Growing Moss

Camay123

I have bought some moss spore.

Growing it should not a problem. But is moss winter hardy ?

Any tips on Moss ?

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This link came up on Moss. You might find some others linked from that page. Moss goes dormant in the winter. How dormant depends on how cold it gets where you live, and for how long.

EDIT: OOPS! Forgot the links:

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...=&threadid=6382

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...=&threadid=6291



Regards,

Matt

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Cre8tive

Camay123,

I am in Rhode Island and we have moss everywhere. There are several nice patches of it in my yard. I didn't take notice over the winter but this spring it was flourishing.

Mark

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susieq

I think moss must survive in a dormant state like some plants do.
It dries and looks dead but when moisture and temperatures are right, it comes back to life.

In our club many years ago, someone gave a talk on how to get moss started growing on rocks or statuary, etc... Get some moss and dry it out, crumble it to fine pieces, spread Elmers white glue over the surface you want moss on, sprinkle the dried moss pieces on the wet glue and keep it moist. Soon moss should develop and spread over the whole area. I have never done it, but it sounds reasonable..... If you just want moss to grow on the surface of the soil, just skip the glue part and sprinkle the moss pieces over the soil and keep moist.

Lucky for me, there is an abandon building just down the road with moss growing thick all over the parking lot up against the building. I just go down with a tin pie pan, and a spatula from the kitchen and slide the spatula under the moss, lift it and carry it home in the pie tin.

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Suziq wrote:



That's, in many cases, the best way.

I have been experimenting with some moss I bought on eBay, from Tennessee, as I recall. I took some of those flats from the graden center (the kind that come filled with little pots of annuals), put some of that embroidery plastic (the kind that you cut up to use for pot screens) on the bottoms to hold soil (I used potting soil for this.) and stuck them in a corner of my landscaping near where my bonsai lve for the summer so that It would be watered regularly. It has thrived, and yes, returned from winter dormancy.

In another experiment, since I had two newly potted forests, where I had to deal with the problem that bonsai soil generally does not hold moisture well for moss, I dealt with the problem this way:

I save the "fines" from the fir bark I use for organic material in my soil. I took some of this, and some bits and pieces of moss and mixed them, along with water (some use a blender for this; I didn't) to form a thick slurry.

This slurry is applied wherever you want the moss to grow on your bonsai. Seems to be working as the slurry has not washed away and now looks (after 3 weeks) like moss.

Three notes:

Use moss from the sort of location (in terms of sun) most similar to where your trees live. That soft green stuff that lives in the shade will likely die in the sun. If you have to have it on your tree for a show, do what many japanese masters do: Grow it in the shade, and put it on the tree (like a toupe! ) for the show only. Return the moss to its growing location after the show.

The first time I tried mixing this stuff, I did it in a glass bowl, which suddenly exploded! From then on, I used plastic. (This was probably due to rapid swelling of the dust particles as they absorbed water.)

Be careful when handling those dry "fines". When in dust form, mixed with air, they are highly combustible (think grain elevator explosion, and you have the idea!)

susieq

It is definately better to grow moss native to your area.....
I have tried to bring home moss and other things from the mountains of N.C. where my folks live. The transplants never do well here in FLa.