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Lygodium palmatum from spore

Bill & Harvey,

Judith Jones is very good, but this is a little trickier than her general
advice. I think the main thing is that the plant is very sensitive to lime.
It is native to the same areas that ericacious plants are found. It's
requirements are the same.... poor, acid soil, with woodland humus. I lost
mine with drain off from a lawn that had been limed and fertilized. I would
start the spore in a peat and perlite mixture. Most of the 'peat-lite'
media have lime added, some have fertilizer and other materials. I usually
sow the spore on the surface splitting it between two containers. This is
just my form of insurance because I do not disinfect the spore. I have
never had it climb, it just sort of scrambled over neighboring plants. If
you have "hard" water, you have a problem. You may have to water with
distilled water and then hope you get enough rain so that you don't have to
water a mature plant. Incidentally, Lygodium japonicum is easy, both in
spore and in culture. This one thinks it is a morning glory! In the deep
south it is a really bad weed. In my area, most of the spore do not have
time to mature, and it is not really hardy below 7a, 6b with protection. I
have it growing on an arbor dividing the back garden. Just thought it would
be interesting to walk under a fern arbor. Here, it is choice and unusual.
I don't even try to convince friends in Louisiana or Florida that it is a
nice plant. Lygodium palmatum is of course much hardier, and never a
problem, other than getting it to grow. We work really hard to improve our
soils, and then try to grow a plant that will die if it is treated with
tender loving care. There is some kind of message there, but don't think
I'll explore it... . Nancy

>We recently purchased spore of Lygodium palmatum (Hartford Fern) from the
>New England Wildflower Society, and were wondering if anyone on the list
>has experience with raising this from spore.  Any tips or pointers to this
>specific genus/species?
>
>So far, we are following Judith Jones general advice on raising ferns from
>spores.



Nancy Swell		| "I have the receipt for fern seed"
505 Baldwin Road		|  "I walk invisible"
Richmond, VA 23229	    USA	|          Henry IV, Act 1
Zone 7 - min. 0 (-18 C), max. 100+ (38 C), NARGS, AFS, BPS, HPS, RHS
swell@erols.com
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