Growing sphagnum moss questions

[puppetmonarch]

I couldn't find too much on this..
First I was wondering, you need peat on the bottom to grow it?
How much humidity does spag moss prefer
And what watering method and how much h water would you suggest? Thank you

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[fredg]

Peat is unnecessary.
Place the Sphagnum in a tray, keep it wet.
If it's wet the humidity is sorted already.

 

[nimbulan]

Sphagnum needs very high humidity to grow well. If you aren't able to provide that, keeping the water level high can compensate. When I started my culture, I just arranged the strands so that the old dead material was a base to grow on, but you don't really need anything.

 

[jerrysmith]

Mine grows on the surface of my potted CP which are sitting in water. I pull some of it out and just place it in the tray under the pots and it grows fine there too. It gets to be a weed.

 

[puppetmonarch]

Awesome! Thank you everyone!

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[Jcal]

ive tried to grow moss with no success. I must try again. maybe I am making it harder than it needs to be.

 

[nimbulan]

I've found the main stumbling block to be humidity. If the humidity in the growing area is not high (I don't know exactly how high it needs to be, but 50-60% is not enough) then you tend to get a lot of brown tips and very little growth UNLESS you have a dense clump - then you still get lots of brown tips but it will grow.

Knowing this, it's actually pretty easy to get started. You can take a simple plastic container like a plastic take-out tray, add your starter sphagnum, get it nice and wet, and seal it up. Put it near your growlights (but no sunlight, you don't want to roast it!) and let it grow.

For outdoor growing, you can fill up a regular pot halfway with soil with sphagnum on top, then place it in one of your water trays. Being recessed in the pot will help elevate the humidity. If you want to grow in a larger container, you'll likely need to keep the water level very high or the sphagnum very densely-packed.

 

[fredg]

No sunlight? That's nonsense. The Sphagnum in my Darlingtonia House is in sunlight. I pay no attention to humidity, I just keep the trays topped up. The plants in the Sphagnum House will have a higher humidity because the Sphagnum will create it.
These are Bryophytes, non-vascular plants and should be treated as such.

 

[NemJones]

Sphagnum is very easy to grow. Once you work with it for a little bit, its a breeze.

If you want to start nice lush trays like fred here, start with dried sphagnum moss.
Cut/grind it into near dust like consistency. make sure that you SOAK this mossy mush mix for atleast an hour so
the fibers can soak up water.

Afterwards, you will need to bag/cover the moss mush after you have taken it out from a water bath.
Smooth it down nice and flat. Leave it covered for at least 4-5 months, untill the sphagnum reaches at least 1-2 inches of
growth. at this point, the moss is extremely vulnerable to drying out.

After uncovering, make sure that the moss is sitting in a good layer of water, as the sphagnum will take the water up,
and cycle it though the moss itself and keep moisturized
.

 

[nimbulan]

I was only pointing out that it should not be exposed to sun when sealed in a small container.

 

[FLTropical]

How much sun does spaghnum need? I've never had any pop in my pots, whether in sun or shade. I have a tray with what was dried lfs, plus tons of the ground dust in the bottom of the bag, which I keep wet in very bright shade, but I've not seen any growth yet (for 2 months, maybe?). Humidity is 50 - 100%

 

[nimbulan]

My experience with LFS is that it takes about 2 months at close to 100% humidity to start growing, and probably won't with much less than that. When I've done it, it's been by accident (while rooting Nepenthes cuttings) under moderate artificial light or indirect natural light.

 

[fredg]

Just get yourself some live Sphagnum and throw it (place a layer) in a /some tray/s and keep it wet. Stand next to your Dionaea ( the Sphagnum not you) and watch it grow. Remember it is a non-vascular plant treating it like a vascular plant is an error.

Did I mention - Keep it wet

 

[FLTropical]

Thanks both of you! Guess I need to be more patient!