking them a long, long time to adjust to no more daily sprayings and lower humidity, down to 55% in the days now.
1-5-10075.jpg
 
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