Does anyone have any tipsa to grow thin sheets of moss for shows I know I herd Ryan mention it but can’t recall his advice.
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I have a seed tray (similar to an Anderson flat)
The base is covered in Coco coir for moisture retention
Use Ryan’s surface covering which is spagnum moss shredded finely, mixed in with some dry shredded mos that you are trying to grow. Cover the coir.
Don’t keep it so wet it grows algae.
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I might give that a try
I think it is important to mention the placement of that setup. If anyone has been successful cultivating moss in some tray/ plate/ ceramic tile, it would be interesting to know what is a no-no and what is a good tip to follow.
I would agree that keeping too wet won’t be helpful. I’ve tried top-dressing thin sheets of carpet.
I was thinking about trying to make use of the fines from shredding the spagnum moss and green moss that normally get tossed out . Might as well the to find a use for it
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what are the sheets of moss going to be used for, it makes a difference on what substrate to use. I actually have used the top dressing “fines” and methodology over wet reinforced structural mortar when creating a moss garden. Key is what Ryan emphasizes, moss needs to come from a similar substrate it is going to go on. Keep it moist, not soaked and moss can take more sun than most people think as long as humidity/moisture is high enough.
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Most that it would be convenient it it was flat to dress the trees for shows . Moss don’t like to grow much around here I was also thinking of doing it so I could have nice clean green moss to shred for dressing.
In that case I would collect it off no organic surfaces ( rocks or pavement)as Ryan talks about in top dressing creation. I would also and do grow it on a similar medium thin layer of old bonsai soil. I’d be interested to see how it transfers bonsai soil when grown on coco fiber. I’m not knocking the idea but from my experience I’d add 50% pumice to the coco fiber.
I recall from a podcast that Ryan was talking about someone with a nursery in the Central Valley of California who was able to grow moss on trays. He said it 1. Likes more sun than most people think. 2.keep it moist 3. Keep it out of the wind.
I assumed that meant strong dry wind because it dries it out.
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Lol well that’s where I’m at. Had a thought of nesting trays in a bed of sand so it stays moist but not soggy. All the moss around here grows is the wet spots cause everything else gets bone dry.
I have a well weathered half sheet of plywood set at a 45 deg. angle. Only grows moss in the falll-- spring Summer is too dry here.
I sprinkle fine sifted soil and leftover dry moss over it in the late summer. By late spring I have hand sized sheets of pretty green moss. Rember to keep it damp…
Coconut koir might be an interesting idea, or maybe some long fiber sphagnum moss-- for structure support.
K
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My idea was to use the fines of the spagnum that are sifted out of the top dress along with the green moss that is to fine . And use that as my media to grow the moss on.
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Oddly, my front cement walkway grows moss readily. '47 farmhouse…
.
.
Wide paint scraper, 5 minutes…Bobs your uncle!
My chicken coup and garage roof grow moss chunks, too!
However, by June, it is mostly dried brown.
That being said, I can’t kill it on my main house roof!
K
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Lol no need to brag my friend
I’ve noted that the topdressing grows moss readily on HEALTHY trees-- with good biom activity. Organic fertilizer…! Inorganic salt fertilizers, not so much…
K
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I’m using bio gold on everything so far my trees do seem to support moss once it gets going bu most of my trees are new .
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Ok so I’m probably not following my own advice about how wet to keep this, the spagnum looks to have decomposed totally but we are off to the races on this batch
Adding more sphagnum moss top dressing will speed up the rate of propagation. The top dressing mix sphagnum/moss spores works so quickly because it reproducing asexually (the broken spores are cloning themselves…not that different from air-layers, sphagnum is keeping the environment at the right moisture level) . From what I can tell from your picture most (not all) is happening through “spore propagation” ( I made that erm up dont think thats a thing) where it grows a capsule that releases spores into the air, where they can be carried to new locations by wind, water, or animals…Water being the most likely source in your situation. I dont know if this is helpful or not but when I learned this growing moss became much easier.
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I have a ton growing wild on exposed black weed blocking material and have seen super wild growth on old white bar towels.
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I’ll have to test this out see how it works around here.