Moss FAQ: Light Requirements If you have moss on your property: Do you consider this a shady location? Is it on the north side of your house? Is there abundant trees providing a canopy of shade with only intermittent dappled sunlight? Consider the light that it receives and using this as a guide you can transplant moss to areas that are similarly shaded. If you do not have moss on your property and wish to grow moss then understanding moss and its light needs is critical. Start with this general assumption that most moss does best with no direct sunlight per day. Zone 4 and lower have sufficiently lower temperatures and higher humidity that moss will grow with more than 2 hours per day of sunlight. We cannot assume that the north side of a house or tree does not get sunlight. The north side of a building may still get sunlight from the East in the morning and from the West in the evening. I have had two moss gardens on the north side of my house but both of them are right up against the house and have some obstruction blocking direct sunlight of the early morning and late afternoon. If you live in an area of frequent rains and higher humidity moss can do well with more sunlight. When we see moss in the woods remember the woods almost always has higher humidity and usually has more shade than the garden areas of our yards. There are more than 2000 species of moss in North America. Many of them can thrive on several hours of sun a day but they are the exceptions. The general requirement of no sunlight seems a severe restriction for anyone who wants to keep moss. You can look at it that way, but that is the glass is half empty syndrome. Or you can consider that moss will do quite well in dish gardens indoors or on enclosed back porches. Since you donÂt have to water moss, only mist it every two to three days indoors and if you forget to water for a week moss doesnÂt mind then low light requirements can be an advantage. And remember outdoors where grass cannot grow moss can. You can see two examples of the best garden mosses at the link below. Leucobryum glaucum which is commonly called the pincushion moss or the silver cushion moss is a shade moss. Give it shade, moisture and an acidic environment and it can grow rapidly. Generally this dense moss grows 2 to 4 inches tall Bryum argenteum or the silver sidewalk moss can tolerate four to six hours of full sun a day and is considered to be one of the best bonsai mosses. Bruym argenteum is a common sidewalk moss about three eighths of an inch tall that most people donÂt recognize except under moist conditions as it is in this picture. This moss I scraped off the concrete alley behind an old shopping mall in Galesburg, Illinois in April 2006. Here is a link that might be useful: Moss Album

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. It is very informative. The presence of moss growing on the surface of a potted plant may or may not be something to be concerned about. I think it depends on the kind of plant you are growing and the kind of culture you are providing the plant. Generally the moss must be well irrigated as well as having the necessary humidity and temperatures needed for it to survive. Most plants that do not require copious amount of aeration to the roots, such as orchids, may be at risk of root loss since the moss would tend to serve as an indicator of soil decomposition. A careful look at your plant roots should be the rule when growing with a dense moss growth. Even with orchids there are some that do quite well with the dense moss, Dendrobium cuthbertsonii for example. The best rule is to know the cultural needs of the plants you are growing and be able to make a determination that the presence of a dense moss growth is a plus or a minus in your cultivation.

The FAQ is a great source for many of the forum favorite recipes. Thanks for updating it Ann.

This is a test of the "new" Appliances Forum FAQ system. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked (or Answered) questions. As you may know, the Appliances Forum is one of the busiest places on THS/GW, and with the present limit of 300 active threads (and no archive section), things have started to get a bit overwhelming in recent months - so MANY threads full of incredibly helpful and useful info, and so little available space! And thus, it's my hope that by storing some of the most commonly referenced data here, we'll be able to relieve much of the repetition in the main Forum, making this a better and easier-to-use site for everyone. Many thanks to Spike (the webmaster hereabouts) for working to make this happen, as well as to all the knowledgeable and generous posters in the Appliances Forum, who have shared so much outstanding information, wisdom, and offbeat humor over the past couple years! This project has been many months in the works (Spike originally set up the (THS) FAQ system back in March '02), and with a little luck (and a lot of help from other Forum participants!), I'll be able to make this one of the more useful Appliance "reference databases" on the Web! The structure of these files will doubtless be in something of a state of flux over the coming weeks, as I continue to upload new info and edit the data already posted... please bear with me, and as always, please feel free to post additional suggestions and comments in the most current "Creating a FAQ" thread in the main Appliances Forum. Thanks everyone! --Tom. [added to FAQ: 1 October 2002]