How to Grow Moss on Rocks, Wood, and Other Surfaces

This article will teach you how you can grow moss on different surfaces by explaining how to prepare any surface, how you can choose the right moss, how you can adhere the moss, the propagation techniques, but also how you can enhance the growth or how to deal with challenges while it establishes, and the last section of the article covers moss care.

1. Creative Ways of Using Moss for Landscapes and Art

Growing moss in your garden or using it for artistic expression can be a rewarding experience. But you want to make sure that the moss will attach itself well to the surface you have chosen. Here are some ideas of how you can use live mosses.

• Designing Moss Gardens: You can use living mosses for moss lawn designs to create green carpets, to enhance rock gardens or you can use it as a living mulch under shaded trees. Ensure that the moisture levels, shade, and PH conditions are within the required range of the type of moss you are using.
• Moss Art: Mosses are often used to create living logos, paintings, moss walls, or even eco-friendly graffiti. You may want to use a moss milkshake to paint the design after you have prepared the surface (see next section). Make sure that the art you have created receives enough shade and mist the slurry regularly to encourage moss growth. You can read in this article about how you can care for the moss.
• Integrating with Hardscaping: Moss can also be used to soften the hard edges of rocks, you can use it between stepping stones, for moss walls, or any other hardscape elements.

After you have chosen the way you want to grow the moss, you can continue to prepare the surface for moss growth.

2. Preparing Surfaces for Moss Growth

To make sure that your moss will grow on the chosen substrate, you’ll have to prepare the surface to ensure that the moss can attach itself for establishment. Mosses attach themself to a surface through their ‘rhizoids’. These are ‘root-like’ structures but are only meant to anchor themselves because water and nutrient uptake is done through their leaves.

This is how you can prepare different surfaces for moss growth:

• Clean the Surface: Remove any debris, dirt (except when you want to grow the moss on soil) and existing vegetation. For moss and bricks, you can use a stiff brush and filtered water (rainwater works too) for cleaning. You may want to be a bit more careful if you want to use a wooden surface.
• Enhance Texture: Moss plants need a texture to grip onto with rhizoids. Rough and porous surfaces are best suitable for adhesion. If the surface is smooth, you can roughen it with sandpaper (in case of a wooden surface) or a chisel (for harder materials). This will make it easier for the moss to stabilize themselves to the surface.
• Moisture Retention: To retain moisture on a (hard) surface, you can use a thin layer of clay.
• Adjust pH Levels: Mosses prefer slightly acidic conditions. If you are working with a surface that is alkaline or neutral, you can apply diluted vinegar to lower the PH.

3. Choosing the Right Type of Moss

After you have prepared the surface, you want to introduce the mosses to their new home. You either buy living moss or move moss you already have growing on your own ground, then replant it in its new home. Do not take moss from land that is not yours: it is illegal on public land in most states and theft from private land without written permission.

Here are the 10 of the most popular moss species for gardening:

• Carpet Moss (Hypnum cupressiforme): Suits moss lawns in moderate to full shade and takes foot traffic once established. Sheet moss is the more traffic tolerant of the two.
• Sheet Moss (Hypnum Curvifolium): This moss is very similar to Carpet moss (of the same genus) and is also a popular choice for moss gardens as an alternative to grass.
• Mood Moss (Dicranum Scoparium): Ideal to add more texture and depth to a shaded garden and is mainly used for decorative purposes. It is appreciated because of its green tufts that look like little mounds or small hillocks.
• Pincushion Moss (Leucobryum Glaucum): This moss grows in cushion-like clumps and it prefers acidic soils and is a popular choice for garden beds.
• Fern Moss (Thuidium Delicatulum): This moss resembles miniature ferns (hence the name) and spreads easily across the floor in a dense green carpet.
• Hedwigia Moss (Hedwigia Ciliata): This species grows well on both soils and rocks and has a distinctive look with its white-tipped leaves.
• Haircap Moss (Polytrichum Commune): A very distinctive moss plant as well because it has a bit of a spiky appearance and grows up and is a bit taller than most mosses. Perfect for mossy rock gardens and borders.
• Sun Moss (Bryum) (Bryum Caespiticium): This moss is also called ‘Sun Moss’ and is more sun tolerant than the other mosses on this list. It grows in dense carpets and is a moss that is often used to grow between pavers but it has many urban applications.
• Sphagnum Moss (Sphagnum spp.): Sometimes confused with ‘Peat moss’ but this is the plant that creates it (Peat moss is dead Sphagnum moss). It is incredibly good at retaining water and is a great choice if you want a moisture-rich environment.
• Tree Moss (Anomodon Attenuatus): As the name suggests, this moss grows on trees (preferably their bases) and adds a mystical look to woodland gardens.

4. Moss Adhesion Methods

Once you have the moss, you want to make sure that it adheres successfully to the rock, wood, or any other surface that you want to use. Here are some tips on how you can improve moss adhesion to the substrate you are using.

• Natural Glues: You can use a mixture of buttermilk, sugar, yogurt, and beer because this can act as a natural glue to help the moss adhere to the surface. These mixtures can encourage mosses to grow well on the chosen substrate.
• Moss Tac: This product is derived from the seeds of a plantego plant (Plantago insularis) and acts as a biodegradable and non-toxic adhesion glue that will fasten the moss to (re)attach to any surface.
• Netting: If you want to grow the moss on a vertical surface or slope, you can use garden netting or burlap to hold it in place until the moss has firmly attached itself. The mesh net allows water and light to reach the moss without it being dislodged.

