Fern sporing

Friday 2nd November
Weather: Rainy at the start then sunny with that very bright low light at this time of year.

The other thing we got up to yesterday was sow some fern spores (see spores collected in Fern Expedition post). It was like working with a magic dust. We used a no. 1 soil mix with extra peat which we filled approx.  3" plastic pots with.



First we sterilised the soil by putting several layers of kitchen towel on top of the pots, secured by an elastic band like a lid. And poured boiling hot water through it once. We did a load of these and waited for them to cool down, keeping the paper towels on them. When they had cooled enough, we removed the tops and took a small spatula of fern spores and sprinkled them evenly over the surface as possible. When that was done we put plastic bags over them which we secured with an elastic band again. The important thing was to work in the most sterilised way possible - clean pots & workspace, constantly wiping your spatula so as not to cross contaminate spores.

These will be watered from the bottom once a year. From February - May we should see signs of growth. We did two pots for each type of fern.

We finished off planting the Hemerocallis trial bed today and dug out even more rows of our stock plants to fit the rest in.