Although Ive never even heard of Angel moss,my guess is its not acidic enough for CP's.

If angel moss is what I think it is, it is frequently used as a sort of green decorative moss in dried plant arrangements. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE THIS FOR CARNIVOROUS PLANTS!!!!...there, did I say that loud enough? Decorative green moss (I don't know what it is taxonomically, but it ISN'T sphagnum) WILL cause your CPs to sicken and die.

Read this:
http://www.discoveriesingardening.com/

Basically it's like long fiber sphagnum moss, it's found only in New Zealand. They call it golden moss, it's not for decorative purposes.

Appears to be sphagnum moss- 'Least they say it is.. And it looks like it.

My question is: How do you "farm" it? I've been looking for references to that all over and all I get is sites wanting to sell it to me, NOT help me grow it.

If the spagnum does not breaks down, it may not be acidic enough. The braking down of moss is one of the factors which makes the moss acidic.

Also, it is not the braking down of the moss which makes us repot the plant every two years or so, it is the bacteria, slime and mildew which gets into the moss that ruins the growing media.

So whether it breakes down or not, you still have to change the media, for there is no way you can clean the bacteria, slime, and mildew from it completely, and lets not forget about the acidic environment.

It doesn't sound like the 'Angel Moss' is the stuff I encountered. Some stores sell a green decorative moss that sort of looks like sphagnum. If you use it on your Sarracenia, Cephalotus, VFT they will sicken and die over a couple of weeks.
TRUST me, this is the voice of experience! Afterwards the folks out at California Carnivores said that the stuff was indeed poisonous to CPs.

Angel moss is only a marketing gimmick used by marketing company from New Zealand. This moss (name) is not any better from other sphagnum moss on the market and only very expensive.
This moss is a mixture of moss from New Zealand, Chile and Peru.
This moss is harvested by poor natives and sold as gold in western countries.
Use Wisconsin or Chinese moss and you will be far ahead and save lot of money.
This marketing company uses lot of half truths to sell this product and many US and UK garden shops fall for it.

Just to set the record straight!

"Angel Moss" is actually Sphagnum Moss.
It is Sphagnum Moss from New Zealand. I have seen where it grows and where they pick it from..... Definitely Sphagnum Moss.
It's latin botanical name is "sphagnum christatum" & sometime they told me it has some 'sphagnum subnitens' (aprox 10%) mixed in with it as that is how it grows together. you can actually see the 2 different varieties once you know what to look for.

It is a far cry from Chilean, Chinese & Peruvian moss in terms of quality......
New Zealand Sphagnum Moss isn't "picked by poor natives and sold as gold in western countries" The writer of this comment then suggests to use "Chinese moss" (Talk about poor natives).
Obviously the writer of this comment has never done any investigative journalism and if he/she had toured NZ and seen the different Moss companies as I have, they wouldn't be so quick to pass a judgement on what the facts actually are.

It is not a mixture of New Zealand, Chile & Peru moss as has been suggested.
It is pure straight New Zealand Sphagnum Moss.

As the company tells it, Angel Moss is just a brand name. (I guess kinda like Coke is one brand of the Coca Cola Company here in the US).

New Zealand moss companies have been selling their Sphagnum Moss to Asian orchid growers, Bromeliad growers, Carnivorous plant growers etc. for 30+ years and it is known to be some of the best product out there. I'm guessing that's why it commands a higher price that other country's Sphagnum Moss.

As far as the acidity of it goes I couldn't say exactly. but according to a test result on the Pacific Wide NZ Ltd website it is somewhere around 4.8.
If that isn't acidic I don't know what is!

I have tried to find information on growing Sphagnum Moss but there isn't much info out there and it is actually quite hard to do. If try and grow some and you feed the moss any type of fertilizer it seems to die, die, die! There is a .pdf document online I found someplace from a guy in England that grew some. but I forget where it is. I have it someplace.

The Moss that you buy in store is dried so I don't think you'll propagate it at all. you need growing tips of the Sphagnum probably as it self propagates like this & some papers I've read says that it can propagate from it's seed pod thingy's they open up and kind of spray around like a kind of spore. I think sort of like mushrooms.

I found the study that I did on Sphagnum Moss very fascinating and enjoyable..... It was quite a job to find all the facts and information on the subject.

Simple.... Do your research People. or visit New Zealand moss companies like I have. they are very helpful and friendly.

(incidentally it's a very nice country to vacation in by the way)

Just to set the record straight!
Sphagnum is really easy to grow with or without medium. How would "YOU" know unless you've tried? Fertilizing it would be stupid if you're using it with CPs anyway. You can also propagate dry sphagnum after re-hydrating it. Some of it will eventually start growing. Maybe the spores or seed remain viable?

taz6122: I have actually definitely tried to grow sphagnum, but I wasn't using it for CP's..... so I agree yes that would be stupid to fertilize it for that!.

