Tag: sphagnum moss

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New Developments.

I have been under the weather as of late, and this resulted in some of my plants being compromised. However, for the ones that were not, I have some very interesting news.

When it comes to my existing plants, the cape sundews especially, they began pushing flower stalks, and they were quite big. For the ones I had, they grew and showed some nice white flowers at the tops of the stalks. I left them there for nearly a month, and they did their thing. After that, I cut them, because I needed the rest of the plant to recover, and grow properly. Before I knew it, another flower stalk appeared, in both my capes. I didn’t hesitate to cut them this time.

There’s also a smaller pitcher plant that had some issues, due to my neglect, in not allowing the plant to breathe. This led to one of the main pitchers somewhat “foaming” at the top of the main pitcher. I chose to allow the rest of the plant to breathe, and before I knew it, I discovered a bigger pitcher, not yet opened up, yet it was much bigger than the previous pitcher. It looks great.

I also had some issues with some of my butterworts, and I have three of them. The main one took very long to root, before I saw anything happen. The other two, I’m starting to see some leaves begin to push more leaf growth. One of those two, also pushed a nice purple flower.

For the one that took longer to root, I’m starting to see some of the leaves lift up, which is a sign that it’s going in the same direction as the others; and may begin to either flower, or have bigger leaves added to it.

When looking at these plants, it does take time for certain things to occur. It’s not just the plants pushing flowers, but for the plants to settle into their pots and go from there. It’s very satisfying to see plants flower, because if you’re not used to it, it may seem like a surprise, and a welcome one at that.

Of course this also means I had to refill the trays, to make certain they don’t dry out. Using sphagnum moss, it does dry out, but not as fast. I think this is why most of my plants didn’t dry out, after not watering them for a while.

One thing I try not to do, is let my plants dry out. If it happens, that’s unfortunate. It’s not always avoidable when you are injured, or incapacitated in some form. This will mean I will have to replace some plants, or heavily rehydrate those that may still be able to survive this drought.

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Top Dressing: Good or Bad?

Depending on what types of plants and plant pots you are using, it’s generally a good idea. Why? Often to prevent fungus gnats and other pests from laying eggs to later infest your plants.

Top dressing, is usually a light coating of sand, small pebbles, and certain types of tree or orchid bark, on the surface of the medium where plant is growing up and outward. Where the stems meet your medium, where you cannot see the roots, that’s where you add your top dressing.

Just as I stated previously, with preventing fungus gnats from laying eggs, top dressing can also be used for decorative purposes, to give the appearance of your plant something extra.

It’s a good idea to top dress your plant, specifically if you have the option to bottom water your plant. For some that use sand, you can occasionally water the top, where the sand is, to make it a little heavier and this will make it even more difficult for bugs to lay eggs.

Generally, when bugs like fungus gnats encounter this, they’ll often go to another plant, without this issue. This is where you’ll need mosquito bits to counter this problem also, by making the “tea” or to have your plant medium mixed with mosquito bits.

Can this be a problem? It can, but mostly with planters that have no openings at the bottom. You may have to watch for how much water absorbs into the plants, because without the hole(s) in the bottom, you won’t know if you over did it, until you see that water surface, which will lead to having to dump that excess water. This will ruin your top dressing and it can lead to that mixing into the soil; which can be a good thing for extra drainage later on, but I digress. In this case, you’ll need to keep an eye on the plant, but to also check with a chop stick, or bamboo skewer, to check the soil for dryness, just to make certain it isn’t too dry for too long.

Sphagnum moss is also good for top dressing plants, and it’s good for absorbing water also. Just as the rest of the medium uses water, so does the sphagnum moss, but the moss can eventually liven up, and even turn green. When this happens, the dried moss can become live moss.

All of this is optional, but many people swear by it, so before you go about this, do a little research and practice, practice, practice, doing it right. What do I mean? Well, if the plant is very close to the soil/medium, then you may have to lift the leaves up, and put the top dressing of choice under those leaves. Also, when repotting, you can also add the top dressing, prior to adding the plant, by putting a pen or something slightly wider, like a marker, to make that hole, but only remove it, just before you will place the roots of your plant in that hole. This way, you won’t have to need to brush off the top dressing from the leaves of the plant very often.

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Repotting Plants.

Now, when it comes to this, it can be a point of contention for most plant owners. Why? When you bring in a new plant, some tend to not repot them, while others wait a while for the plant to acclimate and adjust to its surroundings, to prevent shock.

