# Need input from selaginella kraussiana keepers... and killers



## swampy459 (Jun 18, 2009)

After reading a bazillion posts I might be on to something here ....

If you have grown Selaginella kraussiana, either as a success or failure, please post whether you had "eco earth" or some other coco fiber mixed in your substrate.

I found a post on another forum where a guy discovered that his would not grow on "coir" but would grow on bare concrete on the floor of his greenhouse and he thought it "might not like the coir" 

Coir being a coconut fiber.

I'm thinking .... "maybe the people who failed with it had eco earth or some other coco fiber in their substrate but the people who succeeded did not"

Can you please post if you

Had a success or failure
What your substrate contained


Thanks

Chad


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

I've kept some fairly successfully in a mix that is roughly 50% coconut. It also contains sand, charcoal, leaf litter, and organic soil. The plant is near the vent, and I'm pretty sure it prefers a good amount of air flow.


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## ZookeeperDoug (Jun 5, 2011)

Failure
CocoFiber/Eco Earth - Yes

This stuff lives for weeks on the shelf while the high school kids at Alberstons neglect it but if I try and plant it in my vivs it melts down. It is still going in one clay pot way up high.


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## boabab95 (Nov 5, 2009)

i used to use a mix of basically everything [coir, bark, palm root, tree fern, peat, charcoal, sand, clay, moss, leaves, etc...] and it did fine...it also grows very well on straight coir for me...


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## Hornet (Sep 29, 2010)

i have had alot of failure with kraussiana in a variety of mixes, just seems to rot off. No idea what i'm doing wrong but currently having success in a sphag peat/perlite mix


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## swampy459 (Jun 18, 2009)

Hornet said:


> i have had alot of failure with kraussiana in a variety of mixes, just seems to rot off. No idea what i'm doing wrong but currently having success in a sphag peat/perlite mix



I also found this quote in a response to a question about growing cape sundews in eco earth...

"I would avoid the simulated peat products as those may contain substances the plant cannot tolerate, like minerals and salts. The only substance that most varieties of carnivorous plants have been proven to safely grow in is sphagnum peat moss with a 50/50 mix of perlite or horticultural or silica sand added in for drainage."

Originally, I had planned on a 50/50 mix of peat/eco earth, but I think I'm going to try peat/sand/sphagnum/ and maybe some other drainage helpers, but leave out the coco products for now and see what happens


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## deboardfam (Feb 7, 2011)

Had mine on substrate... was doing crappy. Pushed it into my clay kitty litter background. Growing a little better and much brigter green now.


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## swampy459 (Jun 18, 2009)

deboardfam said:


> Had mine on substrate... was doing crappy. Pushed it into my clay kitty litter background. Growing a little better and much brigter green now.


What was the substrate?


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## deboardfam (Feb 7, 2011)

The only one I actually put together was scotts peat/sphag... loose sphag.. and orchid mix... The other tank I had it in I bought built.


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## Hornet (Sep 29, 2010)

It depends where the coco peat came from, some plantations are near the ocean which tend to be salty where as plantations from inland have much better quality coco peat. I'm growing sundews and VFT's in a coco peat/sand mix and they are going nuts


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## Hornet (Sep 29, 2010)

had a look at my kraussiana, i have a couple potted up in what i think is a coco peat based fern mix, they are growing very well. Just mixed up some coco peat, coco hust and perlite and put a new cutting in that, will see how it goes


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## JimO (May 14, 2010)

I can't kill mine, but it won't grow on the soil substrate very well. It grows on the fern tree panel backgrounds very well and it grows over wood in the viv nicely. I can't get it to grow on clay or gs backgrounds so I think it likes a damp porous surface with little to no soil. It even grows on top of my cocohuts and cork bark. It does not compete well with any of the ficus vines and seems to like slightly drier surfaces than moss.


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