Harvesting moss

[Beano]

Hi,

There’s a significant amount of moss growing on the trunks of some London plane street trees near a place where I work. I was thinking of taking some when I’m working there next. Would it be sufficient to just try to peel it off and keep in a moistened ziplock bag until I get home? I’ll be there all day but I suppose I could collect it at the end of the day if it won’t last.

It would be for on top of the dirt in some of my smaller pots, to act as a bit of mulch and make it look nicer. I would keep it away from the trunks.


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[Beano]

Sorry I posted this in the wrong forum... would someone mind shifting it for me as it won’t let me delete it now.


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[SquatJar]

Drying out doesn't matter as the spores will remain viable. Sprinkle it on and it will grow when conditions suit. The other concern is moss is very specific in which environment it will grow. If you are taking it from a tree trunk, it probably likes growing on wood or decaying organic matter, so it may not grow on an inorganic bonsai substrate, secondly the amount of light it gets on the tree trunk is probably low, unless your bonsai have big canopies the pot surface will probably get too much light.

It appears the current best approach is try to source a range of different mosses from inorganic/low organic surfaces with similar light levels to your pots, dry them out, mix and sprinkle onto your pots. Ryan Neil popularised shredding sphagnum moss and mixing it 50/50 with the dry moss to hold the spores in place and help get the moss established.

[shibui]

Even the moss itself is able to stand drying. In dry conditions most mosses just dry out and go dormant. When they get wet again the growing stems absorb water and come back to life.

I would avoid moss that grows on tree trunks. Many years ago we harvested moss from street elm trees. It is really fine, short growing and looks great on a pot but it seems to prefer growing on tree trunks rather than on the ground. I have spent many years trying to stop it climbing the trunks and branches of my bonsai.

[damienw133]

Personally i'd avoid choosing a moss that grows on tree trunks, as many of those moss varieties prefer growing on vertical surfaces and tend to be very touchy when orientated differently...

Two mosses that are fantastic if you can find them are polytrichum juniperum or juniper haircap moss which can often be found growing on stony soil by the roadside or on the spoil heaps around granite outcrops.

annnnnd

if you're using moss for a very large bonsai, Pseudoscleropodium purum or neat feather moss, which is classified as a weed due to how easily it can be spread and grown. Its quite coarse compared to many other mosses but as i said, if the bonsai in question is fairly large it should be pretty proportionally right for it.

Both juniper haircap and neat feather moss are sun loving but quite adaptable to light shade and tend to prefer to be kept on the dry side so they're well suited to bonsai top dressings.

There's a few others that would work quite well but i'm not too sure on their names, though i'd avoid the silver/whitish coloured ones you occasionally see as in my experience they're extremely hard to transplant successfully....likewise many of the mosses you might find in gutters can also be difficult to keep alive in bonsai culture as they're often extreme moisture loving varieties.

[Beano]

Thanks for the advice. I went to work Wednesday and to my horror all the luscious green moss had turned black. I then went home without it and found some growing on my bougainvilleae while weeding so I’ve poached that instead.


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[MJL]

I relate to Damien’s point around reorienting moss; it can be tricky. In my experience - replicating the conditions upon which most is found delivers the best results. So when you’re collecting moss - look at what media it is growing on (tree, gravel, sand etc...) when and how it is touched by the sun (dappled light, full shade or indeed times of full sun) etc... if the conditions are then near replicated in your pots - generally happy days ahead.


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