Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 12:36:34 -0500 From: L235@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg14$foo@default> Subject: Re: Sphagnum cultivation
In a message dated 1/1/97 11:41:06 PM, you wrote:
>Dear CPers:
> I know this is slightly tangential, but what are people's
>experience growing/keeping live sphagnum moss? My readings and intuition
>indicate that wetter is better, but mine has always died under such
>conditions (the S. purpurea and S. leukophyllia are fine, thank you). I
>have gotten a new batch and instead of drowning it, I have put it in pots,
>on top of saturated milled peat, then placed the pots in an aquarium with 2
>inches of reverse-osmosed H2O. Half the pots have been placed directly on
>the bottom, in the water, while half have been placed on top of inverted
>pots similar to the way orchids are grown. I placed 2-inches of live moss
>in a pot without the milled peat and placed it directly in the water at the
>bottom of the tank so that it is "swimming".
>Noticable differences were seen in health and green-ness after only one day!
>It remains to be seen if the "humidity-only" moss actually grows better and
>healthier in the long run, but it's sure prettier.
> Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences to share?
>Thanks,
> John E. Cavanaugh, MD, Fellow
> Division of Forensic Pathology
> Indiana University School of Medicine
Dear John,
Not tangential at all! My collection of different moss forms is becoming
(almost) as large as my CP collection. I have the greatest success when I
culture the moss as I would most of my CP, to wit: mix of sphagnum peat moss
and sand/perlite/whatever (vermiculite, etc.) about 50/50. Tray watering (one
inch or less) and bright light. Many of my plants grow a nice carpet of moss
during their spring/summer outdoors in the Southeast US, and I"m cultivating
some newly-acquired moss (very nice, low grower, non invasive .. THANK YOU,
DAVID) in a three-inch pot underlights in my closet greenhouse-of-sorts.
One thing I have just noticed, after returning from two weeks out of state ..
living moss seems to be a good home (unfortunately) for Botrytis! (yech). In
several pots, it seems to have spread quickly through green moss. I've since
removed most, if not all moss from my plants, except for small patches far
away from rhizomes ... mold seems to be less of a problem on bare soil.
Anyone else find this? Ironically, mold doesn't seem to be a problem in
all-moss pots. (i.e. U. cornuta, U. juncea,)
Jay Lechtman (L235@aol.com)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:30:58 PST