Merry Christmas Steve. Great video. I first learned about grinding moss from watching Milton Chang on Bonsai Heirloom. He spreads a much finer layer of dry ground up moss directly on the tree in the pot, around the edges and lets it grow in naturally. I've also noticed that when moss is growing in the wild it's always growing on something else with almost no soil under it, it is almost never on the ground. It's almost like wine grapes, it wants to struggle.
I will have to check him out. I am a firm believer that cultivating moss on a slab of granite would be most successful, but who wants to lug around a slab of granite! LOL! Thanks for watching Lee.
Primo Moss Brownies. The Coffee grinder was a nice tip, and I think I have one from back in my "Must press ridiculously strong coffee "Daze. I was thinking a cube or two of Bio Gold in the grinder would be a nice way to get the microbes and the Microryza off to a good start. Nice Show, Steve! Happy Holidays, Steve!
If I recall, the UK is banning peat moss in 2025 for home gardens because of environmental issues. Its not easily replaced in its bog habitats. Maybe try coconut coir in version 4.0??
I love the tweaking you are doing on your moss experiments. It is extremely interesting. I saw a new patch of moss near my work office … I may have to snag a bunch and try your method as well!
Go for it, and expect more than a few strange looks. It’s good to have a dog with you and a poop bag handy. Somehow that’s easier for people to understand!! LOL!😂
@ haha yeah having a pup around would make it look a bit more normal for sure. I remember when I first asked my boss for permission to snag some moss from the side of the building and I got a strange look at first. Now he understands. 🤣 I always feel like a crazy person when I’m hunting for moss … but finding GOOD moss is like finding a gold mine. 😄
@ So true. The moss I ground up in this video came from a gas station on the Main Street in my town. Everyone that passed by must have thought I was either nuts, or they thought Luca made some massive poops! The poop bag was over-stuffed.
I've been growing sphagnum moss and deer moss since May! I bought a brick of dried "dead" moss, kept it wet and under a grow light, and the remaining spores grew. Now my entire plant table is covered in living moss. It took about 4 months to green the top surface of each moss jar. Most of the dried moss bricks can be brought back to life, especially the cheap ones which have poorer quality sterilization. Blending up the moss like you did here probably makes it grow way faster and more evenly. I've had to put all my moss on lazy susans and rotate it daily to get it to look nice and even.
Wow, I would love to see your results. I intend to use mine mostly to keep the “lawn” areas of my penjings looking good over time, so an even and flat growth pattern is what I’l looking for. Sounds like you’ve made a science of it. Thanks so much for watching.
I had help from TH-cam! There's tutorials on how to regrow dried moss. Many people have never bought living moss and have just been propagating it off one dried moss brick they brought back to life. Well, I'm not too good at filming things, and I'm also just an amateur with plants, but I'll share what I've learned from here and discovered. It's a lot of text so I'd only recommend it for idle time :D I used Better-Gro brand moss which is about $5. Sort through it, remove any wood stems, roots, or other debris (they'll get mold), soak the moss until it turns a toasted dark brown, squeeze out the excess water, and put it in a nonporous container with plastic wrap or a lid over the top. There should be no puddles or "standing water" on the bottom of the container, at least, not when you're starting it out. If there are, you can usually make the moss reabsorb it just by stirring the moss around with your hands. As the moss regreens, its water needs will go up, and the risk of mold will likewise go down, but only very slowly. Somewhere around 4-6 months in, it will have greened to the point that it requires daily misting and mold is a seeming nonfactor. I've never seen it in any of my containers. I'm gonna have to put my biggest moss jar into several small jars soon because big vessels of moss have exponentially more water requirements. My hand aches after misting that big jar because I really have to pour it on now. I've been thinking of an electric sprayer for it... Moving on to aeration: It becomes very important to moss once it's making reproductive structures, but can be basically ignored while you're regreening the moss. The air and humidity requirements are really low then. Just do a few tiny holes in your jar lid or plastic wrap and that'll be sufficient for almost anything. Moss is also quite receptive to food coloring & other natural dyes, and I have also found that mixing moss which has algal coinhabitants (like reindeer moss) with other moss that doesn't will cause the non-algal moss to take on all kinds of colors. The algae move into it and seem to be welcomed. The moss still happily grows and reproduces, even though it sometimes bleaches of color, resembling dead coral. I guess white algae are growing in it now? I don't know much about dyeing plants but it happens very often with low-maintenance plants like Tillandsia (air plants), mosses, and so on. You can find all kinds of wildly colored air plants online. I don't know what they're using, but I tried normal grocery store food coloring and made some awesome orange moss. Yes, I changed my grow light spectrum to account for the new color, so the plant would get the same energy. But in the 2 months it was under normal grow light, it was happy and reached the top lid of the container. Since moss is such a simple plant, maybe there is some nutrient in the food coloring that it's able to use. When I started, I only knew about 10% of this stuff, but moss is so forgiving and hardy, it allows you to discover many things over time. For bonsai, I'd guess there are much more stringent quality standards, since the type of moss will determine some things about soil shade, water retention, chemistry, etc. Sphagnum is a giant moss family though so there is surely a type for any bonsai. If I were to recommend one purely for aesthetics: The New Zealand sphagnum moss! It's huge and pretty. Well, that's all I got... I'll try filming my plant area later, and @ you if I have any decent success, but I can't guarantee I can get a tripod and lights into a good position!
