FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

How do you revive sphagnum? I want to do it for fun I guess. I know it will take a long time, but I think it will be worth it. Also how much humidity does it need indoors? My house is around 40%. I want to grow it with my neps without a terrarium.

So first what kind of sphagnum

If you are thinking of trying to grow live sphagnum from dry that you purchased, that will likely not happen. The dried stuff is sterilized first, which will kill any sphagnum spores that are in it. Every now and then you can get lucky but more often than not, all it grows is algae. If you PM me, I can send you some starter threads of live sphagnum. You can chop them up and, in the right conditions, have a ton of moss in just a few months. I think a padded envelope would cost about $4 to mail.

albertoburrito wrote:How do you revive sphagnum? I want to do it for fun I guess. I know it will take a long time, but I think it will be worth it. Also how much humidity does it need indoors? My house is around 40%. I want to grow it with my neps without a terrarium.

Growing Sphagnum in lower humidity like that is rather difficult, though it can be done. The problem is, the moss has an extremely high rate of transpiration so it dries out very quickly, and moisture fluctuations will stunt its growth. You'll usually have dry tips on the moss even if you water it frequently (which may not be good for the Nepenthes if you grow them together.)

As for reviving moss, it really depends on which brand you have. Better Grow revives pretty readily, and that may extend to other brands that source their moss from Chile. Spagmoss and other products from New Zealand and much more thoroughly sterilized so it's much less likely, but it still happens for me on a regular basis, even in open air. If you want to do it on purpose though, you'll want to put some moss in a sealed container or bag, keep it evenly moist, and wait...then wait some more. It could take 6 months or more, particularly with Spagmoss.

I have gublers and better-grow. They all make grass, so I don’t think it has been sterilized.

I am so mad at myself right now, when saving a rocket farms vft i noticed a few heads of live sphagnum but I threw them out

albertoburrito wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 5:39 pm I am so mad at myself right now, when saving a rocket farms vft i noticed a few heads of live sphagnum but I threw them out

Don't be mad at yourself, the stuff they put in death cubes are star moss not sphag they look similar

I guess I'll try my luck with reviving

nimbulan wrote:Better Grow revives pretty readily, and that may extend to other brands that source their moss from Chile. Spagmoss and other products from New Zealand and much more thoroughly sterilized so it's much less likely, but it still happens for me on a regular basis, even in open air.

I find this interesting considering that most of my Better Grow moss never revive (only grass sprouts).
My New Zealand LFSM on the other hand, revives in almost every pot.
If you ever want to try reviving sphagnum moss, choose the New Zealand variety, it's higher quality.

CPhunter101 wrote:I find this interesting considering that most of my Better Grow moss never revive (only grass sprouts).
My New Zealand LFSM on the other hand, revives in almost every pot.
If you ever want to try reviving sphagnum moss, choose the New Zealand variety, it's higher quality.

That is interesting. I've never actually purchased Chilean moss myself but have had many people tell me it's super easy to revive. All of my Spagmoss has been pretty consistent in how readily it revives, but it's so sporadic it's difficult to do intentionally. For every pot I have that fills up with live moss, I have 10 more that grew nothing.

I grow my sphag moss indoors, in a plastic box with plastic wrap over it, with some holes so it can breathe. It would do better in cooler temperatures, but it's adequate for me.