Moss

[MJG]

I am relatively new to mounted orchids. Every one I've bought so far has green live-looking moss covered the roots. Any clue what the type of moss is?

Second moss question. If you unmount the orchids to plant in a terrarium do you need to put moss over the roots? I'm talking about a "naturalistic" terrarium that's build with trees and cork etc. that gets automatically watered everything day with periodically burst to keep the humidity at 85-90% humidity? Won't moss rot the roots in that kind of environment?

Thanks!

[Mr.Fakename]

I only have a few mounts, all started with Sphagnum.

Sphag will die very quickly if allowed to dry, and other mosses just show up. In my case, some kind of badge moss, mood moss and hypnum moss.


Maybe others have succeeded in unmounting, but I don't know anyone who attempted it.

Roots wedge themselves everywhere, and taking them off would result in enormous damage and set back.


Can't you put the whole mount inside the terrarium and try to disguise it a bit?

[MJG]

Your point about the roots is well taken. I have some roots that have absolutely fused with their mounts. They'd become salad if I tried to separate them. I'll mounts them as they are.

Some others I think are newly mounted enough that it would be fine. I don't know whether to moss their roots when I move them to the terrarium or not. I guess I'll try starting them off with moss and the remove it when they settle it.

Now, to found where to get live sphagnum.....

[vegetalmatter]

For plants on plank type of mounts, I've had good luck with soaking them for 10 mins or so and them scraping the roots off with a credit card.

I cover most orchid roots in my vivarium with live moss. I think it just looks better. Vivarium shops (such as Josh's Frogs) usually carry types of hypnum moss (or "sheet moss") and I've had good luck with those. They aren't as water retentive as sphagnum and don't need to be as wet (they will rot if overwatered) so I find them ok for orchid roots in very high humidity. Haven't had any root rot issues. The only thing with hypnum moss is that the strands are pretty large and so if you have micro/miniature orchids, they can easily take over. I've also surprisingly had great luck with Christmas moss from aquarium stores. They grow very well and extremely fast above water as long as they have constant moisture. They also aren't as water retentive.

Live sphagnum is pretty easy as well and I get mine on Etsy from a seller called "TinRoofTreasure". In my experience, it doesn't grow that fast, and as we all know, is very water retentive. I only have a little patch growing on that bulbo in the very middle.

I also will bring home moss that I find in damp parking lots and such and throw them in case they like it. Some have taken off and some rotted away. I can't 100% recommend doing that in the case that you bring in pests or diseases. I've been lucky so far to not have that problem!

Here's a pic of one of my tanks with all the diff types of mosses I talked about

[MJG]

Excellent information and a beautiful vivarium!!! This is exactly what I'm shooting for. Thanks!

[Roberta]

Plants mounted with moss under the roots tend to be easy to unmount - the roots tend to go for the moss not the mount. The ones with aggressive roots that were mounted correctly (either no moss, or moss over the top of the roots), don't even try to unmount (as you have noticed) In fact, for my plants that outgrow their mount, I just tie the old mount to a new larger ones, in a year or two the roots have bound the whole system together. So anything that doesn't unmount easily, leave it and just "mount the mount". I think you're dealing with fairly small plants, so the mount won't be taking up much extra room. Eventually the mount will disintegrate from the trapped moisture, long term the problem solves itself.