Re: sphagnum

Wim Osterholt (wim@djo)
Fri, 20 May 1994 22:49:30 +0200 (MET DST)

> > have some of the sphagnum starting to grow, which is a nice surprise
> > as it looked like it was dead before this. Wayne
>
> >I've seen the same here. (in Holland.)
>
> If it's NZ sphagnum you're talking about, it's hardy stuff. A
> scientist here works with it. He says he has to take the live stuff
> down to -10deg C to put a complete stop to its' growth (in the light).
>
> Fraser broom

Don't know what kind it is. How does NZ sphagnum taste? :-)

There has been only one warehouse that sold VFT's (on a regular base).
They don't anymore now for 6 to 8 years. That's the stuff I bought.
Plastic pots with rather dry sphagnum and one little VFT in the middle.
I always choose the ones that already started to form leaves and if
possible with more tiny plants around it. It amazed me that they always
seemed very eager to grow. It looked too easily for such fragile
(mistreated) plants. Really wild plants should be dead by then. (?)
So, I always thought that they used hormons and cloning technics.

I drilled little holes in the pots, so that the water from outside could
enter the pots and I easily could check the water level.
After the sphagnum started growing, I regularly had to tear it out of
the pots and dropped it besides it. As long as it doesn't drown it keeps
on growing and now the bottom surface is nicely covered with green.
If you tear a big one out, it can be 10cm or more. (NZ model?)
Sometimes a few other species come up too. You'd better remove the quickly
growing species. (especially the ones that grow underground and only produce
stems with a circular leaf on top of it. The root system will grow too
tight. Don't know any names.)

Wim.

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