moss PEE SMELL - Orchid Board

missann · #1 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 02:39 AM

I am really new to the use of moss and I have noticed a strange pee like smell in the moss that I have wrapped around my vanda's roots. I thought it was because it was hanging directly over my bunny cage. I moved it away, and then today I recieved a moss basket liner in the mail and it, too smells like pee. This pee smell from the moss is permeating my entire house, and the deck, and my bedroom. I am curious to know if the smell is actually caused by ammonia that has somehow built up in the moss. Can it be harmful to my plant? Will it go away? I can't leave the vanda hanging in the tree forever. It gets very cold here in the winter.

Any help with this issue is much appreciated.

isurus79 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 04:30 AM

Ive never had a problem with moss (Im assuming you mean spag) smelling like anything at all when it is not rotting. Just my 2 cents but Vandas also usually prefer a spag free environment in favor of very rapid drying.

missann · #3 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 05:59 AM

The moss is very loose just laid around the roots. I live in a desert, so it dries out completely every day. I know that usually vandas like to just dangle their roots in the air cause they are dirty exhibitionists, but I have to keep mine covered up because it is too dry here.

isurus79 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by missann

The moss is very loose just laid around the roots. I live in a desert, so it dries out completely every day.

Gotcha! Makes good sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by missann

I know that usually vandas like to just dangle their roots in the air cause they are dirty exhibitionists, but I have to keep mine covered up because it is too dry here.

lolol They are definitely dirty exhibitionists! Always showing off their nether-roots.

unhappykat · #5 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 08:18 PM

That smell is from the bleaching process used to prepare the moss for export to the united states, It will go away in a few weeks, I have never heard it refered to as pee though.

missann · #6 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 11:41 PM

Well, I called the orchid supplies supplier that I got the moss liner from and the lady said she had never heard of the pee smell before. She said she would ask around and see if anyone knew what I was talking about. I hope she calls back. I said that I thought it might be from some chemical reaction in the bateria in the moss, but she wasn't as smart as I am because she interrupted me and said that there are not chemicals in the moss. Oh well. I think I will take your word for it, Kat. I think the smell has already dissapated a bit today. I was just worried that there was some substance in the moss that could damage my plant.

unhappykat · #7 (**permalink**) 08-01-2008, 11:54 PM

no its not a damaging chemical reaction, its the Iodine that naturally occurs in the moss. During bleaching the iodine reacts producing the smell you sense, once the moss has aged a bit it will all have leached out and you will smell nothing, unless you use fish emulshion to fertilize, then I wouldn be smelling anything within a hundred feet of the plant!!!