Dart Den

Over the past year I have heard talk of making moss slurries. I always wanted to give it a try but did not have a tank to put it in so I decided to run an experiment.

Very much to my wifes dismay I used our blender to mix, dry long spagnum, a few random handfulls of moss from my 75gal, live spagnum, star, and a few I can not identify. I have heard that you can either add yogurt or beer as a food source for the moss. I wen't with beer since I don't mind the smell of that vs. rotten yogurt :roll:

I wasn't going to waste good beer on this experiment so I rummage through the garage and found a really old case of MGD 64

Blended it up into a paste and spread it over a piece of cork bark and some spagnum. Sprinkled some Kyoto moss spores on top as well. (I have never had luck growing kyoto moss)



Covered it and forgot about it.

About four weeks later (today) I was getting ready to toss it assuming that the expirement had failed when I notice this.

NEW GROWTH!





I can not wait until this entire thing is full of moss!

The Spaghnum "skeleton" will produce all kinds of growth on it's own without any liquid help, not that liquid stuff would "hurt"....just sayin'.

Keep us posted on the MGD.

Wonder if something really yeasty like a good German Hefferveisen would amplify things....

Edit * Good lighting is paramount for the "re-growth" of the dead spag....

I am not for sharing my Hoegaarden with any one let alone moss!

Ha ha nice! however ive always found accelerated growth when trying to establish new moss with just pinches of moss spread all over where you want it to grow. and it doesnt take much. just a pinch every few inches.. that way also you can harvest from an already established source by pulling a pinch every few inches and it grows back really nicely!

Once this grows in I can do that with it. I kept on hearing about people doing these slurries so I wanted to give it a try. Didn't want the icky paste all over the background of a new tank especially if it wasn't going to work.

oops, forgot all about this experiment. Eventually it worked and i did have a layer of moss growing but i tossed it because it was taking up room that I needed for some froglet growout vivs.

When setting up a viv, I always put Lowe's brand "Better-Gro Orchid Moss" over my substrate. Most of this gets covered by leaf litter, but the spots that don't sprouts all kinds of new moss. I have even had different plants sprout from this that do good in a viv. I would think that if you are looking to cover an area with moss, this stuff would work great, even though it takes some time to come back green.