Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: partisangardener on January 23, 2021, 08:46:32 PM
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I wanted to grow lichens and moss on different surfaces (ceramic, stones, wood and even sponge mat) around my artificial bog. I don’t like to wait some years.
So I thought up a plan to speed this up.
As adhesive I thought wallpaper paste might be suitable. But I could not find a product without any additives because specialized shops are closed.
A recipe for self-made glue was easy to be found. Heating some water till it boils, turn it off and add some starch, stir up until it is dissolved and let it cool. It is clear like water and sticks very well.
To get lichens and moss adequate for my purpose, I looked for these plants on stones, trees, and every surface (even artificial ones) around my home which might be suitable for my surfaces. A hairbrush for dogs with steel bristles worked very well. (One for humans will do too).
I brushed on a windless dry day over the lichen and moss growth and held a tray underneath.
The outcome looked like this.
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I collected a lot of dust and even some bigger pieces.
It is advisable to put it at once into a jar or bag. Otherwise it will be blown away by the first gust of wind.
Every little piece is capable of growing on a suitable surface. To get it on to the ceramics, wood and stones, I mixed a spoon full of this dust with a honey jar full of my glue.
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The places looked before like this.
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At January the 7th I painted this onto every available surface. The next day it rained and after some more days it snowed.
Yesterday the snow was gone for some hours and I was able to look at the result an make some pictures.
Wintertime and early spring is here enough moist to promote lichen and moss growth, and the starch glue should be a suitable food source for the fungus mycelium was my thought. Enough to get the lichen fungus to attach to the surface after the glue is mostly washed away .
It is still too early for conclusions, but it looks quite promising. As far I could see I have not lost a visible quantity of the plants. And the glue dried to a thin membrane on the surface.
Why the bigger pieces turned out to be stuck the right side up I do not know. I did nothing special to promote this especially.
But it pleases me.
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Buttermilk and yoghurt was only way I knew to enhance this growth. But it still took quite long on every surface I tried. Maybe this one is faster, what do you think of it?