Some people like myself, I tend to repot them after bringing them in. I may wait an hour or so, but generally these plants are repotted right after they enter my home. The exception would be, if I don’t have the needed tools and accessories to make this happen.

For the plants that I’ve brought into my home, I’ve repotted them pretty much the same way, but with different mediums obviously. I’ve done this with tropical, carnivorous, some succulent types, cacti, and fairly common everyday plants that are easy to maintain.

First thing, I make certain the water used is not too warm if it’s from the tap.

NOTE: I’m sure people will be against this, but if that’s all you have, then what choice do you have, especially if you’re in the middle of the process?

If I choose to have bottled water, such as distilled water, then I’ll make sure it’s room temperature, and not too cool if it’s in a spot stored where it can get cold. Now, when I say bottled water, I don’t simply mean purchased water, but water stored somewhere in the home, for either emergencies, or just to keep room temperature, for drinking or for other purposes. It should be distilled regardless, but I digress.

Next, have your destination ready for potting. The pot should often be bigger than the one you received your plant in, so make certain that you clean it well.

Next, have your other empty pot, roughly the size of the pot which the plant came in, or bigger. This way, the soil transfer will not be too messy.

Next, go check the bottom of the plant pot with the plant in it, to check for roots coming out of the bottom. If you have this issue, trim off those roots, in order to make it easier to remove the plant from that pot, to place it in the new pot.

Next, get your medium ready.

OPTIONAL: Use a few rocks at the bottom of the pot, to cover over the holes at the bottom of the pot, prior to adding your medium. If your medium is sphagnum moss, then this step is not needed. Also, for sphagnum moss, you’ll need to pre-soak it, and squeeze out excess water, prior to adding your plants.

Next, add your medium to your new pot, then mix it with water. You’ll notice, if you add the medium, it will be light, and can pile up into a big mound. That’s fine. Adding water can pull down some of that, and weigh down the soil a bit, so that it will get that moisture.

OPTIONAL: For those that use mosquito bits, or other insecticides, or even fertilizers, you can add them to the medium, prior to repotting the plants.

Next, get your plants ready for repotting. Squeeze the sides of the pot, to loosen the soil. Once it’s loosened enough, then go over to the spare pot, and empty that into there.

NOTE: In some instances, the soil and the roots are packed so tightly, it won’t separate, so you’ll need to put this in water to loosen the soil some more.

Once the soil is loosened enough for the roots to be removed easily, then proceed.

Next, make certain you have lukewarm water, in order to wash out the excess soil and whatever else may be attached to the roots of the plant. For some plants, you can get the leaves wet, while for others, this needs to be avoided. At this point, you should see the roots, clear enough to know if it’s healthy and in need of better care.

Next, go to your destination, and add water to your medium. Then, proceed to make a hole deep enough in your medium, so that you can simply add your plant to it. Once it’s in, pack the soil around it, but just enough that it covers the roots well. You can add more soil if needed, but you’ll need to add more water also.

Depending on the pot you are using, if it doesn’t have holes at the bottom, at least one, then you have to proceed with caution when watering them. This is where you may need something to check the dampness or dryness of the soil, before watering. It may take up to a week or to a month, depending on the variety of plant you are using. Often use a dry bamboo skewer or even a chopstick to see if your soil is dry. The top layer might be, but everything else may be wet, which is why you need to do this.

If you have sphagnum moss, it’s more about a change of color. Often, when it’s wet, sphagnum moss is darker, but when it’s dry, or drying out, it becomes a lighter tanned color, so look out for that. For this, you can just feel it with your fingers to check for any dryness.

For using pots with holes at the bottom, have a saucer or a tray to keep some excess water. The saucer, will keep some excess water, but it will overflow, and it can be messy. With trays, you can bottom water the plants, and still top water the plant, without water overflowing. If you have the tray, top watering isn’t needed, but optional.

After this, it’s a matter of scheduling a time to water your plants. Also, having it in a place to get proper lighting, whether it’s artificial or sunlight, that will determine where you place your plants. Both will help your plants thrive and grow. Some may even push flowers, or keep flowering if they already have flowers.

This has worked for me, but there will always be those outliers, where this isn’t going to work for very long. I explained this with certain plants, but their problems were well beyond the repotting stage.

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Other Issues.

This is something that’s not labeled under successes, nor failures, and you’ll understand why in a moment.

The use of sphagnum moss has its advantages and disadvantages. First, the advantages. It’s a great medium for growing many types of plants, where they need lots of drainage, but also it holds moisture better than most mediums for longer periods, without the need to water them too often. Many plants can root quite well in it.

