Amok amok amok a muck!

[sparklemotion]

It seems like there are as many muck recipes as there are muck users. To round up a few:

(LFS = Long fiber spagnum moss -- some people say you must chop/mill it, others say you MUST leave it long, some kind of chop it with scissors a bit)
Akadama dust + LFS
Clay from the ground + LFS
Either of the above + sifted peat
Potter's clay + LFS
Modelling clay (non-hardening, I assume @GrimLore meant plastalina/plasticine) + LFS
Sedge peat
Michigan peat + LFS (cut to 1")
Michigan peat + milled LFS (nice pics)
Any of the above + manure

I keep LFS and peat moss around the house. It was winter, so I wasn't going to be digging up any clay from the ground. I couldn't find sedge peat or michigan peat at stores (including garden centers near me). So, potters clay (red terra cotta) or plasticine it would have to be. Now it's time for experimentation.



I was a fan of the simplicity of White Bear Bonsai's method: take potters clay, knead in as much spaghnum as you can.




I was less of a fan of the plasticine. It was too hard to work until I softened it in hot water...


And it wouldn't come together well with the spaghnum, so I tried adding peat...



The overall result was still not great... I bagged it up in the hopes that it would flow together over the next day or so:



I'm thinking that with an oil-based clay like plastcine, the LFS needs to be chopped, and the peat need to be sifted.

Anyways, I was happy enough with the terracotta+LFS mix that I decided to put it to the test with a cheap p. afra clump (and a handmade mortar pot -- RapidSet Cementall over fiberglass cloth over hardware cloth):



The black smudges are Kyoto Moss seeds. Though trying to grow moss on this succulent planting is probably a losing proposition.

BTW, @sorce, if you recognize the "saucer" please know that I have better plans for it, once I can pot up some of the frozen stuff outside.

 

[sorce]

Very excited to hear, all that dark clay tested vitreous, so have at that froze!

Girl! You sure right about not growing that moss on there!

I don't know if you caught any of my moss talk on that expansion joint material that moss always seems to grow well on between sidewalls and curbs, buildings and sidewalks, etc....

But if A muck stays amok you can just go schmuck like me and carry litter out of odd places....filled with moss!

Oh. ..plus!

There is a very tight little drought tolerant moss that stays green on the edges of baseball parks with......
Turface!
As long as it's a newer park with proper drainage, usually turf fields edged with turface.

That can be thrown directly on that succulent and probly stay green easy.

Bloody hell Norf Norf!

I'm so excited to bench up my slabbed cascade juniper again!

South South! The people in MO drive crazy different than here, very respectful of an open left lane on the highway, but they jump out in the neighborhoods into the left lane like its the law! Are you still going to that show?

@hometeamrocker @Adair M South Souther! My boy is in Atlanta right now playing on a field I can watch on an app!

Long other thread segue just to say. .....

The older baseball parks tend to have a range of dirt mosses that serve well as a muck! Great little accent plants too!

Sorce

 

[Shima]

Kyoto Moss seeds.

Never had any luck with this. Don't know anyone who has.

 

[sparklemotion]

Never had any luck with this. Don't know anyone who has.

You can count me in that club... This is one of two pots that I started in October, and have been trying to provide the perfect moss growing conditions (low light, humid as heck, etc.)

Not a total fail (I've had some fun learning about moss life cycles with a jeweler's loupe). But not impressive either. (the white pod thingies are from when I treated some fungus gnat larva with nematodes.)

I figured putting some spores (not seeds... eesh) on the new muck wouldn't hurt anything, since I had them leftover.

 

[sparklemotion]

BTW, 24 hours helped the plasticine muck come together a bit better, but I am really not a fan of the moisture repelling properties of the clay.



I am sure that I can use it. I just won't enjoy it.

 

[sorce]

Is there some BS out there about Kyoto moss being somehow, more beneficial than other moss?
Surely any "easy to grow" sales pitch is dispelled.

The only thing that needs to be considered in using any collected moss is the top, or the type of moss. For aesthetic purposes only.

And the Bottom, what it is growing on.

Simply collecting a mixture of tall and short mosses on each of the substrates should allow you unlimited capabilities to cover soil surfaces, and surface roots, safely, with moss.

