FlyTrapCare Forums

Hey y'all, I figured I'd be here eventually for this moss.

So as I mentioned possibly too many times. Panman was nice enough to sell me some good quality living sphagnum.

The sphagnum arrived all looking pretty green.

I placed it in a tray with some (mostly) desalinated coco coir (68ppm) mixed with perlite and a lot of old sphagnum.

Today the sphagnum doesn't look happy. It was of course unintentionally left to the winds of hurricane Ian, but is perfectly intact

You can see it's clearly not the bright happy green it should be, though it's only been almost a week since it's been in the tray.

I've been keeping it outside in Florida in the shade, misting it thoroughly everyday.

Fertilized it once lightly with 1/4 diluted max sea.

(note the picture has the moss in the sun though it is normally in the shade.)

That picture looks pretty good. It takes it a bit to settle in. I would keep it in part shade. It seems to get better color for me there. I would hold off on feeding it any further until it looks established.

Are you spraying it heavy enough to keep the base layer nice and moist?

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:53 am Are you spraying it heavy enough to keep the base layer nice and moist?

The base layer is noticeably moist for sure.

Panman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:14 pm That picture looks pretty good. It takes it a bit to settle in. I would keep it in part shade. It seems to get better color for me there. I would hold off on feeding it any further until it looks established.

Suppose you're right. I'm extremely unfamiliar with moss growth patterns and biology.

How long have you had it growing in your tray? It can take a while before new growing points pop up or till older ones catch a gear and resume growing.

Never mind, I went back and see it's been in there a little more than a week. Like Panman said, give it some time. I keep mine where it does get some direct sun, but it's thicker than what you have going. It is only for two or three hours in direct sunlight, then either partial or full shade. I keep it in a Sterilite container that's roughly six inches deep. No bottom layer of peat/etc, but the moss is fairly deep. I try to keep anywhere from 1/2" to 1" of water in the bottom...mostly around 1/2". Spraying it at least every other day.

The first time I tried to start some I used a base layer of peat and possibly gave it too much sun...it didn't make it. It seemed the sphagnum really sucked up the tannins from the peat...but, the peat I had was some TSC "Greensmix" which I have come to abhor. I don't know if that was a problem with me losing that first batch or not. From everything that I've seen and read the method that you are using is a textbook example of how to do it.

Last summer, I bought a gallon bag of the red/purple sphagnum moss from Meadowview. It looked nice when I unpacked it, but the moss was none too pleased about being removed from the bog. For the rest of the growing season, it looked decidedly "meh". I left it outside over the winter, and when spring rolled around, the moss took off and grew well.

This winter i am going to test three 10x20 treys domed over the winter outside.