@@MarengiOmnisystems I will look into this and see if it has applications for my needs. I was right though. You have made a science out of moss cultivation. Do you use it for terrariums? Thanks for this. I’ll read it all over again when i can concentrate on it, and I’ll look into the TH-cam videos on the subject.
@@Steves_Backyard_Bonsai I found the original video which got me started: th-cam.com/video/1oNwOB91HI0/w-d-xo.html I love moss! Low-maintenance, hardy, forgiving, pretty, readily usable as a material in other projects. I don't build terrariums or keep animal pets. I started growing the moss specifically as an exercise to train my patience. Because I had minimal investment, I knew there would be no great risks or expenses. And so caring for plants has become my routine. It's the only thing I always do on a schedule and at a specific time. It took months to see any green bigger than a ballpoint pen dot. By the time the jars were heavily regreened, I had 5 or 6 months of patience invested. I think it's been good for my mind.
Wow you engendered the shiza out of that moss bed. I used a dollar store food processor but it burnt out to grind moss. I think the coffee grinder is a better option. Really like the screen idea for scraping. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
The coffee grinder works very well. Try to get a cheap one at the dollar store. Thanks for watching Scott. I’ll do an update when it starts to green up.
@@Steves_Backyard_Bonsai Its Christmas and a time to be magnanimous...I still enjoy your videos very much...I hope we exchange ideas and thoughts in the coming New Year...Have a great Yuletide Steve...
Cinnamon is a natural fungicide, so maybe it will help with the fungus gnats. Maybe not, but I don’t think it will hurt any. Hope you are having a very merry Christmas. Thanks Mary
No matter our age, we are always learning. Great tutorial, Steve.
So very true Tom. Thank you.
Very cool steve. Have a merry Christmas ! 🌲
Thanks Andrew. Hope your Christmas was fabulous.
Merry Christmas Steve. Great video. I first learned about grinding moss from watching Milton Chang on Bonsai Heirloom. He spreads a much finer layer of dry ground up moss directly on the tree in the pot, around the edges and lets it grow in naturally. I've also noticed that when moss is growing in the wild it's always growing on something else with almost no soil under it, it is almost never on the ground. It's almost like wine grapes, it wants to struggle.
I will have to check him out. I am a firm believer that cultivating moss on a slab of granite would be most successful, but who wants to lug around a slab of granite! LOL! Thanks for watching Lee.
Good Morning, Steve!!! A very Merry Christmas to you and to your family!!!!!
Thank you Tom, and a very Merry Christmas to you and your family
Moist Moss Muck, Merry Mossmas!!
Merry Mossmass to you as well Nigel. May we both have a very merry moist muck Mossmas.
Primo Moss Brownies. The Coffee grinder was a nice tip, and I think I have one from back in my "Must press ridiculously strong coffee "Daze. I was thinking a cube or two of Bio Gold in the grinder would be a nice way to get the microbes and the Microryza off to a good start. Nice Show, Steve! Happy Holidays, Steve!
Happy Holidays to you and Frida Patricia. Does she get double per diem on holidays? Thanks so much my dear friend.
Shoot, I have the same saw, and you just reminded me that I left it out on my work table, under about 6" of snow.
I hope the saw is retrievable before spring! I’m glad I reminded you about it.
I have tried the Kyoto moss a dozen times, but no success. I hope you have better luck with it than I did, Steve.
I will study up on how to grow Kyoto moss before I try it. Thanks for watching Tom!
If I recall, the UK is banning peat moss in 2025 for home gardens because of environmental issues. Its not easily replaced in its bog habitats. Maybe try coconut coir in version 4.0??
I thought the ban was on Sphagnum from New Zealand. I can see why peat would be banned as well. Perhaps the future is in Coconut Coir. Thanks Dave
Best of luck with this batch.
Thank you Dave. Merry Christmas!
@ Merry Christmas!
I love the tweaking you are doing on your moss experiments. It is extremely interesting. I saw a new patch of moss near my work office … I may have to snag a bunch and try your method as well!
Go for it, and expect more than a few strange looks. It’s good to have a dog with you and a poop bag handy. Somehow that’s easier for people to understand!! LOL!😂
@ haha yeah having a pup around would make it look a bit more normal for sure. I remember when I first asked my boss for permission to snag some moss from the side of the building and I got a strange look at first. Now he understands. 🤣 I always feel like a crazy person when I’m hunting for moss … but finding GOOD moss is like finding a gold mine. 😄
@ So true. The moss I ground up in this video came from a gas station on the Main Street in my town. Everyone that passed by must have thought I was either nuts, or they thought Luca made some massive poops! The poop bag was over-stuffed.
@ hahaha oh my gosh that’s funny!
