In The Tank

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April 1, 2019

Dry Start Method for Moss on Driftwood

Here's my first attempt at dry starting moss on driftwood. Dry starting moss works well when you want the moss to become firmly rooted onto the driftwood as opposed to simply floating all around it and breaking free. In a nutshell, the process consists of breaking up moss into small pieces in a blender, mixing it with a dollop of thick yogurt to create a chalk paint-like consistency, painting it in a thin layer onto saturated driftwood, placing it in a container to trap in humidity, and misting it every day to keep the surface moist while aerating the container to prevent the growth of mold. The series of photos represents my interpretation of how to do this. Please share your experience with this method and any tips for success and pitfalls to be avoided.

1 - Gather materials: stick blender, TC moss (disease and snail free), greek yogurt, spatula, paint bruch

2 - Add the moss ball and enough water to blender to facilitate blending

3 - Blend until particles are about a mm in length

4 - Drain off the excess water (here using a rotifer sieve, but cheesecloth would work well too)

5 - Place the wet ball of reduced moss into a cup with a dollop of thick yogurt

6 - Mix well into a chalk paint-like consistency

8 - Paint a thin layer onto the top of saturated driftwood that has been soaked to lose its buoyancy and release tannins

9 - Place the pieces of driftwood into plastic bins with some moisture to maintain humidity

10 - Cover with plastic lids, label (Christmas, Flame, and Weeping mosses), and place in front of a sunny window

That's it so far. I'll post more pics of progress. GWAPA friends Kris Weinhold, Jen Williams, and Nick Kinser think the moss should only take a few weeks to root. The key to success is reportedly maintaining the moisture levels while aerating regularly to avoid excessive mold growth. Fingers crossed!

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Miembro desconocido

29 jun 2019

OK, this turned out to be a complete and utter failure :(

I had some ferny, mossy stuff on the wood so pulled out one third of it and put it in a tank. It turned out that the little pieces of moss were all dead. So I have lots of beautiful, butt naked driftwood in a tank with Morse Code Corys and little brown otos (Parotocinclus pirebubuy). Not sure what I did wrong, but I suspect I overdid it trying to prevent and then kill the mold that grew. I think I might have needed more moisture in the boxes, slowly starting to fill them up with water instead of just misting a couple times of day and trying to avoid standing water. I also added Fourish Excel to the misting water which did a great job of killing mold, but may have also killed off the moss. I generally find moss to be more sensitive to chemicals than other plants.

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