Hurricane Matthew did quite a number on over a dozen old live oak and pine trees at our home on Hilton Head, SC. It took 5 men with chain saws and two Bobcats to clear the area--which used to have patches of ferns. Now we still have a shaded area perhaps 60'x70' with nothing growing visible at all. I suspect some old ferns might return, but is it possible to directly inoculate the patch with fern spores--I see them available online.

I should point out I live 330 miles from Hilton Head and don't spend a lot of time there.

What a shame about your beautiful trees! With the fern restoration, I would advise you to wait until spring and see what comes back first. We're moving into cooler weather, so you really couldn't expect too much to happen before spring anyway, if you did spread some new spores.

It's also possible that the the fern fronds that were mashed or trampled by the hurricane or the cleanup crews will be in the soil c/w lots of spores already.

So sorry to hear about the damage that Matthew did to your property.

I agree with @dyzzypyxxy. I bet a lot of ferns will sprout in the spring.

I do grow ferns but didn't know that you could buy fern spores online or otherwise. Of course one can find all kinds of things online. Do you know anyone who has actually done this? I'm just nosy curious. And the sites that sell the spores - - do they specify what kind of ferns? Ok. I could google it. Would hope that you wouldn't inadvertently be introducing a type of non-native fern. Now that I think about it, I am going to google.

Good luck in restoring your property.