Bargain Find / Cultivating Sphagnum...

From: Richard T. Berg (bergrd@valunet.com)
Date: Sat Jan 17 1998 - 21:33:13 PST


Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 05:33:13 GMT
From: bergrd@valunet.com (Richard T. Berg)
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg225$foo@default>
Subject: Bargain Find / Cultivating Sphagnum...


 Greets,

  Was wondering the best way to cultivate live sphagnum moss within a CP
terrarium...=20

  Today I called most of the local nurseries in my area and ran into a
major dead end finding live sphagnum... All of the retailers had none or
even didn't know it came in 'live' forms (this was fun explaining how =
they
get it dried and dead ;)

  With all the roadblocks still in place I visited one of these local
nursery's and found some rather sickly VFT's... Since I'm just starting I
have only VFT's at this moment and curiously scanned the lot only to find
nearly 70% of them either dead or on their way to checking out... Within=
 a
few moments I noticed that many of the already dead plants had been
overgrown with healthy green spahgnum and instantly thought of a way to
propose to the keeper she should allow me to buy the dead plants for the
sole reason of the living moss...=20

  She took kindly to this and actually gave me 3 pots for free with mucho
live spahgnum... I've added this to my already established setup ( 5 1/2
gallon terrarium) and thought to ask the group the best way to cultivate
this moss so I can eventually grow in mostly live moss...=20

  Also to my DELIGHT while opening the pots to weed out the moss I found
the most beautiful plant I now have... I've seen this only on web sites =
so
far but am excited to now own an all red variant VFT... She was just
sitting there, albeit covered in total moss, in the center as planned... =
I
was shocked to find this since at first I only saw moss and the other
plants offered were quite yellow-green... Pretty healthy so far with deep
red coloration the lobes/teeth of the traps and new leaves forming from
center with a red hue... Not to bad for a little quick thinking and
ingenuity!...=20

  Please email regarding the moss if anyone has time and I PROMISE next
post will be shorter and less melodramatic! =3D)

                                                ... Richard

--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--=3D*=3D--
         -=3D[ Richard Berg ]=3D-
  =20
          bergrd@valunet.com
             ICQ#2671110
  Astronomy, Bonsai, CP's, Tropicals
    http://www.valunet.com/~bergrd
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