sphagnum
Ron Ruppel (rruppel@nova.umuc.edu)
Tue, 11 Jul 1995 00:24:30 -0400 (EDT)
Sorry about a silly question. I had some pots in which I had tried to
start several kinds of seeds that didn't sprout in a year or so. Getting
impatient, I took them out of the water for some time and everything
dried out. Later, I tried to use the same pots (same media) for other
seeds. Those seeds have not yet sprouted, but I am getting a lovely
carpet of baby sphagnum. At the recent suggestion of a list member, I
bought the book "A Focus on Peatlands and Peat Mosses".(Thank you)
I seem to recall that sphagnum produces something that prevents the
germination of other sphagnum spores, something that continues into the
dead peat. Since the peat component of the media was the milled variety,
it seems unlikely that there were live cells. And if spores, how did they
get past the safeguards? It's occurred to me lately that I can't totally
understand my CP's unless I understand their environment, which includes
sphagnum as a major component. And this has me very confused (but happy
with the crop). Any ideas?
Ron Ruppel
Ft Pierce, Fl
rruppel@nova.umuc.edu