Under the moss

I thought i'll share with you an interesting observation I made....

I'm repotting atm. This is a Trident that was potted last spring...the moss was left to grow rampant over winter...I usually take it off.


To start off...this is what the surface always looks always like at repot.

This is the pot full of moss after winter.

Now this is the surface when the moss was removed


I thought i'll tip the moss over and lay it down....just for this photo...so you can have a better view of the underside of the moss.



A photo of the pot after I scraped off most of the moss.


Initially I was at a loss to figure out where the soil comes from. Then I remember i've put down some organic pellets at the end of spring.
This must be the result of microbial activity over a 1 year period.

fredman said:

where the soil comes from

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did you use akadama? Looks a lot like broken down akadama tbh

leatherback said:

did you use akadama? Looks a lot like broken down akadama tbh

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Nope...the mix is in the first pic

I've also noticed that there seems to be more fine soil under the moss. Does not always seem to be decayed organic fert. I was also trying to work out why this is the case.
Does moss catch airborne dust or dust in raindrops?
Does moss dissolve underlying substrate material into fine soil like particles?
Do moss stems/leaves die off and decompose into fine soil particles?
Other?

I think it's all of the above @Shibui
I've found moss growing on glass "produce" sand and dirt by capturing airborne particles, mostly from wind, water just flushes it down and opens up the capture area.
It acts like a great bristle for everything light and able to get wet, and those materials just sink down through it during a rain shower.
On rooftops, that's how moss makes its own substrate, which I think is pretty remarkable.

WOW fredman that new zealand moss looks so vibrant and healthy... unlike the mushy, horrible stuff we get that rots trunks...

dust in the wind!

jason biggs said:

WOW fredman that new zealand moss looks so vibrant and healthy... unlike the mushy, horrible stuff we get that rots trunks...

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Haha....they grow lush, easy and everywhere mate.
I've seen many cars driving around with moss on them....

Wires_Guy_wires said:

I think is pretty remarkable

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So do I

Good job on modding your puts, even inadvertently!

Covering media with mos gives an awful lot of advantages to one’s practice.. We have moss on the surface of all bonsai media, conifers, deciduous, azaleas, etc.

As mentioned… Amongst them is catching the skiyfall that would normally clog up one’s media. Others include encouragement of surface roots including fine feeder roots, slow release of moisture, thermal insulation of roots both winter and summer, increased microbial activity etc etc

Have done side by side tests with and without moss. Never going back.

Cheers
DSD sends

You're right DSD. I'm over time seeing the value of moss.
Last year I collected a container full of moss after it dried up in summer.
I just wizzed it up to a powder. I'm adding that powder to the newly potted surfaces.
Its still very damp and will be for some months....so will see what happens.

Wires_Guy_wires said:

I think it's all of the above @Shibui
I've found moss growing on glass "produce" sand and dirt by capturing airborne particles, mostly from wind, water just flushes it down and opens up the capture area.
It acts like a great bristle for everything light and able to get wet, and those materials just sink down through it during a rain shower.
On rooftops, that's how moss makes its own substrate, which I think is pretty remarkable.

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Mosses are pioneer species. They can colonise bare rock and slowly prepare the area for other higher plants. I'm sure capturing airborne dust is part of that process.
I believe that lichen produces some sort of acids that can help dissolve rocks. Not sure if moss has similar ability.
As pockets of soil accumulate under the moss and lichen, seeds of other plants can germinate. Roots may penetrate cracks in the rock and slowly split the rocks, allowing for more soil to accumulate and more plants to grow. Over many, many years, each successive species prepares the way for more plants to grow. Eventually, where there was once bare rock we end up with a forest.
That's also remarkable.