What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like

What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421288

By jetfire245 -  Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:31 pm
Location:  Plant City, Fl
Posts:  173
Joined:  Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:03 pm

- Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:31 pm #421288

Hey y'all, I figured I'd be here eventually for this moss.

So as I mentioned possibly too many times. Panman was nice enough to sell me some good quality living sphagnum.

The sphagnum arrived all looking pretty green.

I placed it in a tray with some (mostly) desalinated coco coir (68ppm) mixed with perlite and a lot of old sphagnum.

Today the sphagnum doesn't look happy. It was of course unintentionally left to the winds of hurricane Ian, but is perfectly intact

You can see it's clearly not the bright happy green it should be, though it's only been almost a week since it's been in the tray.

I've been keeping it outside in Florida in the shade, misting it thoroughly everyday.

Fertilized it once lightly with 1/4 diluted max sea.

(note the picture has the moss in the sun though it is normally in the shade.)

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Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421289

By Panman -  Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:14 pm
Location:  Atlanta, GA USA Zone 8a/8b
Posts:  6386
Joined:  Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:41 pm

- Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:14 pm #421289

That picture looks pretty good. It takes it a bit to settle in. I would keep it in part shade. It seems to get better color for me there. I would hold off on feeding it any further until it looks established.

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Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421329

By Intheswamp -  Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:53 am
Location:  N31°43'59" USDA 8a/b
Posts:  3425
Joined:  Wed May 04, 2022 2:28 pm

- Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:53 am #421329

Are you spraying it heavy enough to keep the base layer nice and moist?

Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421330

By jetfire245 -  Mon Oct 03, 2022 4:10 am
Location:  Plant City, Fl
Posts:  173
Joined:  Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:03 pm

- Mon Oct 03, 2022 4:10 am #421330

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:53 am Are you spraying it heavy enough to keep the base layer nice and moist?

The base layer is noticeably moist for sure.

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Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421331

By jetfire245 -  Mon Oct 03, 2022 4:12 am
Location:  Plant City, Fl
Posts:  173
Joined:  Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:03 pm

- Mon Oct 03, 2022 4:12 am #421331

Panman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:14 pm That picture looks pretty good. It takes it a bit to settle in. I would keep it in part shade. It seems to get better color for me there. I would hold off on feeding it any further until it looks established.

Suppose you're right. I'm extremely unfamiliar with moss growth patterns and biology.

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Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421347

By Intheswamp -  Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:30 pm
Location:  N31°43'59" USDA 8a/b
Posts:  3425
Joined:  Wed May 04, 2022 2:28 pm

- Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:30 pm #421347

How long have you had it growing in your tray? It can take a while before new growing points pop up or till older ones catch a gear and resume growing.

Never mind, I went back and see it's been in there a little more than a week. Like Panman said, give it some time. I keep mine where it does get some direct sun, but it's thicker than what you have going. It is only for two or three hours in direct sunlight, then either partial or full shade. I keep it in a Sterilite container that's roughly six inches deep. No bottom layer of peat/etc, but the moss is fairly deep. I try to keep anywhere from 1/2" to 1" of water in the bottom...mostly around 1/2". Spraying it at least every other day.

The first time I tried to start some I used a base layer of peat and possibly gave it too much sun...it didn't make it. It seemed the sphagnum really sucked up the tannins from the peat...but, the peat I had was some TSC "Greensmix" which I have come to abhor. I don't know if that was a problem with me losing that first batch or not. From everything that I've seen and read the method that you are using is a textbook example of how to do it.

Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421426

By MikeB -  Tue Oct 04, 2022 5:04 pm
Location:  Clayton, NC, USA - Zone 8a
Posts:  1901
Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm

- Tue Oct 04, 2022 5:04 pm #421426

Last summer, I bought a gallon bag of the red/purple sphagnum moss from Meadowview. It looked nice when I unpacked it, but the moss was none too pleased about being removed from the bog. For the rest of the growing season, it looked decidedly "meh". I left it outside over the winter, and when spring rolled around, the moss took off and grew well.

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Re: What Does Healthy Living Sphagnum Look Like#421978

By optique -  Thu Oct 13, 2022 1:07 am
Location:  Greenville SC
Posts:  1914
Joined:  Fri May 24, 2019 11:15 pm

- Thu Oct 13, 2022 1:07 am #421978

This winter i am going to test three 10x20 treys domed over the winter outside.

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