Little culture I started 2 weeks ago. It’s been progressing nicely. Love seeing those heads grow massive. Not as much of a fan when it comes to that algae spot, but it’s still not currently an issue. Good amount of growth though in that short time!
So, within recent months, a clear slime has been spreading across my collection, and I seemingly cannot find a way to stop it. It began (seemingly) around the start of spring, and rapidly spread to all my indoor cultures. I wasn’t really fertilizing for a month or 2 beforehand, and definitely have not fertilized since the beginning of this outbreak, but it has not gone away. The slime collects around the moss, and doesn’t actually seem to kill it, but definitely limits the growth to an extent. It also gives the moss/ culture an appearance of containing water, when in reality, it has none, and rapidly dries within hours of not being watered (as shown above). It doesn’t seem to be fungus, as I viewed the moss under a microscope, and no spores were present, and I’m not sure how to eradicate the slime without killing the moss. I recently tossed some of the “infected” cultures onto peat outdoors, and the slime disappeared completely within a month, but I have limited space, and would like to be able to grow some moss indoors (my mother also grows some sphagnum, and it has appeared in small amounts in her culture as well). I am curious if anyone has had experience with such an issue, and if so, how you resolved it? I could cycle the cultures outside in order to kill off the slime, but I am worried that upon bringing it in, it will simply reappear. For those wondering, I have increased airflow, opened windows to the room, drastically increases light, done numerous flushes, all to no avail. I am considering flushing with tap water, and maybe even extremely diluted hydrogen peroxide, but would like to see if anyone has experience before I nuke the moss like that.
Grew this extra sphagnum from an imported orchid. I hope it's mature enough to identify. What kind am I growing? Fyi, there are 2 photos.
Every time it rains and fills up she insists on drinking out of the moss trays, guess it's well filtered from the sphagnum.
I have been looking specifically for this species but can't find it anywhere, I'm stumped. Any info or help is appreciated!!
I believe S. warnstorfii and S. fuscum
Curious on thoughts...would we say this is working?
First pic is when I planted it. Second pic is today.
I didn't follow the traditional method of chopping up pieces and spreading them. I planted strands I bought.
Curious how to make it better...I want to be able to farm and use this in my plants.
Last week I showed my version of a “simple setup”. Just thought I would show you guys the growth since.
As priorly mentioned, this setup is ONLY to enlarge the heads I currently have, and to encourage a jump in size and hopefully induce sporing. As you can see, the result has been achieved. In the second picture the heads are much larger, new heads have started growing, and the color has perked up.
If you notice however, there is also a thin layer of algae forming. This cannot be prevented in this setup, but it can be reduced via aeration. Once the amount of growth you want to see has been achieved, it’s best to transfer it to a peat:perlite mix.
Sometimes you accidentally fall asleep while watering S. Rosea ‘Super Duper’ 😅😅😅. Thankfully I had it set at a slow trickle. Look at that moss hummock!!!!!!! Pic 1 is the day that I got it from RobCo
To set this up I just took a handful of Sphagnum Tenerum and wrapped it around the plants rhizome and planted them together. The rest was done by Mother Nature!!!!