Its also great as mulch in large or small potted plants Ann. Florists used to use it a lot before Spaghnum in the past. You've already seen how I use it as Christmas decoration on our Florida forum.

Gotta Love Spanish Moss!




I have a lot like you Ann. Most of it comes from my back yard.


When you used the word "fiber" I knew you know how it composts. It becomes black tough little hairs like a woman with long black coars hair cleaned her hairbrush. Fiber is fiber! I do use it in my soil too.

Here is the vanda with huge, knobby, 3/8-1/2" diameter roots growing through the Spanish moss. I have thrown in a couple of other plants, one in a mesh-pot and the other mounted, that have a good bit of healthy tillandsia growing symbiotically over and adjacent to them. I have several dozen mounted/potted tropical plants with moss growing happily.

I apologize for the not so great pictures. My orchid GH is just so jammed with plants I can't get well-positioned.

Beautiful! I think I'm going to go harvest some off of that neighbors Crepe Myrtle! Maybe it will give the tree a chance to recover!

There you go. Doing a good deed!

Fab Dawg!

Yes, I'm aware of how florists used to use it & it is/was used for more things to. See my comment:
Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)

I also have a very healthy respect for the chiggers that live in it. I've had my share of chigger bites in my life & avoid them at all costs. Generally the only way I handle live spanish moss is at the end of a long stick. You guys can happily play with the stuff all you want --- I'll stick to my stick thank you very much.

Red bugs live in Spanish moss? You have got to be kidding.

Everyone who lives in the South knows that!

I'm going back to the compost bin; see you all later!

I heard about red bugs in Spanish Moss on ATP before. I never had any problems with it myself, so I did a little research. I found several site that suggest that this is false or at least not likely. Any moss the is infested with red bugs, was most likely gathered off the ground where the bugs live.
Here are several links to pages that say it is not true. The first link provides the most authoritative information.

"It’s a common misconception that they live in Spanish Moss; they actually live in the undergrowth surrounding the trees that support the moss, said Nancy Hinkle, an entomology professor at the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology."

http://www.caes.uga.edu/applic...

http://www.eattheweeds.com/spa...

http://www.examiner.com/articl...

I agree Jay. When we were kids we used to cover ourselves in it like swamp thing and hide in the woods to jump out and scare each other. We never had any reactions at all, and I still don't to this day

I had often heard of it as well. DH called them chiggers, and swore that they infested Spanish Moss. But then again, he also swore that the moss was a parasite, which of course we all know is not true. Thanks Jay, for doing the research on this…Interesting stuff!

I sort of thought there were no red bugs (chiggers) in Spanish moss, but did not know, since I had never heard of that before. I've lived in the South for 70 + years and I know that when I go out into the fields or sit in grass, I am likely to get red bugs. I ultimately have to use some of my wife's clear fingernail polish to do them in. I handle Spanish moss all the time and never have gotten any red bugs on me.

Thanks for the info, Jay. Just one more thing not to have to worry about, draping my tropical plants with Spanish moss.

Horntoad said:I heard about red bugs in Spanish Moss on ATP before. I never had any problems with it myself, so I did a little research. I found several site that suggest that this is false or at least not likely. Any moss that is infested with red bugs, was most likely gathered off the ground where the bugs live.
Here are several links to pages that say it is not true. The first link provides the most authoritative information.

"It’s a common misconception that they live in Spanish Moss; they actually live in the undergrowth surrounding the trees that support the moss, said Nancy Hinkle, an entomology professor at the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology."

http://www.caes.uga.edu/applic...

http://www.eattheweeds.com/spa...

http://www.examiner.com/articl...

Sorry for reposting this. I wasn't trying to force my thoughts down anyone's throat. I was trying to correct a spelling error and appearently hit quote instead of edit. Which is why I should stop posting when I first wake up, or am in a hurry to get to work.

Good links all.

Queen Ann's lace!
Now that chigger territory!

I'll take a box of moss to!
Every time I'm down that way I say I'm gunna snag some and then feel bad for attacking nature and I back off...

Mother Nature produces plenty of it (and as you have read, sometimes too much) and it is renewable.

Yea well I've managed 2 trips in the past ten years!

I'm currently if the thinking that, instead of wasting money in trips down, maybe I should save up for one more...and bring everything I own with me!

I. E. Move to the gulf coast!

Come on down!

Will Spanish moss grow up here in Maryland (Zone 7)? I would love to use it in the hanging gardens that I'm starting to build this year.

Rick