Cross post from !hydroponics@slrpnk.net

It's the first time I own a dryer. When I poured out the water it has collected (a few liters per run) I quickly tested the EC and pH and found out, that it is almost identical to the one made by my reverse osmosis filter!
No wonder, since the dryer is basically just a big distillation machine.

Thats super neat. It will save me a lot of work filtering tap water.

I will collect it from now on and use it for watering my plants.

Why does it matter?

Plants really don't like tap water. Even in a country like mine, where no chlorine/ fluoride/ whatever is added, the dissolved minerals cause trouble. They will build up over time and make nutrients unavailable, even if you adjust the pH.

The buildup and nutrient lockout will harm the plants a lot in the long term, and you will have way more trouble checking and correcting EC and pH.

Hey y'all, I've got an ID request regarding the Sphagnum I'm growing, as well as some tips maybe?

The ID would be helpful, since I found out that different species need different conditions, especially regarding nutrient level and moisture.

I got a big handful from a hobbyist nearby, but sadly, he doesn't know what kind it is either. I've been growing it now for half a year, but I'm still struggling a bit.

I have split it up into a few separate pots. Theoretically, they are all in similar conditons, with the only difference being the location (outdoor vs indoor under a growlight).

Still, some look worse than others. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but a few look healthy, while a few others have bleached or turned into mush. They all also don't grow nearly as fast as I would like it.

Conditions:

• Bright light, often direct sun, but they never get hot or anything
• I fertilized some at the beginning to test how they react, but I don't do that anymore, since a few got nutrient burn and algae.
• They get flushed very regularly, either by rain or flooding.
• I cut off the heads regularly to propagate them and promote bushier growth.
• Most of them grow on LECA. The water level is usually almost at the top, and the moss is sitting on top. Always moist, sometimes soggy, sometimes a little dryer. I also have a few control samples on peat, but they don't look that much better.

Pictures:

Indoor, recovering from nutrient burn (including Drosera):

Healthiest sample, indoor:

Indoor, peat vs LECA:

The LECA container (indoor):

Dryest conditons, outdoor. Container has a crack at the bottom, so the rain never pools up:

Outdoor, regularly gets flooded for a few days when it rains:

ID

• How did you identify it? What features to look out for?
• What conditions are favourable, which not?
• How fast is the growth rate supposed to be? Am I just being inpatient?
• Do you need any more information?

This is already the second flower right now, and there are even more buds forming!

Most were painted with acrylic paint, and the ones with tree leaves are made with glue and napkins

After the repotting and new environment stress, it initially lost all pitchers, but has formed new ones half a year ago. Now, it is thriving and still has the problem, that every pitcher has no digestive liquid inside, even when still closed.

From what I've read, they are about 1/3 filled when the lid is still on and that's where the juices are the most concentrated. But they should also be able to both form or suck up new liquid/ water, so even when some of it is lost somehow, it should be able to produce enough to digest prey, or if it "rains", they aren't diluted too much.

Well... mine are even "born" empty. The plant has a rough time catching flies on its own. They don't dry up and die or anything, they just are empty and unattractive for insects.

Conditions:

• Very high air humidity, most of the time about 70-80%. Again, I don't see any pitchers drying up all at once or any other issues. The plant is happy.
• Relatively high light. For houseplants very high. SW-facing huge window (northern hemisphere), but behind a curtain. Diffused. On sunny days, I get ~400 ppfd
• Substrate: LECA, semi-hydro
• Fertilizer in substrate: 1x every month or two 1 mS EC hydro nutrient solution, refilled with RO water. The EC is sitting at about 0,3-0,7 mS most of the time. I noticed much faster growth rates when fertilizing a bit, because in nature they are also getting some nutrients from the soil. But I keep it pretty low to encourage pitcher formation. I've seen a few yellowing bottom leafes (nitrogen deficiency) already, but they are relatively rare.
• Feeding: most of the pitchers are ignored from my side. I filled them up with said nutrient solution a while back from time to time, but I don't do that anymore, because there's enough active growth. One pitcher tho is filled with bugs I gave the plant, and when I see this pitcher dried up, I drop a bit of water in there to aid digestion. Just a bit, because in nature it probably rains in them too?

Pictures

The plant itself

New pitchers

The oldest pitchers are getting consumed, but a lot of new ones are forming

Active pitchers, that have caught a few fungus gnats, and one that I used a while for active insect feeding

Most people struggle with too low RH, leading to stunted growth, burnt tips, and dehydrated leaves. We all know that.

But I may have quite the opposite problem: my hygrometers never display a value of <50%, even during winter.

In summer, it often stays at about 60% (40-70%, depending on weather), and right now, due to the autumn weather conditions, I'm quite struggling to get it lower than 70%, even after opening the windows/ doors and letting the air flow through the apartment (we Germans call that Querlüften) a few times daily.

Right now it sits at constant 80%.

I live in a very modern apartment with great insulation, so mold isn't going to be a problem. During very cold winters, there's some condensation on the windows, but no moist walls or whatever.

Still, even though my Calatheas, ferns, and Nepenthes love it and thrive, I don't identify as a gecko and think I shouldn't be living in a fucking terrarium...

