Bought live sphagnum moss

[uveequis]

I bought some live sphagnum moss to mostly cover the soil or try it as a soil. It was advertised in the web store with the following pictures:



And this is what I got:



Is this normal when buying live sphagnum? Will it get green if I use it as it is covering a pot like this?

[Not a Number]

Feb 17, 2016 7:56:19 GMT uveequis said:

I bought some live sphagnum moss to mostly cover the soil or try it as a soil. It was advertised in the web store with the following pictures:

And this is what I got:

Is this normal when buying live sphagnum? Will it get green if I use it as it is covering a pot like this?

The top layer in your first photo is live, the bulk of what is in the tray in your second photo probably is not. There are a few green "heads" in there that will grow. The bulk is unlikely to grow but there may be propagules within that might spring to life. I would say that batch was over harvested if they stripped it down to dead layers beneath.

You can cover the dead stuff with dense clumps of the green moss which will grow out to cover the pots. The secret is to keep it moist and dense clumps will hold water better.

[hcarlton]

If you ordered live sphagnum, either it got baked on the way to you or they sold you a batch of moistened dead long fiber sphagnum with a bit of live stuff mixed in. Anything green (or perhaps red)will grow and eventually make for a decent topdressing (though this may take a while), and the rest is a good soil ingredient for things such as Nepenthes (I prefer peat moss mixes for Sarracenia and such myself), but most of what you got looks to be not what you ordered for.