Expert: Christopher Littrell - 6/22/2010

Question
Hi, I am planning to use live sphagnum moss as a medium for my carnivours plants. I was just wondering how exaclty do you propagate this? i got some live moss at home and i don't know exaclty how to propagate this. I read some articles online saying use dried sphagnum moss on the bottom and wet it a lot and put the live ones on top... but i dont' know what temperature, how much light, how much water and other stuff. Can you please help me with this? Also can you just leave it in a tank water and let it grow that way? and if so, is tap water fine?


One last question is, can sphagnum moss grow in direct sunlight for more than 6-8 hrs a day in about 90-100 degree weather? b/c where i live (New york city), there is a lot of sun in the summer and it is hot and humid. I am planning to grow Sarracenia venosa which requires about 6 hrs or more direct sunlight. And in New york, the summer light is really strong and hot and i'm afraid that eventhough i'm going to be keeping the live sphagnum moss wet at all times, the water itself does heat up too b/c of the sun... Is this okay for the moss? Please let me know what do you do for it.
I have considered dried sphagnum moss, but the beauty in it is not there. I would rather switch the type of plants that I'm going just so i can use the live ones. lol Please help me with this. Is there anyway the moss can survive? and if so, how? and if not, what alternative plants can i grow that is suitable for my enviornment using the live moss? I have considered cape sundews, but they are not as elegant to me as sarracenia species.
Please get back to me, thanks and sorry for the massive questions

Answer
Hello Danny,

I do not use live moss with my plants. I grow too many different species that would have trouble with being overgrown by live moss. Live sphagnum lives in the same conditions that carnivorous plants do, hence, why carnivorous plants are grown in such moss by collectors. The problem associated with the moss, if live, would be that it quickly overgrows some of the smaller carnivorous plants. You should only use tap water if it is less than 50 parts per million of particle solids as the acidity in the moss may be disrupted by too many minerals added in. If your tap water is too hard, consider using distilled or reverse osmosis water or rain water if you can.

For information about actually propagating and growing such moss, you may want to ask this question of the other experts on this site as I simply do not have advanced information about growing moss specifically. I tend to use the dry, granulated or chopped moss.

Christopher