---

Here are a few pics attached.

There are some moldy stocks (especially on Calatheas), leaf damage (airflow?) and many of my orchids struggle, in particular my Phalaenopsis, where half of them thrive, and the other half is already in the trash because they rotted away in a blink of an eye. Oncidium type orchids are also molding a bit on leaf stumps, but I think that might be normal, because the new roots look great.
Crown rot is also a thing, especially with my Pinguiculas.

Is that due to the humidity, or because of my semi-hydro (passive LECA hydroculture) cultivation?

My indoor banana tree isn't even that old (about one year), but it's growing like crazy in hydro.

One of the cool things about hydro is that pot sizes are less relevant, because the root system is more effective at absorbing water and nutrients compared to soil.
This has resulted in absolutely huge plants compared to their pot.

The only noticeable downside so far has only been the increased watering frequency, but I didn't notice much stunted growth tbh.

This is (also) why I haven't repotted yet.

Sadly I noticed, that this resulted in quite a few forgotten waterings and therefore burnt roots.

This was the tree before:

And here it is in the new net pot:

I put this pond basket into a concrete mixing bowl for 5 bucks, which I now painted with acrylic paint :)

It even gave me a few cuttings of baby trees which I gave to friends

Here are my Pinguicula agnata and P. moranensis.
They are the "parents" and just a few months old themselves.
They were in the succulent stage when I bought them and finally developed their carnivorous leaves!

And here are the "babies". I made lots of leaf pullings of both donor plants. They make great gifts!

They all grow on LECA (semi-hydro) with a layer of living moss on top. They get distilled water most of the time, and the moss finally comes to life!

This is one of my ferns.
They give me a constant supply of baby ferns, which I can remove from the mother plant and put it into another pot.

Here's the plant as a whole:

I already split it into three parts this year, but it recovers to full growth in less than a few months!

This one was just one piece of root/ rhizome half a year ago. Look how big it already is!

Transitioning them into hydro has been a huge pain, but once they've adapted to the new environment, they thrive and are very easy to care for.

If you're interested in pictures or stories of my other ferns, feel free to just ask :)

Crosspost from !mosses@mander.xyz

Here's an update on my moss cultivation project.
I started this one about two months ago and made some progress I wanted to share.

Here's my initial post: https://slrpnk.net/post/23641560

Substrate

The substrate doesn't matter much.
I grow both on peat (old CP mix I had no other use for) as well as just LECA.

As long as it's kept constantly moist and has (almost) no nutrients, it should work.

I will even try to make use of those glass sponge bricks you use for flowers, maybe that will work even better?

Nutrients

Of course, moss isn't moss. As I do not only grow Sphagnum, but also other mosses (pretty much any one I could forage!), they have other nutrient demands. Some tolerate more than others.

But most of them are still very intolerant to salt build-up (too much fertilizer).

Mosses have a huge surface area and therefore capillary action. They wick up nutrient solution from below and it evaporates at the top.

This resulted in a lot of loss for me. A huge portion of my collection has turned into mush because of nutrient burn...

This is just one example. You see how dark green and structure-less it is? Yep.

On the bright side, some of it was buried further down in the substrate and didn't get affected as much.

And here's my Pinguicula with different mosses added as top dressing. I removed most of it and replaced it.

I'm very glad I split it up, especially my beloved Sphagnum, so I always have a backup.

I used a spray bottle and kept the dishes constantly moist/ in a puddle.

BUT. With nutrient solution. Hydroponic fertilizer, 1/3 strength (~0,4 mS) every few days. In hindsight, totally overkill.

Now, I flush it with RO water once every few weeks, spray a bit of nutrient solution on it once, and water it with just plain RO water for the rest of the month via spray bottle.

The outdoor ones get the same treatment, but with rain instead.

You will notice the nutrient built-up by:

• Dark green colour (nitrogen overabundance, the first warning sign)
• Algae
• Crispy tips (advanced)
• And necrosis (when it's already too late)

Light, airflow and humidity

It's always said that mosses prefer dim light conditions, but that's not true imo.

I would say they need as much as houseplants. Bright, indirect light.

The problem is heat. They get cooked or dry out very fast, especially in a sealed container.

Low humidity is also no problem, as long as they have a moist surface.

Hell, even when they dry out, they can recover easily. They do that all the time in nature!

Some tolerate that better than others. Sphagnum for example is a bog plant, and gets a bit stressed if dried out too often and sets back growth for a while. Others, like cushion moss, even like to dry out a bit in between from what I've observed!

Also, there's a phenomenon called "etiolation".
It's a survival tactic that gets triggered when they suffer from a lack of airflow or light or when the humidity is too high. Basically, in nature, when they are covered by something else (other mosses, grass) to give them an edge against competition.

You can use this to your advantage. When I have new samples, I place them into the second row with lid on.
Then, I cut off the strands that form after a week or two, which results in less sample matter needed and therefore way less contamination (pests, other mosses, weeds).

Pruning

Similar to classic plants, pruning leads to bushier growth.

With the significant advantage, that (in theory) every cell can divide itself into a new strand of moss! How amazing is that?!

The surface is covered super quickly after a few weeks.

One month ago:

Now: