Live Moss Culture
I have been playing with some mosses from our backyard for mounts and recovering flasklings and want to share my very positive experiences. First though, note that many mosses are very slow growing so please don't collect them (especially from rocks) if they are not abundant and inconspicuous.
I had seen mention of "live moss" culture, noted as being a miracle method for reviving ailing orchids, but couldn't find any description of how it is traditionally done. Four months ago I had some fresh moss from the backyard I was using for mounting, and some very sick flasklings that were failing rapidly (another story), so I tried to put together a system that would keep the moss alive and then grow the flasklings in the living moss. There are several advantages to this that I will discuss after the pics:
Basically a bunch of corks in the bottom, then some medium bark for the moss to grow on, then a layer of the fresh live moss wrapped around each individual one at a time and tucked together into the pot. I water them thoroughly once a day with pure water and the moss after four months is still bright green and seems to be growing some. They were watered shortly before the pics.
The flasklings were my first and were damaged during shipping and had to come out before I was prepared. The large ones are Paraphalaenopsis labukensis and there are a few tiny Neo v. caerulea that were very premature (I lost enough of these to make a grown man cry in the previous culture). They may not look impressive, but the point is that they were dying before and are doing MUCH better now.
The little Neo is the second plant up from the bottom left corner, you can barely see one leaf and the tiny root.
The advantages I see are that if the moss is alive, it is using water actively. This helps greatly with managing their moisture level as you can soak the roots more frequently without the moss remaining wet too long. It also seems to provide good humidity levels. If the moss is alive it is not breaking down so the environment stays very clean. I also speculate that it may be actively defending itself, and that this may benefit the seedlings.
For the moss, the felty terrestrial ones without a thick cuticle work much better. I picked it clean and washed it in water only. I doubt they will tolerate being treated with any chemicals and you will need clean relatively pure water. I have not had any issues with pests or infections and have used this moss on a number of mounted plants as well. They all have exceptional root growth.
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Originally Posted by Lambert
