September 07, 2013
New water reservoir
I wasn't satisfied with the hidden water reservoir and replaced the clay pot before the moss starts growing. The old pot had a height of 10 cm, which is half of the tank's height! Now I have inserted a pot with a height of 7 cm. I think I should have used much less peat, but I won't change that in this first attempt. If I ever set it up again, i will use 2-3 smaller pots (~ 5 cm) and make sure that the highest peat level merely covers them.
September 06, 2013
Starting the sphagnum farm
Salve!
Today I'd like to show you what I did with my moss sample meanwhile. Before you start, there are a few things to consider.
As a substrate, I used peat with a degree of decomposition of H3-H5 (very slightly to moderately decomposed) and a pH of 2.5 - 3.5. It is important to use peat which is free of fertilisers!
Another crititcal issue is the water you moisten the peat with. You shouldn't use tap water for at least two reasons. One of them is the pH. Tap water often is alkaline, and in my case it has a pH of 8.0. I guess that it may get acidic enough when poured onto peat, so the alkalinity of tap water alone wouldn't make it unsuitable. A more severe problem is the water hardness, which can vary considerably in different areas, but I assume that tap water is too hard to be used for the cultivation of sphagnum mosses almost anywhere.
Hard water has a high concentration of calcium and magnesium ions, and even relatively soft tap water will contain more of these cations than Sphagnum can endure. Soft water with a very low mineral content is what we need. To start my sphagnum farm, I used water from a well, because the parameters of interest have been tested (and I hadn't collected rainwater yet). The groundwater from this well has a pH of 5.37, a carbonate hardness of 2 dKH and a conductivity of 175 µS/cm.
Alternatively, you can use distilled water or even purify tap water yourself by ion exchange or with a reverse osmosis system. In the latter case, the purified water is called "RO water".
However, such water purification systems are rather expensive. Unless you already own an RO system, because you need soft water for your aquarium for example, a good alternative is rainwater. That's what I'll use to water my sphagnum farm in the future.
These are the most important things to consider before starting a sphagnum farm. If you think that I've forgotten important issues, please leave a comment! Now it's time to show you my setup.
I've bought a small "fish tank" with a capacity of 12 litres. This tiny thing is certainly more suitable for growing sphagnum moss than for fishkeeping. Its dimensions are 30 by 20 by 20 centimetres. It was rather cheap, and in my opinion it simply looks neater than plastic. However, it is absolutely not necessary to use a glass container, any plastic container (of sufficient size) will do just as well.
The clay pot is intented as a hidden water reservoir. It is a bit oversized, but just I didn't have a smaller pot. Plastic pots are not suitable for this purpose, and a hidden water reservoir can be omitted. Underneath the clay pot, you can see a piece of PVC to prevent scratching the glass surface.
Partially filled with moist peat. The peat layer doesn't have to be that thick, one reason for using that much peat is the heigth of the oversized clay pot, which I wanted to hide. Moreover, I wanted to create a slope anyway. Maybe an even level would have been more desirable. To achieve this, use smaller clay pots or none at all.
The reason for creating a slope is to have areas of different humidity. The peat on the left side is rather dry, whereas it is soaking wet on the right. I expect that this makes it easier to find out the ideal conditions. If you spread the peat evenly, you can only vary the humidity temporally, but I wanted to test several conditions simultaneously.
Finally, the moss has been spread on the surface of the peat. Some people recommend to chop it into pieces of approximately 3 cm, but I didn't try that.
I mainly used the vital green parts of the moss, but in the top left corner you can see the less vital, pale parts from lower layers. We'll see if this stuff still can sprout.
As already mentioned above, you can grow your sphagnum moss in any plastic container. In addition, I'd like to find out if substrates other than peat are suitable, and therfore I've put Seramis clay granules in a jar.
The plastic container is covered with a perforated lid to achieve a higher air moisture. The lid of the jar is left open.
All three containers were placed outside, the small ones in shade, the "fish tank" is exposed to full sun. Currently, the latter is not covered, but a lid may become necessary. I'll just watch the moss and interact if its tips start to turn brown.
And now it's time to wait. In a few weeks, I will let you know how my sphagnum farm is developing. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions or leave comments. Critical remarks are also appreciated.
Today I'd like to show you what I did with my moss sample meanwhile. Before you start, there are a few things to consider.
As a substrate, I used peat with a degree of decomposition of H3-H5 (very slightly to moderately decomposed) and a pH of 2.5 - 3.5. It is important to use peat which is free of fertilisers!