And now the disadvantages. With using sphagnum moss, you need to be aware of the problems that come with using this medium for planting. One of them being, the development of fungus gnats. Everything can be working quite well for you, but then you start to notice something. Your windows are closed, so you cannot blame anything from coming in like that. You begin to see and hear bugs, flying bugs around the place. It’s coming from the sphagnum moss that’s being used in and on your plants.

NOTE: This happens when bringing in new plants all the time, and it can result from fungus gnats laying eggs in any medium. It can be sphagnum moss, peat moss, etc. It’s a matter of noticing the problem before it gets worse.

From what I understand, and I had this discussion with my plant providers, that the way to counter this, is to treat the sphagnum moss on your plants; to do this, you need to use something called, mosquito bits, and make a special kind of “tea” for watering any plants with sphagnum moss in them. Mosquito bits have something called BTI, which is said to be very effective.

This can be effective in killing fungus gnat larvae, but not the adult fungus gnats, that are flying around in your home already. You may need something like a double-sided tape nearest to the plants to aid in slowing down what’s already there.

NOTE: They have sticky traps made for such things, so rather than use double-sided tape, invest in these. It’s not to say that they don’t have other varieties made for catching fungus gnats, because they do, so choose your tools wisely.

By the way, this does work for mosquito larvae as well; after all, it’s called mosquito bits for a reason. There’s also the use of mosquito dunks, which can have similar results as the mosquito bits.

So what does BTI stand for? It’s short for, wait for it, bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (try saying that fast three times). It does take time, and I’m trying this right now. It’s a non-toxic way to rid your plants of this problem, and it’s a good idea, considering it can aid in extending your lifespan of your plants.

I’ll try this, and see how much of a difference this will make. I’ll discuss my findings in another journal in the future.

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Other Types Of Plants That I Care For.

This may be a short journal at this time. Most of the plants I care for, I’ve mentioned previously. One that I didn’t mention, was my experience with the orchid. It’s an interesting plant, where I’ve purchased it, after it has flowered. In a natural setting, they will be this way for the spring and summer months.

The same orchid that I had, all of the flowers, which was four of them, dried up, and all that was left was the stem and the leaves at the bottom.

For those that don’t know about orchids, they can survive without blooming or growing flowers, but also have their leaves continuously grow. I have one that has grown after that, and yes, I did attempt to propagate, unsuccessfully.

Potting the orchid wasn’t hard, but it did take some extra things I didn’t have. Luckily for me, where I bought it, I was gifted some wood chips so that I can use that to give the orchid a good setting to grow. It’s medium included sphagnum moss, those same wood chips I mentioned (some use cedar, and maybe that’s what I have, but I’m not going into detail with this), and some rocks at the bottom (optional). I give them enough water, and have them by a South facing window which gives lots of sunlight throughout the year, and there we go.

I only recently repotted and relocated the orchid to be under a grow light, to see if the results would change. Since I just put it there, prior to writing this journal, I can’t supply an update until enough time has passed.

Hopefully when that happens I will have some flowers blooming, and better growth in its new pot.

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Soil/Media.

Often, it’s decided when growing plants, which type of medium to grow them in. I bring this up, because it’s not always the case that you should use soil or soil varieties to grow plants. It’s true that plants can grow in a variety of settings, including without any type of media.

I can attest to using a variety of soils, and other mediums to grow plants. I can also attest to the ones I haven’t used yet, but may in the future. I’ll discuss this in better detail.

For most of my plants, the standard regular plants, they often are planted in peat moss, often referred to as sphagnum peat moss. It is made from sphagnum moss, but I can’t explain the procedure other than allowing it to decompose, and it’s basically reused as soil, which is what I’m using for most of my plants. It seems to be quite similar to regular soil you would have trees and plants growing outdoors, which is why many are good in this medium.

I have had some failures due to external factors, some of which may involve premature or constant transferring of plants from one setting to the next, but other than that, they have worked well in peat moss.

For other plants, you have a mix of mediums, and we do know of others, that aren’t often used by themselves. There are reasons for that. It’s not to say that it can’t happen, because there are some people that can prove that certain mediums can be used separately. Perlite, often is mixed, because of its light texture. It’s as light as Styrofoam, but is often mixed with heavier mediums like peat moss and sphagnum moss. You may have to experiment with perlite, but just know how light it is.

NOTE: When preparing perlite, wear some type of protection over your mouth and nose, because the sediment can get into your lungs quite fast.

It’s not good breathing this stuff in, so be careful, and should you decide to use perlite, get masked up, for using this even for light and short term uses.

