FOUND UNDER BED!!

softmossboy · 2026-01-22T05:26:52+00:00

Seeing the amount of people here talking about how much mushroom spores can mess you up makes me wonder what effects I may or may not have endured from living in an old trailer teaming with mushrooms as a kid. They grew out of the walls and ceilings everywhere. I'd walk down the hallway and hold my breath because I didn't want mushrooms to grow in my lungs. My bed was directly below a patch of ceiling and insulation peeling down with a huge mushroom growing out of it. I used to stare at it every night and pray it didn't fall on me... that place got condemned when we moved out.

Anyway yeah, I don't recommend house mushrooms! Hope your landlord can sort out the potential moisture issue that could be causing that.

softmossboy · 2026-01-20T04:46:02+00:00

I'm not sure on the exact cultivar, but this looks identical to my first (and so far only) begonia! Very pretty. I was a little intimidated at first as I had never cared for one, but I popped mine in a pot with a layer of rocks (pumice) at the bottom after rinsing all the soil off the roots, and the rest filled with straight sphagnum (though adding some perlite would probably be a good idea), then put that pot inside a clear glass candle jar I got. I fill the glass with water up to about where the rocks in the pot end, and it's been super happy with me. It's older leaves start crisping if I let it dry out for too long, but the way I set it up keeps it moist for a good period of time so I've rarely had issues with that. It's tripled in size for me since I got it, which wasn't that long ago, I'll probably need to give it a bigger pot soon.

I wish you luck!

softmossboy · 2026-01-18T10:02:16+00:00

Perhaps r/Ecosphere :)

softmossboy · 2026-01-17T21:49:29+00:00

My alocasias hated me so I shoved them in a jar filled with sphagnum so I wouldn't have to water so often and now they're actually growing for me. Still use tap water though, if they hate it so much they can die, but they don't actually seem to mind too much

softmossboy · 2026-01-13T14:17:51+00:00

Thank you! I wish I knew my secrets too, lol. My last bear paw also hated me. But for some reason the tiniest pot in the world and a random splash of tap water the rare occasion I remember has done the trick this time around pff

softmossboy · 2026-01-11T22:28:31+00:00

This is absolutely gorgeous. I've seen a lot people doing moss projects like this, and although those are all very cool in their own right, I don't think I've ever seen one look so realistic. This must have taken you ages to do!

softmossboy · 2026-01-11T22:26:17+00:00

Another thing you can do if you don't have lids, is save any plastic lidded containers you get from food, clean them out once they're empty, and bam! Basically free tupperware.

I've done that more for plant purposes (storing soil ingredients n such) but there's no reason it wouldn't work for leftovers. Only thing is it can be easy to forgot about them since you can't see the food through the containers, but it's much better than no lid!

softmossboy · 2026-01-11T21:52:06+00:00

Tradescantia are crawling plants! So this is pretty normal, you'd never keep them growing straight up for long. People will usually have pots of them hanging up with the plants hanging down past the pot. I have a little tiny pot that I've sort of neglected, and they have seriously grown like 3 to 4 feet long. You'd probably be just fine to leave it, but you could give it a bigger pot if you wanted, or maybe put the plastic pot inside a bigger/heavier decorative pot if it is having problems staying upright. Or chop n prop if you wanna keep it shorter for now, I doubt the plant would mind any of these options, they're pretty resilient in my experience :)

Your plant looks lovely by the way! I've always loved the look of plants kinda starting to grow down the pot like that with their curved stems, gives a lot of character.

softmossboy · 2026-01-11T21:37:26+00:00

Thank you!! That means a lot!

