FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sponsored by FlytrapStore.com

Discuss non-carnivorous plants here

Moderator: Matt

User avatar
By Apollyon
Location: 
Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#388464
Nepenthes0260 wrote: That sphagnum and Heliamphora look fantastic, what temps are you keeping them in? Would like to grow some more sphag eventually, but it's never very vigorous in my HL room.
Well I can't speak for his stuff but I can say I get vigorous growth just keeping moss under lights in regular room temp conditions. I just dome a 1020 tray and let it do its thing. I spray maxsea on it every 2-3 weeks to give it a boost. Seems like it grows faster now than it used to. Perhaps its acclimation/rammification from breaking heads off. For some reason I'm stuck on the idea of growing my own. The massive bales that seemed to last forever now last a couple rounds of repotting :/
Nepenthes0260 liked this
User avatar
By MikeB
Location: 
Posts:  1854
Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#388465
elaineo wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:26 pm That is so cool! Dang, maybe I should have bought my own instead of buying a bag from Mikeb :lol:
I still have 2 bags' worth left if you'd like some more. :) It's about 50/50 dark red and green, nowhere near the screamin' red color in Meadowview's picture.

I put my part of that moss in two 10 inch X 6 inch (25 cm X 15 cm) trays for propagation. I cut the moss into sections about 1.5 inches / 4 cm long and spread it out across the trays. I keep it damp/wet with rainwater and give it 2-3 hours of direct sun every day. It isn't showing any growth yet, but it isn't declining, either. I don't expect to see much from it for the next 4-6 weeks, until after the weather finally cools down here.
elaineo, MaxVft liked this
By Z_Y
Posts:  177
Joined:  Wed Jun 24, 2020 10:19 pm
#388468
Nepenthes0260 wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:21 pm That sphagnum and Heliamphora look fantastic, what temps are you keeping them in? Would like to grow some more sphag eventually, but it's never very vigorous in my HL room.
At the moment it's around 64-65F during the night and 77F during the day. I've been keeping it a few degrees warmer during the summer compared to my winter temperatures since I didn't want too much condensation on my cooling tubes until I get around to insulating them with some foam which I've been neglecting to do all summer.
Nepenthes0260 liked this
User avatar
By Nepenthes0260
Location: 
Posts:  1774
Joined:  Mon Apr 30, 2018 1:59 am
#388480
Z_Y wrote:
Nepenthes0260 wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:21 pm That sphagnum and Heliamphora look fantastic, what temps are you keeping them in? Would like to grow some more sphag eventually, but it's never very vigorous in my HL room.
At the moment it's around 64-65F during the night and 77F during the day. I've been keeping it a few degrees warmer during the summer compared to my winter temperatures since I didn't want too much condensation on my cooling tubes until I get around to insulating them with some foam which I've been neglecting to do all summer.
Thanks for the info. They sure seem to like those temps!
User avatar
By elaineo
Location: 
Posts:  1013
Joined:  Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:07 am
#388494
@Apollyon I just thought of something. You mentioned in another thread that you spray your moss with maxsea, right? I have never fed my moss anything but distilled water. Maybe the red color is caused by a lack of nutrients? I know flytraps get redder when they are hungry...
User avatar
By Apollyon
Location: 
Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#388514
@elaineo, Funny you say that. When I read what you said about stress bringing it out I was considering the way I grow mine and was wondering the same thing. The plants usually don't really starve. Thinking back, I wasn't fertilizing nearly as regularly when I was growing it before towards the end so that may actually be a factor. Right now, the transplanted moss is still pretty fresh in the new container and I know that the red stuff was growing green before changing. Hopefully I'll know what I'm really looking at in a month or so
elaineo liked this
User avatar
By elaineo
Location: 
Posts:  1013
Joined:  Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:07 am
#388545
optique wrote:@elaineo, have you tested all the types outside? if so what grows and spreads the fastest?
It was too hot and dry during the summer, but now that it's cooled down I moved them all outside. Probably not a fair comparison, because some species grow slow and dense while others (like yours) grow fast and loose.

