How and when to fertilize moss

When we talk about gardening, we will find people who want to eliminate moss at all costs, and others who want to grow it to give a different touch to their garden. That is why in this post we will give two approaches, one on how to use fertilizer for moss, something highly sought after by that portion of gardeners who seek to grow it. And another section where we will address ways to eliminate it, sometimes using specific fertilizers.

1. How to grow moss

For those lovers of moss, who seek to give it the best conditions for it to reproduce and grow healthy and strong, I will dedicate this first section to you. Here we will see the most important points to keep in mind when growing moss.

• Location: The ideal place for moss development is one with good humidity and little direct sunlight. Although sometimes it can grow in sunny areas.

• Soil: they like quite acidic soils (pH between 5 and 5.5), preferring also that they be clayey. Condition that improves water retention and therefore maintains hydration.

• Watering: freshly planted it is good that you water daily, this will help better growth ensuring that the transplant survives. Once about four weeks have passed, the frequency of the reigo may decrease, although it should always be kept moist. The ideal system for moss irrigation is with a low pressure sprayer.

• Reproduction: the simplest way is to propagate by division. Remove 6 cm pieces of moss and plant them separately, covering the space where you want them to spread.

2. Best fertilizer for moss

As you may have noticed this our blog is called fertilizerfor.com, of course this makes it clear that we like to talk about fertilization. Reason why we will begin to explain ourselves on how to carry out the fertilization of the moss, leaving for the end to analyze how to control or kill it.

If it is able to thrive on such hostile surfaces as a rock, a tree trunk, the sidewalk in front of your house, you can imagine that they do not need large amounts of nutrients to survive. And it is that the moss works as a filter that captures everything that the water can leave it (salts, nutrients). It can even accumulate polluting particles in an urban inhabitant and transform them into nutrients.

However, in conditions of little rain and very infertile soils, it may be good to apply some organic fertilizers, especially to control the acidity of the soil. Two of the organic and homemade fertilizers that are best suited to moss are milk-based fertilizers and compost tea.

Both will give you small amounts of the most important nutrient for moss, which is nitrogen. At the same time, to help you bring the soil to an ideal acid level between 5 and 5.5. In the next section we will see how and when to apply these cheap fertilizers to your moss.

4. How and when to fertilize moss

I just mentioned two homemade organic fertilizers that are very easy to apply to moss. Below I will describe step by step how you should prepare each of the fertilizers to use.

First of all, I must remind you that when it comes to fertilization, it is preferable to fall short than to exceed the dose. Especially in plants as sensitive to excess nutrients as moss. Keep it in mind and never forget it. 😉

4.1 Milk based fertilizer

Step 1: Get a sprayer of water, we will use it to apply this moss fertilizer.

Step 2: Make sure the sprayer is properly sanitized. We don’t want to apply any foreign chemicals to the moss.

Step 3: Make a mixture of skim milk and distilled water. This mixture should be composed of 7 parts of water and one of milk.

Step 4: Pour the mixture into the sprayer and shake until completely homogeneous.

Step 5: Apply this fertilizer by spraying it on the moss during the spring. Do this when the temperature is above 15 ° C in the morning and after noon.

4.2 Compost tea

Step 1: We will need a sprayer again. So keep it on hand for when we’ve finished making our compost tea.

Step 2: Get a burlap bag and fill it with compost. It must be well fermented.

Step 3: With your burlap bag full of compost, take a bucket and put about 7 liters of distilled water in it. Then tie the bag to the top of the bucket to let the compost soak in the water.

Step 4: Let the bag sit in the water for about 20 days. In that time you will see that the water must have taken on a somewhat yellowish color. If it is too dark yellow, dilute the mixture with more water until it is quite light.

Step 5: With the compost tea ready, pour it into the sprayer. It is ready to apply on the moss during the spring. Compost tea is rich in nitrogen, so one application every 30 days will suffice.

5. Fertilizer for moss control

Not everyone likes to have moss in their garden, I would venture to say that nobody likes to have moss in their lawn. So it’s time to start talking about how to control its growth and, if possible, exterminate it.

If you want to kill two birds with one stone, there is the possibility of buying an anti-moss fertilizer, so you will fertilize at the same time that you control this “pest”. These lawn fertilizers can also generally be used to remove algae and lichens from lawns and prevent the occurrence of some fungal diseases.

Depending on the brand you can find variations but they usually come in formulas with nitrogen and a large amount of iron sulfate. A composition of 6-0-0 + 26 Fe would be a useful composition as an anti-moss fertilizer. The ideal time to carry out this procedure with anti-moss fertilizer is between the months of February and March.

Once you buy this fertilizer, please read the instructions for use carefully. There you will have clearly explained what are the necessary doses and the regularity with which you should apply it on your lawn.

5.1 How to Kill Lawn Moss

Controlling moss with anti-moss fertilizers is not the only option, there are other alternatives. Perhaps the best way to avoid its appearance is scarifying the lawn. You can do this with the help of a rake. Once the scarification is finished, the surface can be sanded, thus reducing the acidity.

The key to the sandblasting and scarification procedure is to give the soil conditions adverse for moss. By reducing the acidity, it aerated the grass avoiding the formation of areas with high humidity. This should be done in the rainy season.

Another method of controlling moss on your lawn is to directly apply iron sulfate. A dose of 30 gr / m2 is usually indicated. You will see how in a couple of days the moss will have been killed, at that time carry out the scarification process as mentioned in the previous paragraph. This prevents the moss from growing back.

A homemade trick that will allow you to kill moss is to treat it with soap or detergent. To do this, make a mixture of two tablespoons per liter of water. Put the mixture in a spray bottle and apply it to the moss. Once the moss is yellowish, you can use a rake to remove it.

6. How to propagate your own moss (video)

We have already discussed how to use moss fertilizer and also how you can control it. But before finishing the post, and as we always do in this blog, we will end with a video (from the SerpaDesign channel). In this case, you can see how the moss propagation takes place so that you can later transplant it wherever you want.

There is no question that this video is for moss lovers, not those gardeners who have trouble getting it off their lawn.

And with this we can end the article. I hope it has been of your use and that you have no doubts.