Growing Moss Emersed 6 Months In

[Fox]

A new job has resulted in me scaling back my fish-keeping to almost non-existent levels, but about 6 months ago I started trying to grow different mosses emersed.
Plastic plant trays with lids, sitting on a windowsill, just plain old tap water added (never more than a centimetre on the bottom) and I use some of those fibre plant pots to retain moisture which seemed to work even when left for weeks at a time.

Disclaimer: You can write what I know about mosses on the back of a postage stamp, so they are named as they were given/sold to me, names may be way off/may be duplicates of same moss with different name. Some I can't even read my own writing! It has also been cold recently and the windowsill where the trays live is in an unheated 'man-cave' which has also been neglected and unused with the job that sees me away for extended periods. Good sunlight for most of the day (where available!).

Very basic unscientific findings based on - has it grown and is it green (told you it was unscientific). Might help people know which mosses grow quick emerse and which (for me anyway) less so.

I took some of each moss the other day and put a bit in jam jars and I'll do a similar 6 month run. Some appear to be pearling in the water, so I'm guessing were happy in the previous set-up.

Afro - no apparent growth, however nice and green
Anchor - immense growth - lovely colour
Christmas - slow growth - what I had has gone pretty brown
Creeping - Really good growth, appears to be pearling, nice and green
Erect - original moss pretty brown, good new green growth but slow
Fox - zero (or close to it) growth, nice and green still
Flame - slow growth - lovely and green
Flat - slowish growth - pearling of some description
Micro - No noticeable growth - all a bit brown
Mini Java - Excellent growth - lovely and green
Mini Taiwan - Doesn't look very happy at all
Monosolenium Tenerum - Reasonable growth - nice and green
Peackock - Great growth, lovely colour
Plagmonium of some description - Rapid growth - really nice and green
Riccia Rhenana - great growth - great colour
Spiky - rapid growth - good colour
Taiwan - original moss gone quite brown, but reasonable new (and green) growth
Weeping: Fantastic Growth, not a striking green, but not really brown as such.
Willow - Slowish growth, good colour

Hope proves of use to somebody somewhere

 

[Stitch]

Sounds good.

I don't suppose you have any before and after pictures?

 

[jack-rythm]

Great,thread, people will love this. What is your brightest green you managed to successfully achieve? I'm wondering from your guide what the two best colour mosses were? Including two fastest growths?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Fox]

again, with some allowance for my lack of technical-talk.....

Anchor moss. One of the fastest growers, a lovely dark green
Willow moss. Slow growing, but a very vibrant light green
Mini Java. Good growth and again with a nice dark green
Peacock Moss. Excellent growth, somewhere between my technical 'light & dark' classifications, but great colour
Flame. Slow growing, but a really nice darker shade
Riccia Rhenana. Fast growing, one of the darker colours
Flat. Not amazing speed, but a nice light colour.

I'm sure some of you clever folk could make use of the different shades for different effects (you probably do already).

My jam-jar phase will be split (when I get time) into
1: regular water changes - tap water
2: regular water changes - rain water
3: Infrequent water changes - tank water (but large jars so lot of water small amount of moss to start)

 

[fish fodder]

Any updates or photos on this?

 

[Fox]

My emersed set-up continues with various arrangements (different/no substrate etc) and a few of the types I've struggled with now in a small heated propogator.

The jam-jars *were* getting daily water changes, but the job can interfere somewhat with that plan. Just back after being away for 10 days and a few of the jars have algae around the glass (mostly on the inside of the base). I also have concerns over how cold it is in the building where they live. I've tried different ways to water-change but doing 20+ different types is a pain, so have opted for a very fine mesh (like a fabric) over the jars (no lids now) and can empty them quickly. Having said that, I was losing teeny bits of moss through the mesh - it's almost nothing, but in reality is probably more than would grow in a day - so a backwards step! I now drain them through the mesh AND a tea-strainer and yup, every type of moss has it's own tea-strainer. There must be an easier way!

I have moss started in beer & sugar, moss started in buttermilk and moss just generally left lying around!

I ordered some mineral wool which I'm trying a few mosses on, and I'm thinking about ditching the jam-jar method, or at least moving them off the windowsill if I'm away for extended periods. I'm also going to design a small cascading plant tank to sit on a windowsill and run a small co2 system.

A few different types of moss also arrived recently so I've been on freegle for more jam jars (some people have dozens, which I thought was odd a few months ago, but I've now joined that club!)

 

[Balik1]

Any pictures love to see your setup

 

[Fox]

I'll get some pics, although it's just a windowsill and a variety of jars, tubs and propogators scattered around the place.

I've now ditched all the jars with moss in water as I'm away for extended periods and I'm struggling with algae.

Back to just emersed.