My experience is that sieving the live moss through a slightly larger screen (1/3" vs. 1/4" - 8+ mm vs. 6 mm) results in the moss starting to grow a bit faster. I also like to sieve and use that portion when it is still a bit moist, but definitely not damp or completely dry. Must less dust when dry, but a little more work to shred through the screen. I dry the sphagnum fairly well and wear a dust mask when shredding it through the same sized screen.
When the dopdressing is dry, how long can you have it stored?
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I bought a large quantity of sphagnum from an orchid nursery over a year ago and it still keeps fine. Part of it I ground up and sieved it, the rest I store in its original shape in a sealed plastic bag. This seems to work very well.
In my experience, it depends on the quantity and type of green moss that you add to the mixā¦ sometimes, the moss grew very rapidly, in other instances it took several months.
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Forever 
If stored wet, mold will be an issue. 
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Has anyone found a site to purchase moss none is available in Prescott az
I have searched high and low but was unsuccessful??
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Never looked for moss online. Just take a scraper and collect from stone surfaces.
I meant to say I looked high and low in Prescott AZ and can not find any growing for the past year
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Been repotting this past week, and woke up to birds having taken all the top dressing from my trees for their nests.
*Insert Price is Right losers themeā¦
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Those birds were all up in my top dressing at the end of summer when the moss was filling in so nicely.
I asked Team Mirai what they did to keep the birds away but did not get a response.
I tried a lot of things, screens, scarecrows, a variety of odors that I read birds donāt like. The birds are smart and after a few days they are back at it.
Iām thinking about adding some motion detecting sprinklers this year.
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My wife wanted a bird feeder in the yard, so I put in a big bird feeder. We were so stoked to see all of the birdsā¦and then I realized that theyād be picking through my top dressing. 
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How are you guys managing to keep the topdressing moist? I spray it couple if times during the day but it still gets dry sometimes.
I found that having a ton of foliage really helps in addition to having a finer top layer of soil and using longer fibers of sphagnum. Or I just used collected moss without the use of sphagnum. Plant foliage and finer layer of soil on top is the key.
Does anyone have experience using live sphagnum moss as a topdressing? Iāve just picked up a bag of locally collected sphagnum (coastal British Columbia).