FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have been growing live sphagnum for years. My favorite species are the most acidic and decay resistant species: sphagnum fuscum and sphagnum austinii. These two species have other nice properties such as being able to handle high temperatures (up to 110F) and high light intensity (full sun). Sphagnum austinii is the coolest by far. It has the highest density of all sphagnum species and can grow a couple feet long per strand. It has a hard, almost plastic feel to it compared to the feather soft feel of sphagnum cristatum (the New Zealand dried LFS used by flytrapstore)

There are hundreds of species of sphagnum, and they vary in size, color, acidity, decay resistance, heat tolerance, dessication tolerance, light intensity tolerance, and growth rates. There is an interesting tradeoff in that the fastest growing species of sphagnum are the species that decay the fastest. Easy come, easy go. I’ve noticed that carnivorous plant growers prefer fast growing species as a top dressing, which is a mistake since those species provide the least protection against rot, they can’t tolerate full sun without burning at the tips, and they dry out the easiest. The best species again are the slow growing species fuscum and austinii because they provide the greatest protection against rot. Austinii, however, is critically endangered, but fuscum is not.

Picture 1: New terrarium with live 14 inch long strand of sphagnum fuscum (thin dark orange brown) and 12 inch long strand of sphagnum austinii (thick light orange brown): Picture 2: This terrarium is a little over one year old and contains over 20 distinct sphagnum species mixed together. The small brown ones are sphagnum fuscum: Picture 3: This is my oldest terrarium, which is a mix of species, but mostly contains sphagnum capillifolium (thin red), sphagnum magellanicum (thick red), sphagnum fuscum (thin yellow brown), and sphagnum austinii (thick yellow brown). There are a few drosera in this pic.

Here is a picture of yet another terrarium. This one contains mostly sphagnum austinii (green, yellow, brown) and sphagnum rubellum: I grow sphagnum under white LED lights. I prefer to use the 18 inch sunblaster LED because the local hydroponics shop sells them for $35 and while only consuming 18 watts, they can illuminate a surface 12 inches away at 80 PPFD, which is 2.3 times the PAR intensity of light the sunblaster 18 inch T5HO fluorescent light.

I like how you have the different colors mixed together. Here is a few shots of my sphag.

nice photos, we only have two types currently in our household S. rubellum and an unknown fluffy green type that came with some other plants we bought a couple months ago.

I'll have to look into some of the more resistant to heat ones, I tried to grow a little we had as a topdressing outdoors in NC this summer and that failed miserably not sure what it was and was only a very small culture of it but full sun was a no-go

the green moss we have under lights indoors covered with a couple holes in it, the red/orange we have outdoors on a table in the underhang of porch hasn't been growing great there but its mostly been colder weather moving some of it into a tank we are setting up soon indoors

edit: y'all both have such a nice arrangement!

KategoricalKarnivore wrote:I like how you have the different colors mixed together. Here is a few shots of my sphag.

I have found that mixed terrariums of sphagnum initially go through a state of flux, as each species moves into a position that it grows best in, in terms of light, distance from the standing water, etc. However, once they self organize, the mixed mini-bog seems to be more robust. Some species can tolerate higher calcium and other nutrient levels than others, whereas other species such as sphagnum cristatum and austinii have trouble and grow deformities until the calcium levels are dropped by the species that are capable of consuming the calcium.

The mixed cultures also spend a long time in the spaghetti phase, where the culture is not yet densely packed and the strands roam around the tank, but they eventually compact together and grow as dense mounds. It is as though a single species can signal between strands of its own kind to keep strands linked side by side as they frow upward.

