Easily Grow Moss Emersed

[Cryptocorynus]

I've recently got into mosses after receiving small portions of about 14 varieties from a friend as a bonus from a purchase. When they arrived I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them as before this I had only ever grown the basics (eg. Java Moss, Peacock Moss, Flame Moss, etc.) and all of a sudden I have rare mosses like F. splachnobryoides and F. zippelianus just sitting in clip-seal bags on my dining room table. Suffice to say I had a little problem as my tanks were full to the brim with other stuff, and as a stickler for quarantine I wasn't going to have them sharing the same tank. A lot of the mosses also needed high light, low temperatures and CO₂. So I began thinking... and thinking... and thinking. And eventually I came up with an ingenious idea to give them high light, easy access to CO₂, low temperatures and all the other things they needed, all while keeping them separate from one-another. 

I decided on growing them emerse (as I have had luck with Echinodorus and Cryptocorynes that way in the past). However, I wasn't too keen on using the soil mixes I had used before as they always absorbed too much water and ended up covering the medium in algae, so knowing this I decided on perlite instead and I would be mindful to keep the liquid level a lot lower than the top of the perlite to avoid algae potentially covering the mosses. Be mindful your perlite cannot fall out of the pot, however, as the pot I used had large holes on the bottom of it (I used filter wool to plug them). For extra growing help I decided to switch out water (which I had used when growing plants emerse in the past) for BioJuice (a seaweed mix for hydroponic use which promotes vegetative growth, not flowering or root growth like most) to use as the liquid, and for each pot which a moss to be contained inside a bag for humidity which I then put onto my verandah in a place where it would not be too hot, but would also get a decent amount of sunlight with the moss laid out on top of the perlite.

This'll be a work in progress. It's not too clear now but I'll work on that later today and into the future. Better photos will come, don't worry!

 

The location of the bags on my verandah.

 

A close view of the set-up (excuse the fog).

 

This one is already growing after about a week.

 

 

 

 

 

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[NoGi]

Great write up, I've promoted it to be an article as well.

[buck]

this looks really interesting! I'm keen to see its progression 

[zn30]

Interesting @Cryptocorynus looks like a great little system you have created, interested in the progress posts.

[Cryptocorynus]

Just a quick update and to tell you all what else I've been using this method for. However, I have trialled perlite, coco peat (cheap stuff from Bunnings - instant death (too salty!)), red soil with blood and bone mixed in, etc., and it seems like the soil mixes work the best for root-feeders. You do get a little algae and liverworts popping up on the surface but it's no bit deal.

C. wendtii "Green" which began as rhizome/corm material when put emerse (older photos)

 

C. wendtii "Tropica" (in a larger pot) which were transitioned emerse as adult plants with one submerse leaf left

 

I've also tried M. "Monte Carlo" this way which loves it, and am having a bit of success with H. pinnatifida, too.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Cryptocorynus

[zn30]

Thanks for the update @Cryptocorynus really worth trying, when do you look like submerging them and taking them out of their current media? 

[Cryptocorynus]

I'm not actually planning on taking these particular Echinodorus and Cryptocoryne species out of emerse cultivation at all (as they'll be the "breeders", but whatever I can get out of them I'll be moving submerse to sell once at a decent size). I'm just going to be moving (and likely also repotting) these plants when the greenhouse is sorted. There is a 3m grow bed that should be able to take care of most plants, but we still haven't got the filtration through the IBCs happening yet, and until we do that the grow bed won't be in operation, sadly. Having flow through the system is probably still 1-2 months off.

I just took a few more photos...

"Monte Carlo"

Hygro pinnatifida

AR "Mini"

 

 

 

Another way to grow moss emerse... copied from my AL post...

 

In addition to bagging my mosses on perlite as some of you have already seen, I have also tried keeping them growing emerse inside in an attempt to keep them at a more stable temperature with very good results. If you have some lit tanks (low light seems to work just fine) that won't mind having their inhabitants a little shaded (bare-bottomed tanks would be perfect) then this method is targeted at you. Differently to my moss bags, the liquid in with these mosses is straight fish tank water and not BioJuice. I've laid the bottom of the containers with folded paper towel to retain moisture and also give the mosses a rough surface to adhere to and put in enough fish tank water to have the paper completely soaked, plus a little extra (not enough, though, that the water raises above the level of the paper towel) and then laid the moss on top. The below photos are after about a month of growth. So far I have had to do no maintenance whatsoever and the mosses seem content to float around in the gentle current. Lights are on for about 6 hours per day and even the mosses that get the least amount of light at the edges of the tank (it's a 4ft tank with a 3ft light) seem to be thriving just as much as the rest. 

The mosses floating on top of the water.

A photo from outside the tank and looking in.

Just one of the containers.

The inside of that container.

One of the larger containers (regular takeaway size).

