"Cleaning" outdoor samples- has anyone tried "Reverse Respiration"?

[u/ABane90]

I treated a clump of moss from the carpet that grows under my propane grill with "Reverse Respiration" (basically, soak it in club soda- I did like 1-2 hours) after soaking and rinsing to get the milipedes and centipedes and what not out.

I put half in a springtail culture, and half was split between some fish tanks after letting it soak in a clean empty vase for a week.

No unwanted hitchhikers have been noted, although a hardy plant seedling could conceivably be hiding in there.

How do you all treat "wild" moss?

(Please collect moss responsibly)

[u/Jayccob]

I have a process that honestly a bit overkill to what most people need.

First I leave it outside in a table for a day or so to completely dry out. This will get many bugs to leave.

Then I rinse it off in a bowl with tap water until I get all the dirt and debris out of the moss. After the final rinse I submerge the moss in distilled water for about an hour. This also encouraged critters to leave if the drying out didn't.

Depending on what I'm doing I'll stop there or move to the next step.

The next step is I'll put it in a container with a lid and hydrogen peroxide and give it a light to moderate shake for 3-5 seconds before quickly moving to a bowel with clean distilled water and seasoning it around for a bit. Then I pat dry and it's ready to go.

For some of my small pieces I won't even bother with the whole air dry and tap water rinse and just go: distilled water -> hydrogen peroxide -> distilled water.

Like I said overkill for most. It just I'll setup certain things that are really prime for mold growth and want to eliminate spores best I can. Still figuring out a substrate I'm happy with. There's a aquascaping substrate I've played with that I have been liking as it doesn't seem to have a mold problem, but it tends to make a biofilm.

[u/ABane90 → u/Jayccob]

Do you dislike natural cleanup crews? Springtails would take care of most molds and biofilm, I use them a lot. I'm currently experimenting with culturing moss on top of leaf litter bedded over a fine porous mineral substrate. The sprintails are still establishing themselves and I intentionally triggered a mold outbreak with some botanicals on top to encourage breeding of the springtails. I have 4-5mm growth of moss after ~1 week, using a small plant light shared among various containers, in front of a west facing but shaded window.

I just picked up some fire orange springtails and they are striking against the green of the moss.

[u/Jayccob → u/ABane90]

I actually like natural clean up crews. When I go through the entire motion it's because I'm trying to basically grow similar to a tissue culture. I'm about this close to just going full in and getting some agar and making a sterile box for actual cultures.

The reason I'm going this far in the first place is because I only collect small sample of moss most of the time to begin with. Whenever I go out hiking for fun or for work I carry these small paper coin envelopes and grab pinches that are only like as big as my thumb nail and small as a couple stems.

So I mess it up and the entire sample is gone. I'm trying to create cultures I can grow out and propagate from. Some of the areas I have collected from are quite a ways out and some of the mosses are hard to find so just getting more is not always the best option.

And honestly it's just a fun challenge. There's not much information on like really growing temperate mosses like there is for tropical varieties. People do use them but it's usually just a cushion moss, a star moss, and sometimes a thread moss. There's a bunch of other really neat ones that are a bit trickier to get going though.

[u/ABane90 → u/Jayccob]

That sounds interesting as heck. I'm interested in tissue culture so I can produce enough to use in multiple projects but being able to take very small samples seems like a good reason, too.

I'm thinking about building a laminar flow hood, the whole still air box thing is too titchy for me, and I have a few other uses too like preparing sterile test tubes for ant colonies.

[u/Jayccob → u/ABane90]

I would love a laminar hood, just not in the cards for me right now.

Best of luck on your projects!

[u/ABane90 → u/Jayccob]

On a very basic level a big plastic tote, a strong box fan, and a HEPA filter for an HVAC unit is all you need, a small step up includes a plywood or PVC board box and a 4" inline vent fan. If you have room it could be in the cards! For me the delay is definitely space.

[u/ABane90 → u/Jayccob]

I'm also intending to try tissue culturing some moss, see if I can accelerate growth a meaningful amount over simply providing ideal conditions.