# Best Background for Moss To grow On.



## Guest (Nov 26, 2005)

What is the best abckground material for moss and other plants to grow on? I was thinking about cork bark, but then I saw someone's viv that had moss growing all up the back wall. 

Also, does anyone know where I can get some pillow moss? I saw that black jungle had java moss, but it needs to be kept extremely wet doesn't it? I know that some people use it in aquariums, so it must need to stay very wet.

Thanks,
Brock


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## Mantellaprince20 (Aug 25, 2004)

Hey Brock,

Java moss actually does quite well as long as it has high humidity, good lighting, and moist substrate. I have a bunch growing in my 75 gallon, in a humid, somewhat moist spot. It has been doing well for months and months.

The best background I have found for plant attachment are cork wall tiles, with the large chunks of cork instead of the sawdust style. Also, virgin cork siliconed to the back of the terrarium has proved to be a great attachment point as well. I do have moss growing out of both types of backgrounds, of various species. 

Pillow moss is hard to come by, and is a bit tricky at first. It needs good lighting, and what I have noticed is that the actually pillow moss dies off, and some other type of moss takes over. I now have this stuff spreading all over a few of my vivs.

One last thing I noticed is that if you use the orchid "new zealand dried sphagnum moss", if it stays moist in a well lit area, it will come back to life. I fill in the gaps when I use real cork for backgrounds with this stuff, and it makes a very neat filler when it resurrects itself. 

Anyway, hope I covered something to help you out ,

ed parker


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2005)

Thanks, you have helped me a lot! How many watts does pillow moss need? On the 10 gallon that I am planning for a vivarium, I have 30 watts of mini compact lighting. Will this be enough? Too much? Will this be good for other plants as well?


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

I say Tropical Pillow Moss would be the best idea, and the Flevopol(concrete primer) method put on thickly so it stays moist long.

Ryan


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2005)

Tree fern fiber seems to grow moss really fast, in my experience it will gorw faster on tree fern than it will on cork.

Matt


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2005)

Yes, but it is a non-renewable resource. I would not really like to promote using this...


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2005)

I got mine from this seller on ebay. "poisonarw"

http://cgi.ebay.com/Live-Sheet-Moss-2-s ... dZViewItem

I contacted him, and told him what I was doing, He sent me a couple of moss covered sm logs(now growing some really tiny round leaved plants on about a 1 in. stem???, couple of pillow moss clumps, some feather moss( really nice, has a bunch of lichens, fern moss, and club moss sprouting out all over it), and what he called carpet moss(which is a really smooth low growing, flat sheet of dark green moss, about a half inch thick,now sprouting with lime green shoots of new growth. All these are doing really well so far. I am always finding something new popping up out of it. 

I don't now what he has left, I seen a couple of listings, but I would contact him through ebay to see what he has. Was real nice to deal with.


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