I've been growing sphagnum moss and deer moss since May! I bought a brick of dried "dead" moss, kept it wet and under a grow light, and the remaining spores grew. Now my entire plant table is covered in living moss. It took about 4 months to green the top surface of each moss jar. Most of the dried moss bricks can be brought back to life, especially the cheap ones which have poorer quality sterilization. Blending up the moss like you did here probably makes it grow way faster and more evenly. I've had to put all my moss on lazy susans and rotate it daily to get it to look nice and even.
Wow, I would love to see your results. I intend to use mine mostly to keep the “lawn” areas of my penjings looking good over time, so an even and flat growth pattern is what I’l looking for. Sounds like you’ve made a science of it. Thanks so much for watching.
I had help from TH-cam! There's tutorials on how to regrow dried moss. Many people have never bought living moss and have just been propagating it off one dried moss brick they brought back to life. Well, I'm not too good at filming things, and I'm also just an amateur with plants, but I'll share what I've learned from here and discovered. It's a lot of text so I'd only recommend it for idle time :D
I used Better-Gro brand moss which is about $5. Sort through it, remove any wood stems, roots, or other debris (they'll get mold), soak the moss until it turns a toasted dark brown, squeeze out the excess water, and put it in a nonporous container with plastic wrap or a lid over the top. There should be no puddles or "standing water" on the bottom of the container, at least, not when you're starting it out. If there are, you can usually make the moss reabsorb it just by stirring the moss around with your hands.
As the moss regreens, its water needs will go up, and the risk of mold will likewise go down, but only very slowly. Somewhere around 4-6 months in, it will have greened to the point that it requires daily misting and mold is a seeming nonfactor. I've never seen it in any of my containers. I'm gonna have to put my biggest moss jar into several small jars soon because big vessels of moss have exponentially more water requirements. My hand aches after misting that big jar because I really have to pour it on now. I've been thinking of an electric sprayer for it...
Moving on to aeration: It becomes very important to moss once it's making reproductive structures, but can be basically ignored while you're regreening the moss. The air and humidity requirements are really low then. Just do a few tiny holes in your jar lid or plastic wrap and that'll be sufficient for almost anything.
Moss is also quite receptive to food coloring & other natural dyes, and I have also found that mixing moss which has algal coinhabitants (like reindeer moss) with other moss that doesn't will cause the non-algal moss to take on all kinds of colors. The algae move into it and seem to be welcomed. The moss still happily grows and reproduces, even though it sometimes bleaches of color, resembling dead coral. I guess white algae are growing in it now? I don't know much about dyeing plants but it happens very often with low-maintenance plants like Tillandsia (air plants), mosses, and so on. You can find all kinds of wildly colored air plants online. I don't know what they're using, but I tried normal grocery store food coloring and made some awesome orange moss. Yes, I changed my grow light spectrum to account for the new color, so the plant would get the same energy. But in the 2 months it was under normal grow light, it was happy and reached the top lid of the container. Since moss is such a simple plant, maybe there is some nutrient in the food coloring that it's able to use.
When I started, I only knew about 10% of this stuff, but moss is so forgiving and hardy, it allows you to discover many things over time. For bonsai, I'd guess there are much more stringent quality standards, since the type of moss will determine some things about soil shade, water retention, chemistry, etc. Sphagnum is a giant moss family though so there is surely a type for any bonsai. If I were to recommend one purely for aesthetics: The New Zealand sphagnum moss! It's huge and pretty.
Well, that's all I got... I'll try filming my plant area later, and @ you if I have any decent success, but I can't guarantee I can get a tripod and lights into a good position!
@@MarengiOmnisystems I will look into this and see if it has applications for my needs. I was right though. You have made a science out of moss cultivation. Do you use it for terrariums? Thanks for this. I’ll read it all over again when i can concentrate on it, and I’ll look into the TH-cam videos on the subject.
@@Steves_Backyard_Bonsai I found the original video which got me started: th-cam.com/video/1oNwOB91HI0/w-d-xo.html
I love moss! Low-maintenance, hardy, forgiving, pretty, readily usable as a material in other projects. I don't build terrariums or keep animal pets. I started growing the moss specifically as an exercise to train my patience. Because I had minimal investment, I knew there would be no great risks or expenses. And so caring for plants has become my routine. It's the only thing I always do on a schedule and at a specific time. It took months to see any green bigger than a ballpoint pen dot. By the time the jars were heavily regreened, I had 5 or 6 months of patience invested. I think it's been good for my mind.
Wow you engendered the shiza out of that moss bed. I used a dollar store food processor but it burnt out to grind moss. I think the coffee grinder is a better option. Really like the screen idea for scraping. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
The coffee grinder works very well. Try to get a cheap one at the dollar store. Thanks for watching Scott. I’ll do an update when it starts to green up.
TFS...
IMP, YVW (it’s my pleasure, you’re very welcome)
@@Steves_Backyard_Bonsai Its Christmas and a time to be magnanimous...I still enjoy your videos very much...I hope we exchange ideas and thoughts in the coming New Year...Have a great Yuletide Steve...
why the ground cinnamon?
Cinnamon is a natural fungicide, so maybe it will help with the fungus gnats. Maybe not, but I don’t think it will hurt any. Hope you are having a very merry Christmas. Thanks Mary