Make sure to keep the moss moist and give it enough shade during the transplanting phase to improve adhesion so the roots (also called rhizoids) have time to anchor themselves to the tiny crevices of the surface.

5. Moss Propagation Techniques

You can propagate mosses with two different techniques; either through dividing the moss (also called fragmentation) or you can grow the moss from spores. If you don’t want to propagate the moss yourself, you can consider buying the live moss and layer it over the area you wish to cover.

• Division: The easiest way to propagate the moss is by dividing it into patches because, in nature, mosses also propagate through a process called fragmentation. The fragments will grow into new moss plants. Read more about the fragmentation technique here. You can spread out the fragments over the designated area and they will grow into moss plants and over time, they will expand and turn into a closed carpet of moss.
• Growing From Spores: This is a more advanced technique if you collect the spores yourself. It is easier to use a moss milkshake. Spread the spores out over the prepared area and make sure that the conditions are optimal for the mosses to germinate. It might take a couple of weeks or even months until the mosses start growing.
• Layering: The quickest way of growing moss for larger projects (for example for moss gardens) is by buying moss in bulk online and laying it out over the area you are trying to cover. You can read more in this article about how to grow a moss lawn.

6. Enhancing Moss Growth: Environmental Factors

The environment of the area will determine how well the moss will grow on the rock, wood, or any other surface you have chosen.

You can enhance moss growth if you consider the following environmental factors:

• Moisture: Moss plants need a moist environment, which is especially important during the establishment phase. You can keep the area moist by watering the moss with misters, or drip irrigation or you can do it manually.
• Light: Mosses do not need direct sunlight but indirect light to photosynthesize. The light requirements depend on moss species and some want deep shade while others thrive in dappled sunlight. Match the new spot to the conditions the moss came from, or ask us and we will tell you what the species needs.
• Air Quality: Mosses are often used as ‘bioindicators’; this means that they indicate the health of an environment. They are very sensitive to air pollution (especially to sulfur dioxide) so you can not grow them in areas with bad air quality.
• Soil pH: Most mosses prefer acidic conditions and do best on mildly acidic surfaces, though they tolerate a far wider range than most people expect. If a surface is strongly alkaline, wettable sulfur will bring it down.

7. Innovative Moss Growing Techniques

Besides the natural environmental conditions, you can also use the following growing techniques to enhance growth in mosses.

• Hydrogel Applications: Hydrogels retain a lot of water and can be used to make sure that the moss plants receive enough moisture. You can mix the hydrogel beads into the substrate or you can apply a hydrogel solution onto the moss. This can be very helpful during the establishment stage when constant moisture levels are crucial.
• Misting Systems: You can use an automated misting system to provide consistent temperatures for the moss. This can be especially helpful in drier climates and if you grow the moss indoors. These kinds of systems are programmed to mimic natural dew by misting the moss at optimal times of the day.
• LED Grow Lights: If you are growing moss indoors, you can use LED grow lights to provide the right amount of light without the heat stress of traditional grow lights. This can be useful if you are growing the moss in an area with insufficient indirect natural light.
• Soil Amendments: Another growing technique can be experimenting with different soil amendments (for example biochar) to improve water retention but also provide stable PH levels to optimize the growing conditions for the moss.

8. Challenges and Solutions When Growing Moss

There are some challenges whenever you try to grow moss. Especially if you want to replant and grow it onto a new substrate. Moss is a very low-maintenance plant once established but it can die during the growth and/or establishment phase if you do not take care of the moss.

• Drying Out: Moss shuts down and turns brown when conditions are windy, sunny or hot. That is dormancy, not death, and it greens up within minutes of water. What does kill it is being kept permanently wet, or drying out repeatedly while it is still establishing. You can reduce the stress with shade cloth to reduce direct sunlight exposure and by watering it regularly (preferably early mornings).
• Pest Infestations: Although it doesn’t happen often, pest infestations can be a challenge when growing moss. Whenever you see slugs and snails feeding on your moss, you can use natural deterrents such as crushed eggshells around the moss or you may want to use slug baits to catch the slugs.
• Unsuitable pH Levels: If your moss turns black or yellow, light is the usual cause, so rule that out first. Moss does struggle on strongly alkaline ground, which wettable sulfur will correct.
• Competition from Weeds: Weeds can compete with mosses for space and even for nutrients. Be careful with any chemicals because this will kill the moss. Try to use natural products or even hand-pull the weeds if you have the time.

9. Moss Gardening Maintenance

Caring for moss is relatively straightforward but if you are attempting to grow moss on rocks, on an art piece or you want to grow it in a terrarium, you want to consider the following factors to ensure that the chances of success are high.

• Watering: If necessary, water the moss and mimic natural conditions with a misting device and drip irrigation. Do not use tap water because the chlorine can kill the moss.
• Weeding: Hand-pulling weeds is by far the most ‘moss-friendly’ way of weeding. You can disturb the moss with a non-biological approach to fight the weed.
• Cleaning: Clean any debris or fallen leaves from the moss to prevent fungal growth and mold. A soft brush or a gentle stream of water can be sufficient.
• Seasonal Care: After summer, the moss might be dried out, and should make sure that the moss is well-hydrated for winter. During spring you can fill up the gaps to cover dead patches because this is the time of the year that the conditions of the moss are optimal for regrowth or replanting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related reading: Moss and fern burl art · Harvesting Moss from Stone

Pending review by Olivia Milner, practitioner-scientist with a background in sustainability and education.