Ok, now you've got me curious. I've alwasys half heartedly wanted to try to grow my own sphag. So, what information do you have on growing it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Aracknight's Deadly Delights

I've had Sphagnum growing in my CP pots for years and I've never purchased any. It just sprouts from the dried long fiber I use to top my pots. Freezing is not a problem. Think about it, most sphagnum used in the US comes from Canada or a few northern states. Mine has frozen a dozen times and it just keeps growing.

I once read you can sprout some pretty fast by placing some wet long fiber in a plasic bag, blow into it to inflat it and putting it under artificial lights. Open it about every 3 days or so to get fresh air in it and wait. I was bored one winter several years ago so I tried it, it worked great. It took about a month for the sprouts to start in my basemnet uder flourescent lights. It was about 50-55 degrees 24-7 which may have slowed it down a bit. I took the srpouting long fiber out and put it on top of a few of my pots. It just laid there for a long time. Took almost a full year to really get going. But now it grows really well at the base of my pitchers where it gets a lot of sun but is also pretty protected from full sun. It grows fast enough now to overgrow and kill the ever present club moss found in most CP pots. It does really well in early spring and late fall. I think it likes the cooler temps.

Hola- I have some moss around the greenhouse waiting to be used and it is growing!
Luis

Does in grow (increase in bulk) so that you have more than you started out with? How do they grow it commercially?

Yes it does increase... in time. I have received live LFS from friends as well as grown it from the dried. Here's a sample of it:

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I have no clue as to how it is done commercially, though.

It's not so much grown commercially as harvested from sphagnum bogs. Sometimes it's harvested sustainably, sometimes not depending on the ethics of the company and their country's environmental protection laws.

cobraplant.com has some freshly grown live sphagnum on their site. They grow theirs in nursery from what I understand. Perhaps you could ask them how to cultivate it yourself. (I think they answered a question like that on their Q&A blog already).

Oh yes. I have some in my garage that I had intended to grow but ended up ignoring it. It is growing again now after a nasty little NE Ohio winter.

I tried putting wet sphag in a bag under fluorescent lights like a previous post suggested and it took about 2 weeks to get good growth. I had it just 2-3 inches away from my fluorescents. I did notice that if I wrung it out and got out the excess moisture before placing it in the bag it didn't take off as well as when I just soaked it and put it in the baggie. It's now nice and green and in a couple more days I'll split it up and put it in a couple of different pots around the house and in my terrarium.

that is awesome!! i did not know that

i keep CPs as well as orchids, and i do not want to pay for people to send me the dried LFS

i had suspected that the green moss on my plants were actually live, and now that you mention, i think it is. great, i will set up to deliberately grow it, then harvest it for medium

^_^ very happy!!

I just got some live sphagnam moss from ebay to experiment with. (Also I had some shipped to me when I first got my red dragon vft) I have about 4lbs of it...(A bit much maybe) I seem to have two different kinds as well...one has a brussel sproutish consistancy to it and the other has a more dread like hair like consistency...Anyway since I have so much I decided iam going to experiment with growing enviroments. I have two jars I placed of it outside soaked in water and 4 gallon zipper lock bags that are soaked with water and put under 4 artificial lights ...very low light but I may buy a new light and just grown under one strong 115w 5000k light. Also the moss that came with the red dragon has taken the dread like look and started shooting out neon green spikes..and the plant itself has almost doubled in size since I first received it and finally it looks like a red dragon.