For Neo Moss Mound Growers, Do You Cover Roots??

[Happypaphy7]

I am trying a few of my plants on moss this year.

When the new roots come out, they seem to either dive into the moss or grow along the surface of the mound.

For the latter, do you let it be or do you take the whole thing out and apply another thing layer of moss to cover them??

The reason I ask is because I grow indoor where the air is very dry. I'm afraid the roots that are exposed to the air gets too dry between watering.
I don't want to water everyday.

What do you guys do?

 

[Lanmark]

I let them stay on top of the moss if that's where they want to be. Eventually, when it is time to remoss the whole thing, I will wrap all the existing roots into a new mound. My apartment is dryer than a desert, though I do water or mist most days. Some days I don't. I've never had a problem with my Neos suffering from too much dryness, but I've rotted roots from time to time due to too much moisture.

 

[Marco]

I do the same thing as Mark. However, if it's a neo that is recovering with nominal root in the mound I will try to wrap sphags strands around root over the mound to cover it. I only do this when the root is moist. When the root is moist it is a little more pliable. There's less risk of breaking the root.

If the plant is healthy and established I let it be ( mainly because I'm lazy). I just give the visible root a spray of water if I remember.

I also agree with Mark on the dryness. Sometimes I forget to water and I leave plants bone dry for two/ three days and they are they are fine. I just try not to do it too often. If I was to pick I'd rather have neos dry longer to moist longer.

 

[abax]

Happy, keep on asking questions. I'm learning a lot.

 

[myxodex]

Yes, me too ... roots exposed. It's useful to have the summer's new roots exposed for the winter rest because you can mist these down lightly during the winter rest without getting the moss too wet. If you repot in March most of the new roots will be exposed apart from the few that dive into the moss. If the roots go green when wet it also means they are photosynthetic and contribute to the plants growth; although not all varieties have enough chlorophyll in their roots to make a significant contribution, most do.

In the summer during active growth I completely saturate the moss and wet down the whole plant with the sprayer, I even turn them upside down and spray the underside of the leaves, and I use as much spray pressure as my pump sprayer can handle,... then I let it dry almost completely before repeating. Like Marco I also have had times when I've missed watering and they have spent several days without water; I don't recommend this but they will survive. One year I had a bad time, "life issues" and they got too many dry periods ... they survived OK, but it reduced the amount of summer growth and this negatively impacted the following year's flowering, which was the worst flowering season I've had in over 10 years of neo growing. So this year's growth relates to next years flowering,... except for those that just don't flower .... grrr .... Ryokuho and Senzai ... I'm getting bored with this ... damn !!

 

[Happypaphy7]

I agree, but two years ago, I was on vacation for a little over two weeks. It was planned as two week long vacation, but at the time, hurricane Sandy was hitting NYC and we had to stay extra days in Hawaii.
When I returned home, my neo was nearly dead. Lesson learned.
It recovered but it looked terrible with entire center dead leaving a giant bald spot, so to speak. I had to soak the poor guy over night.

By the way, I wonder what makes some roots dive into the mound while others won't and just grow over the mound.
Even if I mist them daily, I find it a bit problematic in dry home culture in two ways.
One, obviously, the water from misting dries up very fast.
Two, water from the misting, if too much, gets absorbed by the moss mound, repeated little bit every day, the moss in the center can stay too wet killing the roots. I had this happen also. Then, I never knew because the moss mound appeared bone dry and I never suspected how damp it was inside.

I really need that net cone thing Mark shared pictures of in the other thread.