One test I want to try is to put CP cuttings on each one and see how fast they rot or strike. This study found that green moss is better at inhibiting bacteria and mold than red moss.
User avatar
By Rammplins
Location: 
Posts:  417
Joined:  Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:28 pm
#388567
elaineo wrote:One test I want to try is to put CP cuttings on each one and see how fast they rot or strike.
CP's Strive VERY well on live green sphag. When taking flower stem cuttings from VFt's I saw about a 25% increase in my chances of getting a strike, and if it didnt strike the rot was nonexitstant to minimal, usually they would just wither away into a black stick that I would just pluck out.
elaineo liked this
User avatar
By Apollyon
Location: 
Posts:  1663
Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#388596
elaineo wrote:
Apollyon wrote:This is unrelated but if you find yourself with an unnatural amount of the darker red moss, keep me in mind!
I can send you the whatever was in that little cup for the cost of postage, if you want it?
That'd be awesome! I'll PM you
elaineo liked this
User avatar
By MikeB
Location: 
Posts:  1854
Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#388711
One tray of the moss that I got from an eBay seller in Maine has started to color up:
Citrus Red 1.jpg
Citrus Red 1.jpg (818.48 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
The other tray has just a few peeks of red:
Citrus Red 2.jpg
Citrus Red 2.jpg (589.82 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
The Meadowview moss has a bit of red:
Meadowview 1.jpg
Meadowview 1.jpg (653.15 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
Meadowview 2.jpg
Meadowview 2.jpg (542.22 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
Here is the moss that I couldn't sell to Lain (what I could salvage minus the Ultricularia infestation):
Couldn't sell to Lain.jpg
Couldn't sell to Lain.jpg (626.41 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
The moss that I rescued from a local park has perked up dramatically. There is a drainage pond at the back of the park, and a few years ago, there was a huge swath of sphagnum moss around 1/3 of it. I stopped by there in late July, and only a couple small patches are left, struggling to survive. I found a large handful of moss that had been kicked up by the kids. It was 6 feet from the water and very dry. I took it home, put some wet peat moss in a bowl, and spread the moss over it. 6 weeks later, the moss has greened up and is growing well:
Local moss.jpg
Local moss.jpg (648.29 KiB) Viewed 4380 times
Red sphagnum must be a northern thing. I have never seen any Carolina-native moss that was red. All of the local stuff is either light green (the tall, fluffy species) or medium green (the shorter, compact species).
elaineo liked this
By Z_Y
Posts:  177
Joined:  Wed Jun 24, 2020 10:19 pm
#388954
This thread has motivated me to try to expand my stock of red sphagnum. I took the darkest specimens from around my pots and placed it into this tray. However I'm not sure what the best way to actually propagate sphagnum is, I've only ever just propagated them by having them grow in my pots or in a ziplock bag. What I'm having trouble with in my little cups is algae, it feels kind of slimy to the touch. Maybe I just need to recreate a pot, since the drainage would help with preventing algae.
IMG_20210922_203901.jpg
IMG_20210922_203901.jpg (3.28 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
My darkest colored moss lives in this pot, which I've tried to spread around to my other pots. Here it is in April. And yes the moss is actually extremely red, it's not just some weird setting on my camera. In real life it's so red it's almost black:
IMG_20210331_191321.jpg
IMG_20210331_191321.jpg (1.26 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
And here it is today in September.
IMG_20210922_204110.jpg
IMG_20210922_204110.jpg (2.24 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
IMG_20210922_203918.jpg
IMG_20210922_203918.jpg (2.32 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
You can see the green moss is kind of outcompeting the red ones, although I did harvest a lot of the red ones. You can also see there's some very dark red varieties and some not as dark red kinds. I'm not sure if it's different species.

My orange ones are doing ok in my little cup but in terms of all my colonies in the pots I think they've mostly been outcompeted by green varieties. They also grow super slow, it's been like this for half a year.
IMG_20210922_204215.jpg
IMG_20210922_204215.jpg (1.38 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
Even in the shade the dark red kind stays pretty red, you can see some poking through beneath the neps here but you can also see how the green kind is way more fluffy and is basically taking over.
IMG_20210922_203752.jpg
IMG_20210922_203752.jpg (2.49 MiB) Viewed 4255 times
elaineo, Nepenthes0260, MaxVft and 1 others liked this

Piese originale Ford S-Max 2015-2020 alegerea pi[…]

https://www.pieseford.ro/piese-auto-ford-s-max-20[…]

If you are going to use peat/perlite just slip pot[…]

Hello!

Welcome

Chilly in LA…

I've got a friend in Harvey, but that looks like […]

1 year old cape!

My cape is being evil. It died back when I did I[…]

The Sphagnum Yacht

We all love cotton...blue jeans, t-shirts, underwe[…]

I counted 21 in this one. Both are flavas that I g[…]

Support the community - Shop at FlytrapStore.com!