Hi, my name is Byron Martin, here at Logee's Greenhouses. And today, we're going to be
talking about Staghorn Ferns, in particular, how to mount them from a pot
to a mount, or taking a division off of them and re-establishing them. So, here's
an example of a young Platycerium. This is 'superbum' -- 'Platycerium superbum'-- this is one of
the giant ones that has been mounted on a plaque. Now, this is going to be a very
large plant; it'll grow 2-3 feet across at the base, at maturity. So, this is
going to have to be moved up over time. But, typically-- these are epiphytes--
meaning they grow in the trees; they grow way up in the top of the canopy, and they
stick themselves to the sides of the trees; that's how they grow
naturally. And, so, really, when we're growing these-- there's one that's-- this is
a 'bifurcatum' type, which is the more common one-- but there's one that's been
planted in the pot. It's really not a plant that grows in a pot, like this. It's
a plant that actually grows like this. And, so, from the young plant, which can be
grown in a pot very easily,
we need to transfer these to their more natural habitat. In terms of smaller
plants, like this, we're going to use monofilament line, which is fishing line.
This is relatively heavy; I think this is like a 50-pound test; you don't have
to have quite that strong; 30-pound would do. And we're going to need a plaque,
which is this piece of wood, here. I also have a larger one here for a more
mature specimen. This is made out of cedar; you can make them out of
pressure-treated. There's a couple of other ways to do it, but a plaque works fairly
well, in terms of holding them on. And it's simply nailed together or glued. Have
something as a hanger on the top. This, we use two boards on the side, and so that
it can be hung up. We're going to remove the plant from the pot. And they have a
kind of a dense root to them that is very fern-like; its kind of fibrous. We're
going to peel that down; actually flatten that out, so it can actually sit on the
board. And then we're going to take Sphagnum Moss-- this is long-fiber Sphagnum Moss.
We have it, some water added to it; and we're going to pack it in around the
base of this. And there is a direction that this is going in-- this actually has
multiple plants in it, so there's a rhizome to it. And if you can find that
rhizome, which, is really-- the head lead is right there. There's a lot of little ones. I
would put that up at the top, like this, because that's going to kind of rise up,
like that.
What happens, over time-- this is called the Fertile frond. The Sterile frond,
which is the shield on the back, will come out and cover over your moss;
that's going to happen over time. Right now, this is in sort of a juvenile stage
of growth. And some Platyceriums, like 'superbum' here, they put out a sterile
frond first. Others, they actually start with a little leaflet, or fertile frond,
and then the sterile fronds come later on. We pack our moss in on the top. Now, in
terms of watering this, because you got this thing hanging up in the air, it has
to be watered from the top, and/or soaked. So, we want to leave a fair amount of moss,
like a little cavity, or a flat shelf on the top where we can, if we were watering with
a hose or such things, where we can squirt the water in, so that kind of settles
into there, because, as they're epiphytes, they like to be going from dry to wet,
dry to wet-- more wet in the summertime; less so in the winter time. But that dry-
wet cycle, so the moss can get pretty dry, and when moss gets really dry, it
doesn't soak up water very well, so you need to do multiple waterings of it, if it does
get dry, to really saturate it. So, we take it, like so; we got our moss around
there kinda. And then we're going to take our monofilament line-- and I left a
couple holes, here, at the top. You can tie it off with just tying it together-- the
strings-- but, it's good to start off at some place where you have a good anchor for the
for the line.
And then we're going to wrap it around, and we can catch a little bit of that-- catch a
little bit of that plant, as it goes in there, just to kind of stabilize it. I
like to get right to the base, there, where that original soil was-- that kind
of holds it on together. And now, this line is going to, really, go around and
secure the moss as we are putting it on, because otherwise, it's obviously
it's just going to fall off. So, we are going to go this way and that way.
Monofilament line is not very costly, so you can use quite a bit of it. And we're
going to tie it to the other side, here.
There we go. Now, we're going to hang that plant up in a position, like that. And
very important, is that, if this is in a home, that it faces the window, or at least is
to the side of the window; you don't want it facing inside the room.
The plant will actually reach to the light. You have to remember these really
are upper-story, upper-canopy plants, so they really are not low-light, as we
think of ferns, low-light ferns. These are what we would consider as relatively high-light ferns.
And now, actually, it's going out this way. Eventually, that will kind of come up, and
then those long stag horns will pendulate down, and the shield will cover
over that. As this grows, once the shield is covered this over, or you could leave this
on for a very long time-- just restricts the plant a little bit-- or just simply cut
your nylon fishing line off-- take it off, put it on another plaque; add more
moss to it, and the plant will get larger. And, in time, of course, these things
just envelope the entire plaque that you have them on.