FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I noticed this growing in several pots of seedlings I have going...I'm no expert but it looks kinda like sphagnum moss to me. Anyone have an ID for this? I'm bamboozled. I can't imagine sphagnum spores surviving in the peat, but maybe it's more resilient than I realese.

...I've been meaning to start growing sphagnum after all...
Patrick

Looks like it to me! Sometimes they sprout from the dried stuff, awesome!!

I guess I've gotta learn how to raise sphagnum now. Any quick pointers anyone has? I seem to remember reading that it works well to grow it in simple shallow storage totes...it'll be a while before I can fill one of them though, assuming I can keep what I've got growing.

Patrick

Yup, that's sphag. Here's a few tips from my limited experience on growing live sphag.

Sphagnum moss likes humidity. Keep sphagnum moss wet and very humid.

Sphagnum doesn't like tons of light. It's very easy to burn. Mine grows very well in a shaded location in my heli tank. The drier you keep them, the less light and heat they can handle.

Keep temps low. Sphagnum doesn't like the heat.

Hope this helps! I'm not a Sphagnum expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Nepenthes0260 wrote:I'm not a Sphagnum expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

For not being an expert, you seem to have the majority of the important growing tips listed here!!

Thanks for the pointers! Is this a common occurence, having sphagnum pop up on its own from peat? I can't find anything about it from googling and have never heard of it before.

Patrick

DesertPat wrote:Thanks for the pointers! Is this a common occurence, having sphagnum pop up on its own from peat? I can't find anything about it from googling and have never heard of it before.

Patrick

It's not terribly uncommon, but it's not particularly common either. I have it pop up on occasion in some of my pots from peat -- usually in pretty well rinsed media that isn't growing algae and/or star moss.

Nepenthes0260 wrote:Yup, that's sphag. Here's a few tips from my limited experience on growing live sphag.

Sphagnum moss likes humidity. Keep sphagnum moss wet and very humid.

Sphagnum doesn't like tons of light. It's very easy to burn. Mine grows very well in a shaded location in my heli tank. The drier you keep them, the less light and heat they can handle.

Keep temps low. Sphagnum doesn't like the heat.

Hope this helps! I'm not a Sphagnum expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

My limited experience only differs in one thing: I've been more successful giving sphagnum plenty of light. I have green sphagnum that gets 4-5 hours of direct sun a day (I'm sure more would be better), and I have both green and red moss under growlights indoors (~300ppfd for 11-16 hours a day). When given a lot of light, sphagnum tends to grow nice and big heads. To avoid burning, in addition to keeping it always moist and trying to raise humidity, it's important to very gradually acclimate the moss to high light.