# terrarium friendly temperate mosses



## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

Has anyone had success growing these from outdoors? I'm having mixed results with oregon beaked moss and icicle moss but it's too soon to tell


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

I think the lack of replies here is due to this question often having cropped up before.
The problem you face is that very few people have the expertise to correctly identify the exact species of moss you might be working with, especially over the internet so noone is likely to say with any authority that the two you mention (I'm not familiar with the names) will or will not work in a vivarium.
The good news is that some temperate mosses *will* flourish in a vivarium..........but others won't. Similarly not all tropical mosses would necessarily flourish in a vivarium.
The only real solution is to experiment and find out for yourself but one temperate moss that does well in my vivariums, grows in north america and which you might be able to find in the wild is 'Amblystegium serpens' which is also grown submerged in the aquarium trade and is available for purchase online.
Moisture levels, lighting and choosing appropriate substrate (ph, availability of certain minerals) are likely to be the determining factors in whether or not temperate moss will grow for you more often than the temperature of our vivariums. For example many temperate mosses will always tend to grow on calcareous substrates and might fail to grow on peat, or tend to grow in environments where they frequently dry out and will fail in constant moisture.
Look for temperate mosses that are growing in fairly deep shade as most vivariums tend to be fairly low light compared to even relatively shaded outdoor locales and you will often find that temperate mosses will become etiolated indoors before eventually fading away or being outcompeted.
Good luck! and remember never to harvest too much of a natural resource like moss from the wild and to take some measures to disinfect moss collected from outdoors.


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## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

Thanks for the advice. The two species I was referring to are eurhynchium oreganum (oregon beaked moss) and isothecium myosuroides (icicle moss) but I was just wondering if anyone else had tried this and what had worked for them. Both grow in mostly shaded areas and stay relatively moist. They also grow all over, on branches, rocks, the ground versus certain mosses that only grow in very specific conditions such as only on the base of trees. I hope mosses that grow in many conditions will be more versatile but it's all just guess and check. I've experimented with many mosses but I don't know the names of most so I can't speak to those. Anyways I'll try to get some pictures of the two in the wild for ID purposes and I'll post my results and any other mosses that work well if I can find the names. As a side note, you're right, I should clarify that you should only harvest small amounts of moss from any given spot. I never take more than 20% of any patch of moss to allow regrowth. You should also try to disinfect in some way, I use small tupperwares with distilled water and soak them repeatedly until the water runs clear and then I grow them in seperate tupperwares with a thin layer of soil for about a month to make sure they're not infested with mites before I plant. Thanks again


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## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

I looked up photos of that moss and I see it all the time. I think I might even have some mixed with patches of other mosses. I'll keep my eye out now


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

Hi jacob, 
I looked at those two specific species and coincidentally I'm actually growing Isothecium myosuroides right now with good results so I'd be optimistic it will work well for you too.
Mine is growing on Hawthorne wood in a fairly warm spot near the top of a zoomed 45x45x60 where, right under an exo terra 25w 'natural light' CFL bulb, it routinely reaches 27c. It's misted twice a day but seems to be tolerant of desication and does not favour calcereous substrates.
If you want it to spread and fill in a larger area faster you can cut many pleaurocarpus mosses like this into small pieces with clean scissors and they will still grow just fine, just be sure to keep them slightly damper if you do this.
I'm not sure about Oregon beaked moss, eurhynchium oreganum but it looks likely it would also do fine in a vivarium to me.
Are you actuallybased in Oregon? I've wanted to try Oregon spikemoss or Selaginella oregana in a tank for a while but there's no chance of finding it for sale in Scotland. Please experiment on my behalf.


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## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

Thanks Louis, I'm glad to hear that at least one of the two should do okay in my tank. I commonly find the two species mixed together, almost appearing to be one type if you didn't know any better so I'm hopeful they will both do well. I made a "moss slurry" with the two by throwing it in the blender for a minute with some water and filled in the gaps around pieces that were tied on to make it look more natural once it grows in. I also covered a piece of driftwood and threw it in my grow out tank a few weeks ago and I'm already seeing new growth. Not sure which of the two it is, if not both. I'll post a pic but it's a bit blurry. I'm actually in Washington state, just north of Oregon but I live on the border and many species grow in both states. I'll look that up and let you know if I've seen it


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

That looks great and certainly appears to be growing new shoots, I'll be curious to know how it works out for you. I rarely find monocultures of moss in the field and I think it always looks better to have a few species mixing together as you have done here. I like the polypodium ferns too and actually also have them growing in my vivarium with the Isothecium.
After a fair amount of experimentation I've decided that the blender method for propagating moss is unecessarily destructive though, it's a bit of a pain in the arse but I've found that cutting the moss into small pieces by hand with sharp scissors, in most cases, results in a mix that will grow much faster. This seems to be particularly true for pleurocarps like the Isothecium. 
I've also had really good results incorporating worm castings into moss mixes for minerals and water retention however not all species appreciate the extra nutrients.
I'd love to see a follow up picture in a few weeks.


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## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

I definitely agree that method is overly destructive. How small are you cutting the pieces though? I've had trouble getting larger pieces to "stick" to whatever I'm putting it on so it has a harder time attaching itself. Short pieces of the isothecium would probly attach pretty easily though since it's not very stiff and would lay flat on whatever surface. I'll have to give that a try. I definitely haven't seen any oregon spike moss yet, I would've got a sample of that. I'll be looking for that now as well and I'll let you know my results. Polypodium ferns do really well for me, I have a couple species. I'm gonna try making a really light worm casting mix to mist with, hopefully that'll speed things up a bit


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

One of the advantages to using worm casings is that as well as retaining water well, they are very sticky and help the mix to adhere. I would normally cut the moss into pieces under 1cm and add approximately a tablespoon of worm castings to 1 US cupfull of chopped moss.


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## Jacob (Nov 30, 2017)

I didn't consider how sticky they are, that probably makes a big difference in keeping it attached. The small pieces of moss moving slightly from misting has really slowed parts of my slurry down. I took a few more samples, any chance of an ID on these?


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

I can't give you a positive ID on these without getting a good look at them , you really need a very powerful magnifying glass or a microscope to identify moss well.
If you have access to a scanner then very high resolution scans of a single stem would be better for identification purposes as well as any information about where you found them growing. If you can post that here and give me a couple of days I'll see if I can work it out for you.
If you don't already know, the acrocarp on the left will likely be a lot slower to spread than nearly all plearucarpous mosses. If I'm trying to grow an acrocarp in a vivarium I keep it well seperated from any creeping mosses . And don't mix both kinds in the same moss mix as the pleurocarps will always outcompete the acrocarps.


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