I went looking a couple of days ago for some chopped spahgnum moss.  What I found was a bale of Fertilome Sphagnum PEAT moss.  Did not look at all airy enough for a rooting medium.  It might work for air layering. 

Someone tell me what I should be looking for and where I might find it.  I thought spahgnum moss and peat were two different things.

Ox

Hi Ox, I see it at Lowe's and Home Depot all the time here. It's usually inside where the orchids and small tropicals are. The cactus mix,orchid mix, african violet soil, etc. is usually there too. The peat is what is used in regular potting mixes and for amending soil---not what you want. You want the sphagnum moss like what is used to line wire hanging baskets. I've never seen it for sale chopped---you'll have to do that yourself. Hope this helps! Stay warm.

Tim

Long Fiber Sphagnum moss is the live plant that has been dried before shipping.  Sphagnum peat is the dead and decaying plant that is found beneath the living plant.  Texture is very different. 

LFS is better used for rooting cuttings and peat is better as part of a potting mix.

OX,

Mosser Lee, Millston, Wisconsin, is one company selling long fibered Sphagnum Moss. They have a website that explains about SM. You can google them if you want more information. Its not necessary to purchase this particular brand. Sphagnum Moss is readily available here in the NE. A small bag goes a long way and is realatively cheap. Hope this helps.

Peg zone 6

Folks, the only long fiber S. Moss I can find is at Lowes and is in small bags no larger than a four pound sugar sack.  If I buy that I want the large industrial size. 
Ox

That's the size I'm buying, and also from Lowes.  It's made by Mosser Lee.  One bag is enough to mix 50/50 with another medium and fill about twenty 20oz cups.  The bag costs around $3.50 or so.

I gotta say, I know there is a lot of controversy at GW right now about rooting, but with mine, I really wanted to see my sphagnum moss 50/50 mix work wonders, but I'm having a better rooting experience with 50/50 mix of perlite and Fafard 3B (similar to Ultimate Potting Mix, aka "UPM").

SM is pretty expensive here. Slightly bigger than brick size
is C$7.50 per compressed bag. For rooting I did not chop
them. I wrung them after soaking in water & mixed with perlite.

Try your local mom & pop nurseries that might grow a lot of their own plants and hanging baskets. One of my local ones have a huge bag(loose, not in a brick) for like $35 that they use for hanging baskets. They may be able to order it if they don't have it. You'll never run out of SM if you buy one though.

The bag of SM I bought is labled 432 CU In (7L). It is a rather small bag but more than enough to start about 40 cuttings with quite a bit still left in the bag. I don't chop or cut it. I do not mix the SM with perlite or anything else nor do I use it in cups. I simply use it it for rooting with great success.

Peg zone 6

Oxankle,

You can find 3.5 cubic feet of long fiber sphagnum moss for $20.75 (shipping weight 30 pounds), here:
http://www.morgancountyseeds.com/Pottingsoil.html

This is the location I purchased my big bag.  I picked it up rather than having it shipped since they are about 2 hours from me (mid-Missouri) and I needed a day off and enjoyed the drive and did other shopping along the way in Amish territory.  That was mid-Dec. before the snows.  We have some drifts five feet deep here.  My husband dug a path through the deepest one for the sheep to get to the water tank.  Glad we won't have to carry water anymore.

Thanks, Liz.
Ox

I have also had a hard time finding larger quantities of the Sphagnum.  Most places that had it, only offered it in very small bags.  It is amazing to me that when I call local nurseries asking if they have Sphagnum (long fiber moss) they immediately tell me they have it but it turns out that it is almost always Sphagnum peat.    Locally (around the Kansas City area), I found that a place called The Grass Pad carries it, but only in the spring time and ended up finding a large package of it at a very old garden supply store in Kansas City called The Planters Seed (there was even some confusion between the peat and the long fiber moss when I arrived, but it turned out that they had a large package of it).

Ingevald,

Maybe I missed it somewhere but why is it that you're chopping the sphagnum moss up in the blender?

My most humble apologies, Miss Elizabeth.   
I did not mean to offend.  I have a little granddaughter named Elizabeth;   it is just too much of a mouthful for me and she has become Ellie.  When her mama is annoyed wth her she becomes "Elizabeth Claire!!!!!"
Ox 

Saxonfig - 

Oh, okay ingevald. I see your point now. You're doing some experimenting with the sphagnum because of its anti-fungal properties.

I've actually had good success using the sphagnum. I sort of did a combonation of Jon's baggie method with a little sphagnum twist. I simply moistened some sphagnum, formed a loose rectangle on my work table, and kinda 'rolled' the cuttings up in it. Then I just tucked it into a bag very much the same as the other method. The cuttings didn't experience any major mold but I don't think there was too much difference between it and the newspaper. They seemed to root about the same.

The one thing I did notice though was that the roots in the spag seemed to grow up towards it more than they did the paper. Why? Not sure, but maybe seeking the nutrients the sphanum offered - ?

