AusBonsai

Hi all!

Thought I would throw together a lil' progression series, on how I turn my collected moss into a moss milkshake ready to be applied to bonsai pots or grow beds for slab transplant.
I'm sure many of you know how to do this already, but it may be new to some folks.


I am going to attempt to do this real time, so at some points you will have to wait while it drys...

My girlfriend has gone on holidays and I have the house to myself for 5 days, so pants off and here we go!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to add your 2cents, i'd love to here any ideas as we go along.

So this is what we have. Two different kinds of moss and one I assume is a moss, but haven't found a reference to yet. Could it be a mini fern? If anyone can tell me that would be grand.
Lets add it anyway, a few of those can't look bad popping up in a pot.

I've used these before in pot, I'll see if I can find the pic.
Edit- There you go. Pretty hey!

Urgent Update!!

We have some late contenders to this contest...

Looks like we have a lichen and another... dare I say miniature fern? It's in a whilt stage, not sick just a natural circle common amongst ferns and mosses.
If a moss is dry and brown it is not necessarily dead, just sleeping.


Spores are terrific aren't they!!

Edit- Bit of a set back, one type has grass through it, that'll need to be taken out by hand. Better now than from a bonsai pot.

Good thread Mitchell.

The second photo in the first post looks like a species of thuidium, which is a moss. The photo under the Lichen is a fern though. I havent had luck getting it to grow. Im assuming you collected it from a moss (and liverwort?) covered sandstone rock by a creek? It seems to require low light levels and constant humidity to survive.

Joel

Indeed I did Joel, good man!

I have found I can keep it green for about 2 weeks (In the pot pic that is about three weeks after collection, still green) then it whilts. If kept moist i have found it rejuvenates with new shoots to my amazement. Could be just my yard as it is in a shaded area.

So this one is a moss, the second pic from the top? Here's a close up.

Mitchell wrote: My girlfriend has gone on holidays and I have the house to myself for 5 days, so pants off and here we go!!!!!!!!!!!

Definitely pants off & AC/DC playing loud.

That's 2.5kg of moss and organic material. I'm tipping about .5kg of that weight is organic matter not the moss.
I wouldn't expect the normal bonsaist to be working in these quantities. A simple handful of moss is all you need to make a slurry paste to start a colony.

Next problem... How does one finely chop 2kg's of moss and ferns?

The usually answer would be quietly out the back by hand or in a blender. Since the GF isn't here though, I thought I'd try something different. It's also cold outback so I thought I'd bring this little adventure to the living room.

Do smoke alarms go off from 2-stroke fumes?

OK, so now it's chopped into medium sized pieces with some small.

There next step will be to dry the mix out. Once again I'm gonna flounder the rules and go with drying this mix in the oven on lowest temperature, with the door slightly ajar. If you try this method you need to rotate it, don't let one side near the element dry and go too crispy. Brown is ok, black is not good. I wouldn't dry them excessively just enough till the mix is dry to the touch not wet.


Don't ask me why I am drying it just before wetting it, cause honestly I don't know. I read it somewhere and it seemed to work so I'm trying it again. maybe it induces a rest period, then it's revived from it when wet again? You can also let it dry out in the sun. Remember if you leave it to dry on your grass outside it will get dew in the morning. Try to find a concrete area to leave it on for a few days.

Once we have dried it we can then separate mix we want to store for later use. This dried mix may be stored in an air tight container for a very long time. The length varies on type, but some mosses can last for years in a dormant dried state.


I'm off to get this in the oven, I'm tipping 15mins max.

I have laid out the moss on absorbent kitchen sheets. These should soak up any residual moisture. Most of this i'll thoroughly dry out and pack in air tight containers, the rest i'll use for our milkshake.

I really hope the police don't stop by, as I'll have a whole lot of explaining to do!

Ok so here is our wet mix milkshake.
I'm not one for quantities, I'm more of a "see how it goes" kinda chef.

To the now 500g mix I added 1 bottle/stubbie of beer, 2 cups of milk (on the verge of going off), 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 litre of water to thin it out so it will go further.
Stir till frothy in a blender or by hand.

Doesn't that look delicious??

Hope the girlfriend does not see this thread !
What with the whipper snipper inside and then using her blender

good fun eh!

Ken

Hmm, you may have to cover your tracks. Perhaps with moss
Great stash of moss though, I currently have 16 Turdus merula (Blackbirds) strutting their stuff in my backyard. The cat won't lift a paw. What can I do?

Damian Bee wrote: I currently have 16 Turdus merula (Blackbirds) strutting their stuff in my backyard. The cat won't lift a paw. What can I do?

Yep, sometimes I wish I had one of those rapid firing canons. I think the name of the Blackbird is quite appropriate.