Sphagnum top dressing

[monocotman]

Last spring I bought a few seedling phrags from OL and planted them in my usual inorganic mix of perlite and hydroleuca.
They were put on an east facing windowsill and sat in a seed tray with a bit a rain water in the bottom.
They were watered with rain mix and rain water regularly. I also put a few growstones into the rainwater in the seed tray. I know from experience that this helps to green up the plants.
Most of the plants grew well.
One of the Fritz Schomburg's had lost some leaf tissue in transit but that recovered well. Another one was intact but a bit pale but that too recovered and started to grow a new shoot.
Jason Fisher 4n grew nicely. The only one that sat and did nothing over the summer was a small seedling of Robert Jan Quene.
I know from experience that I can grow Phrag seedlings up into mature plants. It just takes longer in my home growing conditions.
Anyway a couple of months ago I added some long stranded sphagnum as a top dressing to each pot and there was an immediate response from the plants. Growth improved across the board and even the Robert Jan Quene suddenly started to move.
Has anyone else seen this happen?
I am intrigued to know why.
There could be an increase in the local humidity as the sphagnum has such a large surface area.
There could be an exudate from the moss that helps the plants.
I can see several roots growing nicely on the surface of the inert compost just under the moss.
Anyway the effect under my home conditions was so obvious that I have done the same thing for all my phrags, seedlings and mature plants.

These are the plants doing nicely now.Robert Jan is the smallest one front right.

https://flic.kr/p/XT8gxs

regards,

David

 

[NYEric]

I find a top dressing for Phrags that hold moisture, sphagnum or grodan/wool cubes, helps roots grow.

 

[SlipperFan]

I use live moss (not sphagnum) as a top dressing on all my Phrags and Paphs. After looking at so many in situ photos, and seeing just about every slipper with moss around its roots, I decided it must be a good thing. So far, it has been.

 

[abax]

I have some Phrags. with moss and some without and
can't tell the difference in growth/blooming rates in my
greenhouse. However, I have noticed that fungus gnats
rather like damp moss. This probably isn't an issue with
plants grown on a window sill. The plants look terrific.

Dot, where do you get live moss????

 

[Happypaphy7]

On eBay.
Aquarium people buy them all the time. And they are quite inexpensive.

 

[terryros]

I have bloomed the triploid Fritz Schomburg and the tetraploid Jason Fischer from OL, which must be two of the crosses you are talking about. They were both great flowers and the plants have grown well. While the sphagnum may be contributing through effect on moisture, it is not an inert medium. It adsorbs a group of cations and tends to lower the pH. It could be that these had an effect on culture as well. I grow all of my Phrags in a mix that is about 50% Growstone and 50% milled sphagnum moss. This mixture tends to be alkaline because of the constant leaching of carbonate from the Growstone, but fertilizer and lemon juice balances this out for me. I only have to fertigate Phrag pots every 7-10 days, depending on the season, but I use weak concentrations of fertilizer (35-50 ppm N), and I use both Kelpmax and Inocucor about once a month. I also use periodic small amounts of Epsom salt to balance the additional calcium that comes from the Growstone.


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[SlipperFan]

...
Dot, where do you get live moss????

http://mossunlimited.net
Excellent quality and reasonable price. Unfortunately, shipping is expensive. I like to purchase the dry moss. It keeps a long time and refreshes nicely.

 

[abax]

Thank you Dot.

 

[xiphius]

I use live moss (not sphagnum) as a top dressing on all my Phrags and Paphs. After looking at so many in situ photos, and seeing just about every slipper with moss around its roots, I decided it must be a good thing. So far, it has been.

Seconded on the use of live moss. Growth has been much more vigorous for me ever since mulching with it. All of the paphs I have tried it on (except brachys for some reason) seem to really love it. I got mine as a patch I collected on a hiking trip. It grows on just about anything. I grew it separately until I was sure it was free of pests, then started using it to top dress a few plants. When I saw how well they were doing, I slowly added to everything with great results. It started as a mix of different mosses, but over time one of them took over and I am now pretty sure it is a monoculture. Not sure on the identity, but it seems most similar to cushion moss (which would make sense since this is pretty common in IN).

 

[SlipperFan]

I've also gotten moss from TN Nursery: https://www.tnnursery.net/moss/
It was good quality but not as clean as from moss unlimited. But closer to you, Angela, so shipping might be cheaper.

 

[monocotman]

moss

I'm with you Dot on this one.
I will be top dressing all my phrags from now on with moss.
Interesting to see that it doesn't seem to matter what species of moss you use, the beneficial effect is the same.
I used long NZ sphag just because I have it available. The OL plants all came generously wrapped in the stuff and I did not want to throw it away.
David