Live sphagnum moss???

[fooferdoggie]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

It does much better for me outside.

its too hot for it outside in the summer I think. our porch is right at the top of a high and next to blacktop. it has gotten 118 on the porch. I have some other moss growing in the pots right now. my main thing s the weeds that pop up are a really pain. I had to repot them all just to get rid of them

[Ray]

Pretty much all sphagnum contains spores that can germinate.

The advice given about bright, wet, low pH and relatively pure water is dead on.

If you can find the right balance of conditions that favor it and your orchid, it is pretty much the ideal medium, as - as Tetra noted- it is "self fluffing" and does not compress into a soppy, root-suffocating mess.

[estación seca]

It looks like a Formosae Dendrobium - which I think would just love the same constantly bright, humid and moist conditions as sphagnum.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by fooferdoggie

its too hot for it outside in the summer I think. our porch is right at the top of a high and next to blacktop. it has gotten 118 on the porch. I have some other moss growing in the pots right now. my main thing s the weeds that pop up are a really pain. I had to repot them all just to get rid of them

If you keep it wet, it will grow.......ok at 118°F you might want to add "good air circulation" to the list of requirements.

[Tetra73]

Originally Posted by estación seca

It looks like a Formosae Dendrobium - which I think would just love the same constantly bright, humid and moist conditions as sphagnum.

Yeah, is a dendrobium Frosty Dawn. Currently, there 2 new canes growing...very fast too. They are 2/3 of the height of the previous cane..which it did bloom around this year Feb to July....

In fact, I am worrying that these 2 newer canes would grow even taller than the previous one... I have to lower the entire plant maybe 6 inches+ closer to the floor..inside my grow tent....

[fooferdoggie]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

If you keep it wet, it will grow.......ok at 118°F you might want to add "good air circulation" to the list of requirements.

I think part of it is the surface gets dry. I only water them two to and at most 3 times a week. I don't have them sitting in a tray of water. they seem to grow better getting water more like normal plants.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by fooferdoggie

I think part of it is the surface gets dry. I only water them two to and at most 3 times a week. I don't have them sitting in a tray of water. they seem to grow better getting water more like normal plants.

That's definitely it. Sphagnum doesn't do dry.

[fooferdoggie]

they grow like crazy as long if gets hot soon enough I don't want to have water them more often. I have some scotch moss growing in some of the pots.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by fooferdoggie

they grow like crazy as long if gets hot soon enough I don't want to have water them more often. I have some scotch moss growing in some of the pots.

A caveat: Scotch Moss is not a moss, and its roots can clog up the air flow in an orchid pot.

In general, it is not a good idea to permit other stuff to grow in orchid pots. Especially ferns, as is seen in Tetra's original post.

[Tetra73]

I thought I do an update here. Is growing too thick. I did some trimming last month and to put them on my Latouriate Dendrobium. I think the trimming is growing because the head is turning slightly red. Unfortunately, I noticed that my Dendrobium Frosty Dawn medium (where the live sphagnum moss has been growing) is not getting dried up fast enough. I am seeing fuzzy white hair on the bottom roots and the underside of the basket.

So, just now, I cut down about half of them. They were growing over the basket. I even pull out few chunks to get the medium a bit more looser. I have enough to replant them on a 12" size tray. I needed to throw out a baseball size portion too. Originally, I thought these live spagnum moss was growing on top of the dormant ones. Actually, no...the entire dormant ones turned live at some point. They smell like seaweed though.

Since not all of my dormant sphagnum moss medium drying the same rate in my other orchids, I thought some would just die away. I didn't add them to my other orchids...