Bill S
Masterpiece
I'll verify what October said, last weekend I found something odd and when I removed the moss it looked like someone had tossed cookies under the moss. I don't mean oreos either.
Growing Moss
- Thread starter goosetown
- Start date
october
Masterpiece
That sounds awful Bill..
The way I think about it is.. You spend years training a tree. You have made it beautiful and healthy.. Now you are going to go out and randomly stick some foreign plant matter on top of it at the risk of something like a pest or disease affecting the tree. I am not against moss at all. I just advocate that the moss is healthy and maybe quarantined for a while before it is used.
Rob
The way I think about it is.. You spend years training a tree. You have made it beautiful and healthy.. Now you are going to go out and randomly stick some foreign plant matter on top of it at the risk of something like a pest or disease affecting the tree. I am not against moss at all. I just advocate that the moss is healthy and maybe quarantined for a while before it is used.
Rob
Last edited:
Bill S
Masterpiece
Thats where I failed Rob, usually I have a tray full hanging around, this time collected it and mossed the tree. Usually I would have taken it off but I was "running the tree on a drier watering schedule". I know don't schedule watering, so I tried leaving the moss on to maintain pot moisture for a longer period, stretching watering out an extra day. After a few weeks outside it bloomed, so I imagine until I repot and wash the root mass it will probably bloom again. Not terrible (as of yet) but the mess cleaned out fairly easily.
goosetown
Mame
Just an update:
After a lot of twisting in the wind, I decided to go with an organic bonsai soil slurry in a very shallow dish, the spores on top, and a clear plastic container as a "ceiling" to promote humidity. About a week and a half in and, shockingly, it seems to be growing really well for its stage. Good bits of greenery here and there, and it's still got about a month to go before it should be at full-force.
If it continues well, I'll post pictures soon. Thanks to all who helped out along the way!
After a lot of twisting in the wind, I decided to go with an organic bonsai soil slurry in a very shallow dish, the spores on top, and a clear plastic container as a "ceiling" to promote humidity. About a week and a half in and, shockingly, it seems to be growing really well for its stage. Good bits of greenery here and there, and it's still got about a month to go before it should be at full-force.
If it continues well, I'll post pictures soon. Thanks to all who helped out along the way!
goosetown
Mame
Update #2:
This is going better than I hoped. It's taking longer than I'd anticipated (were it going to work at all), but I'm more than OK with that considering the results so far.
As stated, I made a muddy slurry of regular organic bonsai soil (since this is what I use for all my trees) on the inside of a plastic lid. Over that, I dusted moss spore, which I had very little faith in. Turns out it works just fine. I spray down the surface a couple of times per day and cover it with a clear plastic container that's just slightly bigger than the lid, creating a dome. It sits on my windowsill and wallows in the humidity/sunlight all day. I think one thing that's really helped is the lip of the lid, which keeps a constant supply of water around, but not on, the moss.
Anyway, here's how it looks. Hopefully I can keep it up.
This is going better than I hoped. It's taking longer than I'd anticipated (were it going to work at all), but I'm more than OK with that considering the results so far.
As stated, I made a muddy slurry of regular organic bonsai soil (since this is what I use for all my trees) on the inside of a plastic lid. Over that, I dusted moss spore, which I had very little faith in. Turns out it works just fine. I spray down the surface a couple of times per day and cover it with a clear plastic container that's just slightly bigger than the lid, creating a dome. It sits on my windowsill and wallows in the humidity/sunlight all day. I think one thing that's really helped is the lip of the lid, which keeps a constant supply of water around, but not on, the moss.
Anyway, here's how it looks. Hopefully I can keep it up.