I also considered trying another version like this; Place a cutting in a clear cup and simply tuck some damp sphagnum in around it. You could then set the whole cup down inside a bag and seal it. Or use an old aquarium as a humid house like I've been doing. I haven't tried this specific, spag/cup, method yet but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

As for finding large qtys of dry long-fibered sphagnum moss in your area. You usually have to start with one of the larger nurseries in your area. If you're forutunate as I have been, maybe you have a local horiculturist who would either sell you some or order it for you. There is also a local university that has a pretty good horticultural program and they have several greenhouses near town. I'm sure if I was in a pinch they could help me find some. Maybe in your town too(?). The other option would be to find it online as moshepardess mentioned above.

Here is a pic of how I laid out the above mentioned sphagnum rectangle to "roll" the cuttings up in:

Sphagnum is the coolest thing since Chocolate Milk. Byron I also did the 50/50 chopped long fibered sphagnum & Perlite with great results the best part was when going from cup to pot the mix just falls apart not damaging the roots since its so light in weight but yet keeps enough moisture and great Aeration think thats the word im looking for lol.

Fellows:
I see that we have been working on all sorts of rooting mixes.  Al says Floor Dri will work fine, lots of us use vermiculite or perlite or a mixture of the two.  Now we hear about Sphagnum moss being the cat's meow.  UPM and ordinary potting mixes are working for some others.  Others stick the cuttings in the garden  and don;t bother them again until the next Spring. 

I talked to a nurseryman last spring who started single node fig cuttings in styrofoam cups of potting mix. 

If UPM and plain old potting mix work, why are we bothering with anything else?
I am doing a bit of experimenting; if potting mix works why on earth would we go to the trouble of concocting these exotic mixtures of rooting stuff?  I suspect it is the "Santa Clause is Coming" effect. 
Ox

Ox,
I'm with you. The easiest, less costly, best results, using what is on hand is for me. As Nelson said, Long fibered SM right out of the bag is the coolest thing since Choc. milk!

I had a small bag of SM sitting in the garage for a year, or more, cost $3.50 and goes a long way,  plus some used bake goods containers scheduled for recycling.

Also, perlite is in short supply around here and MG potting mix has gnats, and the baggy method produced mold and constant attention.

My lazy way, throw a few handfulls of wet Long Fiber SM in a clear container with the cleaned cuttings, close the lid. No additional care or additives.

Viola! no mold and roots in a short time. 
Peg  

I dug up a few pictures from early last season in SM the long stuff with scion rooting and for the heck of it i tried another in those expandle peat cups which are just a flat disk you soak in warm water and it expands it has a netting on it to keep it from falling apart . It worked well for me. I wanted to note i just always use plain water to rinse them off and then i root them which seems to be not common thing to do on the forums but thats just me.

Got to admit. You're right Ox. After all, fig cuttings are relatively easy to root when compared to many other types of trees & shrubs. Thing is, nurserymen everywhere get those much harder to root plants to shoot out roots all the time. Granted, some of them take some specialized effort, but do-able nonetheless.

Consider this. My neighbor who gave me some fig plants & cuttings, "planted out" a whole row of cuttings in his garden last year. Out of about 20 cuttings I think he said he had only about 3 or 4 that didn't come up. Now every time I drive by his place I glance over there and see that row of fig TREES in his garden.

I've also had similar success already. Dogs or somthin' had broken off a couple of branch tips from the small trees I have outside. Without even cleaning up the broken end by trimming it, I simply stuck them in cups with a mix of Fafard 2B & perlite. I then placed them in my fish tank/greenhouse with the rest of my TLC'd cuttings. They are both now showing roots & growth.

I also stuck one of my Marseilles VS cuttings directly in this mix after it spent some time in a baggie. It was showing some initials so I guess I shouldn't be too suprised that it now has leaflets on it. It's not in a clear cup so I can only assume the roots are growing too.

Here are some pics just 'cause I enjoy sharing them. The Marseilles VS is the one mentioned above.
Check out those aggressive roots on that other one. That one is where I stuck a couple small ctgs of some EBT in a used styrofoam coffee cup. EBT sure don't seem to be shy about rooting at all.
All 4 of the Stellas I've potted up so far are looking really good. I'm happy with my results up til now. I just hope I don't do somthin' stupid to mess 'em up. Time will tell.
Enjoy!    

Dang;
This is like courting a girl for weeks and then having her ask  "What took you so long? 

I have some extra cuttings.  Some are going in the garden, some are going in potting mix.  All I have is Miracle grow; I will bake it to kill any g-nats.  (But I have some special cuttings coming, I think, and they will get the VIP treatment.)

Ox

Folks,  Geroysoutlet on e-bay has 7+ quart bags (432 cu inch) of sphagnum moss for sale for about $6 US.  His sale closes on Friday.

I just bought two bags to ship to me in Canada.  Still the cheapest way to get it for me, short of waiting for spring, and then heading out to the peat bogs at some expense and discomfort (black flies, mosquitoes, and a possible soaking).

John, I bought a bag of SM from LAMBERT yesterday. This company is from Quebec. It was retailed for about $6.80 Canadian. I got it at Home Hardware. Its 10 Qts/11 L. The pack is labelled as "Floral Moss". Its website is http://www.lambertpeatmoss.com. Tel no. is 1-800-463-1313.

Initially I was apprehensive as to whether it was SM. So I checked out their website and it said the pack was SM. Packaging is pink.