I guess I should have qualified the statement, sorry.

I was working strictly just with growing some moss just for it's own sake, looking from the point of view to see that if various nutrients were added to the Sphagnum it might grow faster with longer strands for ornamental work.........
Maybe as you state some of the spores remain viable or something in the dried moss. I haven't gotten that far as yet.

I have found in my research that if you have "hard" or "soft" water it definitely makes a difference to the Sphagnum's growth. Perhaps it's the calcium levels in the water. and also it seems to like the shade or should I say filtered/indirect sunlight. At least that is what seems to make longer and greener growing tips.

These were my personal findings on the growth of Sphagnum..

Out of interest, what length have you gotten your Sphagnum moss to grow???

Regards.

Sphagnum moss is pretty easy to grow. All you need is quality water like distilled or r/o and a styrafoam cup with holes pocked about an inch below the rim of the cup.
I have had strands of sphag up to 5 inches and they would have grown longer until a hungry raccoon got into the pot and tore it all up! Just jammed the bryophyte back into the cup and put out where it gets about 3-4 hours of DIRECT sun every day.
If you really want an education about sphagnum then you need to visit a sphagnum bog. Many if not most get several hours of direct sun during the day. In fact the red species of sphagnum are probably that way because they occur in bogs that have many hours of direct sun.
The only other thing I can think of offhand is that they really like it cool. So be sure your pot of sphag is on the north side of your house or in the coolest spot in your yard and where critters and birds cannot get to it!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:555458}}

I've had it grow 8-10" inside a terrarium under T5 fluorescents. I've also had it 12-15" in a tub under my deck. It does great at high humidity levels if the air isn't stagnant and it has a good light source(deck has like 3/4" spacing).

Krstofer wrote:
>My question is: How do you "farm" it? I've been looking
>for references to that all over and all I get is sites
>wanting to sell it to me, NOT help me grow it.

They don't "farm" it, per se. In New Zealand and Tasmania, at least, the bogs are harvested on a rotational basis so that after the sphagnum has been cut the bog is left to regenerate before harvesting again.

chuckbry wrote:
>The Moss that you buy in store is dried so I don't think
>you'll propagate it at all.

Chuckbry,
Dried sphagnum is generally easy to regerenate... it's slow but easy. However, New Zealand sphagnum can be difficult to regrow as the spores don't survive the amount of drying needed to produce compressed bales that meet NZ's export standards. You'll probably have better luck regenerating dried sphagnum from North American or Chilean sources, which aren't as rigorously processed.

I have grown sphagnum from spores and it is supposedly New Zealand LFS that germinated from spores but I did not save the bag, so I am not sure. I do think that Chilean and New Zealand mosses will germinate readily. I just had most of the moss soaking in rain water and after a while, the spores germinated and you can eventually see small green capitulum growing. At first they grow long and thin, but when exposed to air, they eventually develop the capitulum that people recognize. I have some Chilean and some NZ Sphagnum types growing right now, but it is growing in mats now and slowly because it is still very small and young. I have a few types of sphagnum moss from the US also I bought from people and one kind, Sphagnum Squarrosum, seems to keep the PH level low for most of the CP's I grow and they are growing in the pots around the CP's but since that kind of Sphagnum has a low PH, I would say it is the best kind to grow CP's in. Plus the spores from it seem to grow well too as I have seen recently, some cpitulum are growing new tiny plants from a side branch or lower branch of the capitulum. I would say keep giving them rain water to sit in and eventually they will get big and you can use them in the CP pots once they are. I just have all mine sitting on mats of peat where the peat is water logged and then the moss is just sitting on top of the peat. The wet sphagnum moss absorbs the rain water, and weighs down the peat so the live moss on top grows and the dead stuff slowly degrades like in nature. I have some types of sphagnum I got that I thought was all dead, but I left it alone and all these new small capitulum are growing from everywhere- so do not discard it even if it is brown and pretty dead looking. The spores are also very tolerant of being dry for long periods, so re-wetting the dried out moss and leaving it can usually germinate new spores as long as it just sits in rain water or something. Sphagnum mosses grow in temperate areas where there are wet and dry seasons compared to hot and cold- they typically experience drier winters because they re buried under snow and ice and the spores germinate new plants in spring after the thaws and snow melt. I have read so many books about sphagnum and tried to research the best I can and even read some pdf files from european sites that give information. I hope this info helps.

There is quite a bit of misinformation here, I am a Bryologist with mucho Sphagnum insight. If anyone coming to this thread wants info just ask.

I don´t think that "Angel Moss" is an international ID.