The “magic” of sphagnum in my opinion is its decay resistance, which has benefits for other botanical activities such as tissue cloning in a non-sterile environment (I’ve been using it for cloning redwood trees) and growing plants that are susceptible to rot (orchids, etc). For this reason, I have been transitioning my collection from to the most rot resistant species. These species tend to be slower growing, more acidic, and also arguably less visually appealing. This experiment shows different decay rates for different species:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... po=43.1034

The ugly small brown sphagnum species, fuscum, is the king in the experiment. Outdoors it did not decay at all and indoors it still had the lowest decay rate. So don’t just a book by its cover. The ugliest sphagnum species is arguably one of the best substrates for growing other plants. Austinii is another ugly brown species that is so dense and heavy, its tissue feels almost like plastic. It is even more decay resistant than fuscum. Once densely packed together, it resembles a pile of maggots, it rarely produces spore caps, and it is nearly extinct:
http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/bbs/Activit ... stinii.pdf

Here are top down pics showing a mixed terrarium that has transitioned from a wet plate of spaghetti growth form to a self organized collection of upward growing cushiony mounds several inches tall. It is hard to tell, but each of these mounds is a raised dome shape above the surface.

Picture 1: zoomed out Picture 2: zoomed in to a sphagnum magellicum mound (note it is not very compact) Picture 3: zoomed in to sphagnum austinii (compact, but not yet in its full compactness) Picture 4: zoomed in to sphagnum capillifolium, with some magellicum invading the lower left of the mound The red species magellicum, capillifolium, and rubellum are mediocre peat formers. They are more decay resistant than cristatum or palustre, but less decay resistant than austinii and fuscum. Many people prefer the pretty looks of these red species. They grow deeper, darker red the higher the intensity of light, and the mounds in this picture are illustrated at around 300 PPFD. The austinii is a bit starved for light at that level and mildly unhealthy due to the elevated PPM water the red species are watered with, which is why it is yellow-brown as opposed to orange-brown or dark-brown.

Be aware of other red species that grow super fast and are no more decay resistant than toilet paper. In the upper right corner of the zoomed out pic you can see one such example. They prefer to grow in lower light, high PPM water. If you have these fast reds in your culture, they will migrate towards the edges of the container and grow up against the side because of the water condensation on the sides and the lower light intensity. I found that they die over time if you keep the light levels very high and the water PPM very low. Same applies to the fast greens... increase light intensity until the light bleaches them.

These fast growing, small, nutrient loving red sphagnum meet the description of sphagnum warnstorfii:
http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/bbs/Activit ... torfii.pdf

There are hundreds of fast green species, many looking identical to each other.

Again, if you grow sphagnum as a dead or living growing medium for other plants, avoid the fast growing red and green species. Prefer the slow growing red and brown species.

My dream is to figure out how to grow austinii under artificial conditions as fast as cristatum grows in the wild. This way austinii could be sold as a higher-grade substitute for the high grade AAAA New Zealand sphagnum cristatum. Imagine never having to swap out the LFS that your orchid or carnivorous plant grows in because the sphagnum doesn’t sour over time.

Later this weekend, I will post some other interesting research articles on optimal sphagnum temperatures, light intensity, acidity, and the coolest of all, a paper showing how sphagnum species are true mixotrophs, i.e., they can make their own food using photosynthesis, or they can live entirely off of food they consume from their environment, just like animals do.

riveraXVX wrote:nice photos, we only have two types currently in our household S. rubellum and an unknown fluffy green type that came with some other plants we bought a couple months ago.

I'll have to look into some of the more resistant to heat ones, I tried to grow a little we had as a topdressing outdoors in NC this summer and that failed miserably not sure what it was and was only a very small culture of it but full sun was a no-go

the green moss we have under lights indoors covered with a couple holes in it, the red/orange we have outdoors on a table in the underhang of porch hasn't been growing great there but its mostly been colder weather moving some of it into a tank we are setting up soon indoors

edit: y'all both have such a nice arrangement!

The rule of thumb for live sphagnum is “easy come, easy go”. The fast growing species are also the species that rot quickly. The fast species benefit the most from diluted fertilizer. It makes their fast growth even faster. If the growing conditions are wrong, then sphagnum grows even slower. So just because your sphagnum grows slowly does not mean the species is a slow growing, highly decay and heat resistant species.