Perlite is known for aiding in proper drainage, to most plants, when especially mixed with other mediums like peat moss.

Various mixes of mediums, can have bits and pieces of lava rock, and when using rocks like lava rock, in much bigger sizes, they can be used for providing a spot for plants to have roots grip and grow onto them. The bigger pieces are used more for decorative purposes, but it’s ability to have plants attach themselves to these rocks, are beneficial to an extent. This is best to have them in terrariums because of the moisture and humidity inside. With the pieces, which are often as small as pebbles and gravel, to dust, these mixed with other mediums provide the ability to have better drainage, compared to those other mediums alone.

Let’s look at sphagnum moss, and how it’s often used. In this journal, I’m referring to the dried tan colored variety sold in many different stores, often long fibered. You will see them in pet stores as well, either in tan or green. This is most commonly used for lots of tropical and carnivorous plants. Many recommend using this because of its ability to hold water, and keep the plants hydrated for longer periods, compared to other types of media. It’s not good for all types of plants, and you may have to ask an expert, and do your own research of how not to use sphagnum moss, in this manner.

I did discuss rocks, lava rocks previously, but when it comes to a planting medium, small rocks can provide a good way to keep plants stable, if they have difficulty to stand on their own, after growing tall. Notice with other mediums, you may see these plants droop because the leaves are heavy, but the stems are light. In many instances, you have to add some rocks to keep them upright, or have them lean against something like a bamboo skewer, or if it’s sharing space with other more sturdy plants, use them to balance the plant until they grow strong enough to be on their own.

For the former, having them surrounded by rocks, will help, and it can also help with having less water, to prevent over watering. I currently have two “lucky bamboo” plants in individual containers, with rocks and water only. The roots are fine, they aren’t so much that the roots are all over the place, but, it’s doing well enough for the bamboo plants to grow leaves. Maybe over time, if the conditions are good enough, I might see some flowers.

Fingers crossed!

Special mixes, often are sold for a certain price, depending on where you choose to go. Personally, I recommend for the better price, some hardware stores, compared to plant stores, may sell them for a lesser price. Some may go as much as half the cost. This is just from shopping around. You may get a good set for example, for around $7, where in some plant stores, and even other hardware stores, you might pay near double that, or three or four dollars more.

With that said, make your choices wisely. I use a tropical mix, for my terrarium plants in, “the tank”. I use a good enough set, where the plants and their roots can spread enough to be satisfied with the settings. That mix, has the lava rock pieces that I mentioned previously, throughout the entire mix. I use this mix with other plants, but I try to keep this mix away from my carnivorous plants.

For the carnivorous plants, I may alternate from time to time, between sphagnum moss only, peat moss only, or a mix of peat moss and perlite. I do know that many carnivorous plants sold, will often be on displayed for sale, and are often covering the roots with soil, usually peat moss wrapped and covered with a light paper covering, and the rest being sphagnum moss. Growing them at home, it’s actually the reverse, but without the light paper covering. This can result in the plant getting more water and moisture. This is one of the methods I used previously, when keeping most of these carnivorous plants, VFTs especially, in smaller terrariums.

Air plants of course, are plants that need water, but no mediums, because they have no roots. I don’t know of other plants, that don’t need plant mediums of any kind; not yet anyway.

To add to this, you can grow some plants with simply immersing them in water. I’ve seen this done, and for some it works just fine. My mother had a very viney plant that grew in a big bowl of water, and it kept growing until the water evaporated, and eventually the plant died, due to our absence from the residence. Otherwise, no type of medium was needed for stability of any kind. In fact, water is often a good source for propagating leaf cuttings, which is also why this is good all on its own for maintaining most (if not all) plants.

Just like with rocks, you do have options such as leca, which can be used similarly to how I used the pepples and gravel for my “lucky bamboo” plants. They are generally lighter, because they are clay pebbles, which may not work for all types, but for the ones that do, the success rate may be quite high. I haven’t used this just yet, but I hear them recommended regularly, from plant vendors and online recommendations. At some point, I may check this option out, and then I’ll follow-up.

You have also coco peat, which I haven’t pursued yet, but if I do get some, I’ll use it and document my findings.

There’s also sand. Many say that it’s not a good medium, or substrate to grow plants. Yet, it’s good to mix with peat moss and other types of media, for better drainage. There are a variety of sources that show plants successfully growing in sand. Wait! How can they say that’s not possible, when we tend to see some plants growing at the beach? One day, I will try that for myself, just to see it be possible, with my own eyes.

There are much more, and I could not add anymore to this list. Over time, that will change.