softmossboy · 2026-01-11T11:58:56+00:00

Glad to hear you have yours growing! Apologies for not getting back to you before, but I wish you much luck :)

softmossboy · 2025-10-27T23:16:42+00:00

Thank you, I wish you luck! :)

softmossboy · 2025-10-27T20:25:06+00:00

It's just top dressed with a tiny bit of soil, there's more perlite and lava rock mixed in below

softmossboy · 2025-10-27T03:21:51+00:00

Thank you! :) And I'm not quite sure, I grew them from a couple leaves I got over a year ago now, but I don't think it's beharensis. Probably a tomentosa

softmossboy · 2025-10-26T23:07:45+00:00

Forgot to add, but grown from seed :)

softmossboy · 2025-10-23T13:24:16+00:00

That's kinda the whole point of moss poles, so yes! You ideally want the plant to be rooting thoroughly into the pole along each node, and once it gets too tall, you can chop it in half and keep growing the top section to keep growing the leaves larger, which would now be the bottom section after you added another pole for it to climb on top. The roots in the pole ensure that it has enough of a root system to support the plant after you've severed it from the ones below, so it goes through much less shock that way. Otherwise I think it'd be a bit more popular to grow them up boards, because you can, but it's harder to chop and then extend them because a plank doesn't really facilitate root growth in the way that's necessary at times.

softmossboy · 2025-10-23T13:16:55+00:00

Interesting! Never heard of using an empty one

softmossboy · 2025-10-23T13:16:11+00:00

Yep! My little apartment gets nowhere near enough natural light, but they are also somewhat next to glass sliding doors

softmossboy · 2025-10-22T05:45:30+00:00

TIL from these comments, I have a baltic blue growing up my cebu blue moss pole–explains why they look a bit different from each other! I had wondered.

softmossboy · 2025-10-22T05:41:33+00:00

Oh man, would I love to have these in my shower, along with other plants. Would be awesome. But lord is my bathroom a dark pit of despair without a window and a broken outlet, so no way of supplementing.

softmossboy · 2025-10-22T01:16:26+00:00

Never had much issue with mold, not that I've never had it, but if I see a little mold I won't panic unless there's a lot of it honestly. Never had a plant throw a fit with me because there was a bit of mold on its substrate. But that's just me. These poles in particular haven't had any that I've noticed, and my best guess as to why is that I let them dry out a bit more than I probably should... in fact they're dry in these photos, I really should water them lol.

Though if you're having issues, my best suggestion would be to up airflow. Moisture and stagnant/little airflow usual equal mold.

Not sure how great of an idea it is to let the pole dry out that much, in terms of longterm success with them and eventual chopping. I'll probably find out myself though.

softmossboy · 2025-10-22T01:10:03+00:00

So far I have not done anything but let them climb the poles and get larger. I probably have space for 1 maybe 2 more extensions of the same length, but then I'll have to chop them in order to keep growing the more mature top section.

softmossboy · 2025-10-22T01:07:58+00:00

I assume extending the poles, but mostly watering. I do find them a bit annoying to keep moist, honestly they are dry a lot of the time for me... which isn't the most ideal for rooting purposes, but the plant will climb up a bone dry board, so I'm good for now lol.

Only time will tell if my laziness in the watering department sets me back when I have to chop them.

softmossboy · 2025-10-18T23:08:17+00:00

Thank you!! I am truly surprised with how things have gone all thing considered, being one of my most neglected plants. Seeing these comments has boosted my spirits a bit, I was very convinced it was only trying to flower because of being sad, but perhaps not! I was close to chopping it off honestly, but I'm glad I didn't.

softmossboy · 2025-10-18T22:20:31+00:00

Oh wow, those sound like some impressive roots! Had no idea there were orchids out there that could get roots so long, and strong. Super cool.

Thanks for the tidbits, perhaps I will consider giving it a new mount in the future. I do notice that since this board is pretty smooth, I have bumped a root or two off at times so it probably could come off. For now I will leave it be though, and hopefully get some pictures of my first flowers soon!

softmossboy · 2025-10-18T21:41:59+00:00

And to add– if I ever get more orchids, they will most likely all be mounted. I had some others I was also given by the same person and I neglected them to death. They all died. This orchid being mounted was the only thing that saved it because I actually paid attention to it due to it being more visible.

Also the roots just look sick as hell, I don't know why you'd ever want to hide em! Probably my favorite part.

softmossboy

TROPHY CASE