Dart Den

Chuck Lawson Wrote:

Stu&Shaz Wrote:Chuck a while back we were talking about moss,and the epiweb moss mix I'm using,progress is very slow here,you might remember i have a trial running with plain ecoearth(a cocofibre we get here in a solid brick form and the same with this dry moss mix that is available under the above trade name.Progress is slow because it is too cold and light levels are poor,up here in blighty,but i'm seeing some progress,Mate have a try at this,even with just plain co cofibre set in a propagator good light and constantly wet,the propagator providing the humidity,what I'm seeing points to you being able to achieve something in months,which might take me a year plus,I'd love to know how you get on,i'll make a concerted effort to get some pics,eventhough progress has all but stopped

Interesting! Thanks Stu! At the moment, pretty much all of my "good lighting" that isn't taken up by vivs is taken up by either plants getting staged to go to vivs, or some "vendor sheet moss" that I'm trying variously to keep greened up, or bring back to green (I've got the moss in shoebox size clear plastic boxes on damp sphagnum, and mist it every few days). As soon as I get back to building again, and clear some of the mess out, I'm anxious to give the coco trick a try.

Hmmm... Maybe I should go do some triage on my "moss recovery" boxes and toss out one or two of the more hopeless candidates and set them up with coco fibre instead. I've got a couple that the sphagnum is coming back to green in faster than the sheet moss is :-)

Chuck, intrinsically my post was based around you trailing this stuff,outside,my greenhouse is where I started this,but it gets way too cold here,i'm no climate buff,I just figured you would have a warmer climate,and not be beset by the problems i have now,naturally I might be wrong,it might be too cold at night.I grow many of my plants outside through the summer months,with varying degrees of shade netting,dependent on species of course,broms way more light,than say ferns.What i noticed is the coco responded to lots of light.Chuck there is a mindset around our plants that we need artificial lighting,naturally we don't!! the sun is what they grow under. We just need to modify it slightly.when i started all this i received alot of questions revolving around,how are you growing this stuff outside .Once again I didn't have the baggage of knowing what the hell I was doing,I just watched the plants,and they told me. So don't bin any of your projects,what i'm urging is to try something almost for nothing ,nothing ventured nothing gained sort of attitude ,but with no great cost So if it doesn't work,you wont have lost much,just abit of time
regards

Stu

Yeah, it probably gets a bit too cold here -- I've got some "winter color" flowers hanging outside the front door in sphagnum moss baskets; currently, we're "unseasonably mild" (high 70sF day, low 60sF night), and I noticed that the sphagnum is greening up, but this will come to a quick end when start getting nights closer to (or below) freezing again. (Worst case, we can get down to about 10F-15F a few times most winters).

I saw the sphag basket trick last winter too, so I got the bright idea of trying to intentionally green up some sphagnum last spring and summer -- one try was covered (much like I'm doing with the moss under the lights), and it basically cooked in the heat. The second try was with with some dwarf Schefflera arboricola planted in sphagnum and put in light shade; I kept it fairly wet (the summer heat sucks water out of container plants unbelievably fast), and the Schefflera did great, but the most the sphag did was grow some algae.

A greenhouse around here would probably be the right trick, but my house faces due south (and the city would have an aneurism if I tried to put one out front), and I've got nothing but shade around the sides and back...

I may try putting a couple of boxes of the coco fiber out on the front porch, and watch the temps, but I'm not sure I don't manage to get more light inside under the LEDs this time of year. I'll try it a few different directions and see if I can't get something to work -- it can't do any worse than not grow :mrgreen:

..made this a Sticky Chuck - such a wealth of info, additional members posts and picys. Join the 'immortals'.

Philsuma Wrote:..made this a Sticky Chuck - such a wealth of info, additional members posts and picys. Join the 'immortals'.

Grats Chuck 8)

Stu

Philsuma Wrote:..made this a Sticky Chuck - such a wealth of info, additional members posts and picys. Join the 'immortals'.

Thanks Phil!

Oh no no....thank YOU guys !!

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couple of wide-angle shots.

Growing in nicely. They like your LED's I see.

I tried to get a couple of shots of green spots in the sphagnum on these baskets; didn't have any luck, but did get these...

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...and as long as I'm posting off-topic pics, a couple shots of fall color in the "Jethro Clampett Memorial Water Feature"

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Chuck Lawson Wrote:I tried to get a couple of shots of green spots in the sphagnum on these baskets; didn't have any luck, but did get these...
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Wow Chuck! Phenomenal color! Your vivs are really looking great.

Not great pics by any means, but I finally got a couple of El Dorado shots -

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Hey Chuck - what do you think of the Vanzo's now that you have had them for a while? Are they out frequently? Vivs look great!

Thanks Jim!

The Vanzos are great; mine were out a lot from the beginning, although I have to say they've been a bit scarce the last couple of weeks -- I figure either a) they're getting up to funny business under the foliage or b) they're very tired of seeing me with a camera. Since they've been calling since nearly day one, I'm going to cross my fingers and guess "a". :mrgreen:

So I found a couple of tadpoles on Saturday... :wink:

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Now either you got a macro lens or even dart tads are bigger over there :lol:

Stu

Heh... A reflecting pool at the local botanical gardens; I saw the tadpoles and got out of there before I stumbled onto any giant fruit fly cultures :mrgreen:

Chuck Lawson Wrote:Heh... A reflecting pool at the local botanical gardens; I saw the tadpoles and got out of there before I stumbled onto any giant fruit fly cultures :mrgreen:

Damn I spent hours thinking your a tad charmer,wondering how you got them all swimming in the same direction evenly spaced,without stirring the hell out of the pool ,hmm i think Shaz makes cultures like your talking about. I don't feel so bad now :lol: Chuck, ere mate,please forgive the happy comments I'm having a seriously good froggy week. I can't reveal all quite yet, playing the patience game,with good reason,but some,snippets will appear in a moment

regards
Stu

Happy comments are always welcome!