Shade Gardening: Who is beginning to take serious looks at the catalogs now?, 0 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
It is really very easy, I make my mix with leafy compost, some moss peat, and gritty river soil, so it is very friable. Put in a seed tray, pour boiling water over to sterilise (rescue worms first!). i put the tree fern spore in a heated propogator 68-72F) at the shady back, it is under my kitchen window. You can do it in a warmish room though with a plastic bag over, but might not be successful. the male sporangae (?) terminology may not be correct! needs it wet but not drowned to swim to the female. They make green flat stuff on top, this is when it should be moved for tree ferns. mine was such a mix, 7 leaf types I think, I didn't know how I was going to separate them, so waited until they made some roots, but they didn't like being moved. I left those 2 in the cold greenhouse, shady end, when only a year old and tiny, they like the cool moist air over winter.

I have also grown ferns from Asplenium s. Angustatum, some went black and gungy but i have a tray outside with a few in that are desperate to be moved, I grew them in my greenhouse on the shady side in spring. It has spore on now. Polystichum s. congestum was easy too, did the same, I have just left them to get bigger (really didn't get around to it!), they are now quite strong so is probably best to leave them until bigger roots and stronger crowns, unless of course you want to pot up when still 'livery'. Be careful not to overwater, while ferns like to be moist and well drained, overwatering can rot them, and they do really well in lots of leafy compost, mixed as above.

Spore on the A.s. Angustatum

This message was edited Feb 8, 2006 12:00 AM