Possible list of substrates...
Black dirt, clay, asphalt, expjoint, sand, sidewalk, brick, rotted wood, etc...

Brick and sidewalk moss can be lifted clean and adapted to live on our soil.
Sand can be shook out and used equally.

Black dirt and expjoint mosses are good for mucks. Ok for direct contact with some roots, spruce....but not good for others like Boxwood which would be kept too wet around delicate low bark.

Moss on thin spalled brick and concrete can be set atop, then lifted for chemical fertilization without moss death and replaced.

Anyhow for me it's not a one size fits all solution....

Especially when it comes to final display...
Having many mosses on many substrates so you ALWAYS HAVE THE PERFECT PIECE to fill that one little....Ahhhh!

Horticultural for Bonsai Mythbustery.....

I find that collected full Sun moss can survive and thrive on soil surfaces regardless of light levels if kept moist.

Where low light moss struggles to live in the light we provide our trees, even the shadiest ones.

So I say...high light.

Of humid....

Oh this is a Resorce!

Humid is still. Festering.

Waterimg regularly is flushed, clean.

Understanding this can easily dispell a bunch of myths and probly get our fungal problems down...

Cuz remember...
Wow...I'd love to see a study...

If Joe Schmoe down the block is "Overmisting" and creating these problems..
They eventually reach us!

Please Join my new Stop Misting Campaign.

#stopmisting
#givesmokelesstotalkabout
#saveabonsaimistanorangeman
#thoughtyougotmebutyoumist

Sorce

 

[sparklemotion]

The thing about "kyoto moss" is that it says "kyoto" on the package. That makes the spores Official Bonsai Approved™ Grey Dust. And it's a fun $3 impulse addon to another bonsai related purchase. I didn't expect it to be magic or anything.

I've got a small collection of local moss started, it's all outside under the snow still. ? most of it was "shade moss" from the woods nearby. I am looking forward to finding the good sunbakeable stuff this summer. I've got some obnoxious to mow places on my lawn where I wouldn't mind letting moss take over as well.

 

[sorce]

lawn

Oh god! My overall mission is an entire moss lawn!...at my own place of course...

No shoes all day!

Lol! Your $3 impulse! I would totally do it too!

There is only one type of more broad, feathery moss from shaded woods, that I can't get to grow well on a pot no matter what. It grows in a very wormy black clump dirt and ONLY seems to thrive where it was.

Everything else found from that environment seems to convert well to life under tree....

You should witness much success!

Sorce

 

[Shima]

Right about moss on cement, rocks, in sun. I always have a spatula and baggy in the car.

 

[bonsai-ben]

Please keep us updated on how the Portulacarias handle watering and their dryness requirements with muck..... My simple thinking is it's too wet and an established trunk would just rot away (in short number of months, not years)..... Cuttings probably even faster.......

 

[sparklemotion]

Please keep us updated on how the Portulacarias handle watering and their dryness requirements with muck..... My simple thinking is it's too wet and an established trunk would just rot away (in short number of months, not years)..... Cuttings probably even faster.......

Right now, the muck is only serving as a retaining wall to shore up the low left side of the freeform pot (that has it's own drainage holes). The portulacarias are in a mostly inorganic substrate, and will be watered according to their needs.

My biggest worry with this particular muck wall is that it will crumble from dryness. I haven't watered since potting up on Friday, and it seems like the muck is shrinking away from the sides of the pot a little. We'll see.

If I had cheap non-succulents to experiment with, I would have done that. (well, I have some coffea seedlings, but I've caught feelings for them). Come spring all kinds of weeds are gonna get upgraded to "accents" for my experiments gone amok.

 

[bonsai-ben]

Right now, the muck is only serving as a retaining wall to shore up the low left side of the freeform pot (that has it's own drainage holes). The portulacarias are in a mostly inorganic substrate, and will be watered according to their needs.

My biggest worry with this particular muck wall is that it will crumble from dryness. I haven't watered since potting up on Friday, and it seems like the muck is shrinking away from the sides of the pot a little. We'll see.

If I had cheap non-succulents to experiment with, I would have done that. (well, I have some coffea seedlings, but I've caught feelings for them). Come spring all kinds of weeds are gonna get upgraded to "accents" for my experiments gone amok.

I think you'll do just fine in the mix as you describe it here