 

 

And the update about a month later...

I just had a dive and got a few containers out to take some quick photos to update the thread. I'm quite happy with most of the growth, although the Fissidens splachnobryoides seems to be battling a big algae problem, so I think I'll be taking some advice from a member here and putting the container in the dark for a week or so. Most of the other mosses seem to be doing well, apart from the Willow Moss and Mini Willow Moss which seem to also have an algae issue (likely due to the water being too high in their containers). 

Plagiochilaceae sp. "Cameroon Moss" (25/07/16)

Rose Moss (25/07/16)

Fissidens zippelianus AKA Zipper Moss (25/07/16)

Fissidens fontanus AKA US Fissiden (25/07/16)

Native Mt. Glorious Fissidens (25/07/16)

Fissidens nobilis (25/07/16)

These are some of the submerged mosses for comparison. I'm quite sure the damage to the mosses due to the string I've used to tie them to the wood has worked almost like using a blade on Java Fern to promote growth, as they seem to have much thicker growth than their emerse counterparts. You can't see it too well, but I began with a piece of Cameroon Moss on the wood almost the exact same size as the one that you can see is emerse, and there are more than double the amount of shoots on the submerged piece than the emerse piece.

"Cameroon Moss" and Red Moss (Caloglossa cf. beccarii)

Fissidens zippelianus

Fissidens zippelianus and Red Moss (Caloglossa cf. beccarii)

 

Edited August 24, 2016 by Cryptocorynus

[zn30]

Impressive to say the least.

What kind of greenhouse do you have? 

[Kaylenna]

How different are your growth rates? (any more pics of the same types of mosses grown in parallel?) 

[Cryptocorynus]

On 8/24/2016 at 2:16 PM, zn30 said:

Impressive to say the least.

What kind of greenhouse do you have? 

The greenhouse is 8m by 4m and was built by a few local builders who were doing a bit of work on the house at the time. Heavy-duty plastic was stretched over the metal skeleton and 70% shade cloth was put over that. Nothing high-tech. Here is a photo from a few months ago...

On 8/24/2016 at 3:03 PM, Kaylenna said:

How different are your growth rates? (any more pics of the same types of mosses grown in parallel?) 

I'm kicking myself that I'm not able to give you a better answer, but it would seem that from the little and quite unreliable testing I've done that submerse with CO2 and high light would be the best way to go.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Cryptocorynus

[Kaylenna]

6 minutes ago, Cryptocorynus said:

I'm kicking myself that I'm not able to give you a better answer, but it would seem that from the little and quite unreliable testing I've done that submerse with CO2 and high light would be the best way to go.

Hey, you've given more info than most of us had!

I was half hoping emersed would be a way to expand the moss collection without having 10 shelves and about 50 suction cups stuck to the sides of my main planted tank.  It was once sorta decently aquascaped and is now mostly a whole lot of plants vying for the relatively small space.

Thanks for sharing and I hope you keep at it.  I may be able to do my own experiments once it gets warm enough (no greenhouse, much sadness).

[Cryptocorynus]

43 minutes ago, Kaylenna said:

Hey, you've given more info than most of us had!

I was half hoping emersed would be a way to expand the moss collection without having 10 shelves and about 50 suction cups stuck to the sides of my main planted tank.  It was once sorta decently aquascaped and is now mostly a whole lot of plants vying for the relatively small space.

Thanks for sharing and I hope you keep at it.  I may be able to do my own experiments once it gets warm enough (no greenhouse, much sadness).

Most mosses like the cold, so you shouldn't need a greenhouse (just bagging them to keep the humidity up should be enough). I've found that they are more susceptible negatively to what would be otherwise regarded as "better" treatment. If they are emerse too much heat will cause melting and too much light will cause drying out. I've heard of people keeping mosses in pitch darkness for weeks (to kill off algae) and the moss still surviving... I guess to be on the safe side you could start out "neglecting" them and then slowly start treating them better to be on the safe side (I made the mistake of accidentally moving a few into direct sunlight at one stage - they were dead before I knew what had happened!).

I'm going to clean up this thread soon. I hastily put it together - oops.

[Kingo]

Brilliant read!..

[jc12]

23 hours ago, Kingo said:

Brilliant read!..

Mate, you should check out AL forum. Search for the same nick. He continues to provide updates on AL forum.

[Kingo]

I hadn’t been on there for a while as I have not been able to join the forum - I tried several times. ‘I am not a robot questions’ failed. Maybe I am and just don’t know it! Also tried again just now, this time the image verification Link is broken...anyone on here know the moderators?

[jayc]

12 hours ago, Kingo said:

Also tried again just now, this time the image verification Link is broken...anyone on here know the moderators?

Thanks Kingo.

This is for @Cesar. Can you please investigate?

[Cesar]

sent pm to @Kingo and @jayc