Another crititcal issue is the water you moisten the peat with. You shouldn't use tap water for at least two reasons. One of them is the pH. Tap water often is alkaline, and in my case it has a pH of 8.0. I guess that it may get acidic enough when poured onto peat, so the alkalinity of tap water alone wouldn't make it unsuitable. A more severe problem is the water hardness, which can vary considerably in different areas, but I assume that tap water is too hard to be used for the cultivation of sphagnum mosses almost anywhere.
Hard water has a high concentration of calcium and magnesium ions, and even relatively soft tap water will contain more of these cations than Sphagnum can endure. Soft water with a very low mineral content is what we need. To start my sphagnum farm, I used water from a well, because the parameters of interest have been tested (and I hadn't collected rainwater yet). The groundwater from this well has a pH of 5.37, a carbonate hardness of 2 dKH and a conductivity of 175 µS/cm.
Alternatively, you can use distilled water or even purify tap water yourself by ion exchange or with a reverse osmosis system. In the latter case, the purified water is called "RO water".
However, such water purification systems are rather expensive. Unless you already own an RO system, because you need soft water for your aquarium for example, a good alternative is rainwater. That's what I'll use to water my sphagnum farm in the future.
These are the most important things to consider before starting a sphagnum farm. If you think that I've forgotten important issues, please leave a comment! Now it's time to show you my setup.
I've bought a small "fish tank" with a capacity of 12 litres. This tiny thing is certainly more suitable for growing sphagnum moss than for fishkeeping. Its dimensions are 30 by 20 by 20 centimetres. It was rather cheap, and in my opinion it simply looks neater than plastic. However, it is absolutely not necessary to use a glass container, any plastic container (of sufficient size) will do just as well.
The clay pot is intented as a hidden water reservoir. It is a bit oversized, but just I didn't have a smaller pot. Plastic pots are not suitable for this purpose, and a hidden water reservoir can be omitted. Underneath the clay pot, you can see a piece of PVC to prevent scratching the glass surface.
Partially filled with moist peat. The peat layer doesn't have to be that thick, one reason for using that much peat is the heigth of the oversized clay pot, which I wanted to hide. Moreover, I wanted to create a slope anyway. Maybe an even level would have been more desirable. To achieve this, use smaller clay pots or none at all.
The reason for creating a slope is to have areas of different humidity. The peat on the left side is rather dry, whereas it is soaking wet on the right. I expect that this makes it easier to find out the ideal conditions. If you spread the peat evenly, you can only vary the humidity temporally, but I wanted to test several conditions simultaneously.
Finally, the moss has been spread on the surface of the peat. Some people recommend to chop it into pieces of approximately 3 cm, but I didn't try that.
I mainly used the vital green parts of the moss, but in the top left corner you can see the less vital, pale parts from lower layers. We'll see if this stuff still can sprout.
As already mentioned above, you can grow your sphagnum moss in any plastic container. In addition, I'd like to find out if substrates other than peat are suitable, and therfore I've put Seramis clay granules in a jar.
The plastic container is covered with a perforated lid to achieve a higher air moisture. The lid of the jar is left open.
All three containers were placed outside, the small ones in shade, the "fish tank" is exposed to full sun. Currently, the latter is not covered, but a lid may become necessary. I'll just watch the moss and interact if its tips start to turn brown.
And now it's time to wait. In a few weeks, I will let you know how my sphagnum farm is developing. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions or leave comments. Critical remarks are also appreciated.
September 05, 2013
The sample of Sphagnum sp.
Hi!
I've just started a little project today and decided to start this blog to share my experiences with you. The project is: growing sphagnum moss! Why do I want to do that? Well, there's no special purpose, but I've got a small sample recently, and since it is such an interesting, rare and more or less endangered plant (depending on the species), I thought sphagnum farming would be an interesting project. Especially those of you who cultivate carnivorous plants or orchids may need sphagnum moss occasionally, and hopefully my experiences can be helpful to anybody with similar intentions.
This is the sample of a yet unidentified species of Sphagnum, which will be the starting material of my sphagnum farm. And that's all for now, more to come soon!
I've just started a little project today and decided to start this blog to share my experiences with you. The project is: growing sphagnum moss! Why do I want to do that? Well, there's no special purpose, but I've got a small sample recently, and since it is such an interesting, rare and more or less endangered plant (depending on the species), I thought sphagnum farming would be an interesting project. Especially those of you who cultivate carnivorous plants or orchids may need sphagnum moss occasionally, and hopefully my experiences can be helpful to anybody with similar intentions.
This is the sample of a yet unidentified species of Sphagnum, which will be the starting material of my sphagnum farm. And that's all for now, more to come soon!
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