# How do I plant Weeping Moss



## Donald Hansen

Some plants I ordered came yesterday. The Weeping Moss came as a bunch of very tiny individual plants in a plastic bag along with a piece of folded up bare plastic mesh. What am I suppose to do with plants and the mesh?

DLH


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## jrman83

The mesh must just be giving it some way to hold it and allow the plant to grow. Generally speaking, mosses don't get planted. They are usually tied to structures to anchor them from moving and to give it something to cover. Leave it in the mesh and let it grow. Once it has grown some you'll have a lot more options of what to do with it.


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## Donald Hansen

But the moss is not attached to the mesh. If I were to take the moss out of the plastic bag I would have a bunch of separate very tiny plants floating around the tank. How do I use the mess to prevent this? Do I try to plant each little plant in a hole in the mesh or what?

DLH


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## jrman83

Only way I know is to use two pieces of mesh and squeeze the moss between them. You must have purchased from an overseas location. You can also tie the pieces to wood in your tank with cotton thread.


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## Donald Hansen

jrman83 said:


> Only way I know is to use two pieces of mesh and squeeze the moss between them. You must have purchased from an overseas location. You can also tie the pieces to wood in your tank with cotton thread.


Yes, the plants were from Singapore. I also purchased Starmoss and that came between 2 pieces of plastic grid with about 1/8 inch holes. The holes in the plastic mesh that came with the Weeping Moss are more like house screen. I went over to ACE and the only thing I could find that resembled what came with the Starmoss was galvanized. I don't know if something galvanized is safe for the aquarium.

DLH


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## jrman83

You said it was folded...just sandwich some moss in between the fold and hold it closed with some small tie wraps or equiv.


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## Donald Hansen

I think I'm going to have to try that. I don't think they would send something that wouldn't work. It's just that the holes in that mesh are so fine that I can't help but wonder how the moss can grow through it. It does have one advantage over what the Starmoss came between which can't be bent easily. It will be very easy to get the Weeping Moss to lay in contact with the log I'm going to attach it to.

DLH


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## snail

The mesh is used to make moss carpets and moss walls and can be bought from them by the meter. I think they include it more as a sample to show you the products they sell. I tied my weeping moss around driftwood using cotton thread., by the time the thread rots away the moss has stuck on it's own. It works best if you spread the moss as thinly as possible. Other people use fishing twine, hair nets, elastic bands, superglue, zip ties, plastic mesh, stainless steel mesh etc, it just depends where you want the moss to grow and what works for you.


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## Donald Hansen

I was wrong about the size of the Weeping Moss plants. What I saw in the water were the little broken ends of the moss. I took a good look and I now see that it's made up of long strands.

I'm still a little confused about the mesh they sent. The holes in the mesh are about the size of the holes in house screen. I don't see how the plants can possibly grow through such small holes.

My wife suggested I go to a crafts store to see what they have. Think I will do that as soon as I'm done reading todays postings.

DLH


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## susankat

You can get plastic craft mesh that works. It can be found in any craft dept or store.


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## Donald Hansen

susankat said:


> You can get plastic craft mesh that works. It can be found in any craft dept or store.


Your right about that. I bought a roll of mesh 6" by 75' for $3. That should last awhile. The only thing was the mesh was fine like that of house screen. What I did was mount a piece in a needle point hoop and used a pencil solder iron to burn a whole mess of 1/8" to 1/4" holes in the mesh. I think that should work.

DLH


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## snail

If you are going grow the moss on driftwood you don't need mesh, just use something to tie it down and it will start growing on the wood it'self after a while. 

Here are instructions about how to use mesh to make a moss wall: Aquatic Moss. How to Create a Moss Wall. Create backdrop using aquatic moss. How to grow Aquatic Moss. Info on Java Moss, Christmas Moss, Taiwan Moss, Peacock Moss, Stringy Moss
A similar principle can be used to make squares of mesh that you lay down to make a moss carpet.


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## Donald Hansen

Thanks, that was interesting.

If you look at the mesh in the video you see it has a fairly open weave. That's what I was looking for when I went shopping for it but couldn't find any. That's when I decided to buy the fine stuff and use the soldering iron to burn holes in it. I attached the mesh to an artificial log, the Pleco's home, today when I was doing a water change.

DLH


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## Alaizabelle

I have quite a bit of weeping moss and have never had any luck at all with getting it to attach to anything!


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## Donald Hansen

snail said:


> The mesh is used to make moss carpets and moss walls and can be bought from them by the meter. I think they include it more as a sample to show you the products they sell. I tied my weeping moss around driftwood using cotton thread., by the time the thread rots away the moss has stuck on it's own. It works best if you spread the moss as thinly as possible. Other people use fishing twine, hair nets, elastic bands, superglue, zip ties, plastic mesh, stainless steel mesh etc, it just depends where you want the moss to grow and what works for you.


Sounds like your saying you attach the moss just using thread and no mesh of any kind. Is that correct?

DLH


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## snail

Yeh, I'm sure you could use mesh but it will work fine with just thread.


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## Donald Hansen

snail said:


> Yeh, I'm sure you could use mesh but it will work fine with just thread.


I'm going to leave the moss attached to the log with the mesh for now. If that doesn't work, I'll order some more moss, it's not that expensive, and tie it to the log with just thread.

Here's the place I bought it from. 

Aquarium plants - aquatic plants - Java moss

DLH


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## snail

If you have used the mesh, I'm sure that will work, basically you just need something that holds it down long enough for it to start growing on it's own and it will fix it'self down after that.


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