Irish Moss Seeds

This is one of several seed packets I got from this company this year, and I’ve had excellent luck with all of them. I definitely plan to purchase more Irish moss of these ones! (Go to bottom for growing tips.) I had bought one Irish moss plant from a local nursery a couple years back and realized it’s strongly perennial in my growing zone (8b), perfect for a shady east-facing area I have that only gets morning sunlight, and it even happily thrived through periods of snow cover in winter and an entire summer of neglect. Instead of dying, the neglected moss just stopped spreading so I hadn’t realized what an adorable ground cover it can be until this year. Plants are too expensive, so I’ve been starting everything from seed this year. I knew I’d have an easy time with pumpkins and sunflowers, but Irish moss??? The seeds are minuscule specks—you need a steady hand or a very tiny spoon or something to mete them out into peat pots. And definitely don’t sneeze! After they arrived and I really got a look at them, I decided there was zero chance this was going to work, and even if they germinated, there was NO way I could keep them alive long enough to grow and get established before winter. However, the germination rate on these seeds is high, and I actually find the seedlings MUCH easier to care for than, say, your average windowsill herb kit. The compact height makes everything a cinch: there’s no risk of them getting leggy and tipping over, or needing a deeper planter for their root system, so you can stick a peat pot of moss into just about anything—a plastic cup, bonsai planter, yogurt container. I now have several plugs of moss thriving, and several more growing in intermediary pots. I also made a bunch of mistakes and killed some other moss plugs, so I compiled a list of tips. Hope it helps! =========== Growing tips: TL;DR: Start indoors in high-humidity setup, preferably with a lid. Once you have seedlings, let them get more air circulation. After planting, you may need to water multiple times a week, possibly daily. Keeping them in pots for a few weeks helps them get more established before putting them in the ground. No hot afternoon sun, ever. Water next to the plant, not directly on it—your garden hose can easily demolish a baby moss. Huge temperature fluctuations (40-50 degrees F) seem fine, but could stunt the already slow growth of young plants, so consider keeping them indoors longer if you can. - For germinating: Make your life easy and start them indoors in a plastic growing tray with a clear lid (to keep in humidity) and a grow light. I scheduled my grow light to be on 14 hours a day and had it at a moderate distance (pendant light hanging 2.5 feet above the tray). I’m sure a sunny windowsill would work for people with bright living spaces, but my apartment is dark. You can probably also use a lot of other setups with common household items to avoid buying a Jiffy tray/peat pot kit. An old aquarium would work, and even a storage bin or plastic lunch tray with thin layer of peat moss or coir and loose saran wrap cover might work. If you do use peat pellets, keep in mind that I noticed the off-brand ones mold over QUICKLY (within a day) if you leave the humidity lid or cover on for even a little bit too long. Also, don’t try growing larger plants in the same tray/batch with the moss—even lupine and poppies will sprout and shoot up extremely fast by comparison. You’ll need to remove the lid for them to continue gaining height, while the moss might have preferred an extra day or two with higher humidity of the lid. They love moisture, but if you just add extra water to the drip tray to the point of them being water-logged and having standing water, it forms algae quickly. There’s a balance of keeping them damp but not soaked—you’ll figure it out. If you’re afraid of overwatering the tray and can’t drain it easily, get out a squirt bottle and start misting. Once you have sprouts, keep the lid off permanently as long as they’re situated in a place without drafts. (If you use a windowsill but then have the window open for ventilation at night, I’d consider putting the seedlings in a bathtub overnight.) - For getting new plants established: Mature plants are hardy, young ones are fragile. Seems obvious, but it’s more true of these little guys than others. Even with daily watering, misting, and lovingly putting mulch around them, 80% of my moss plugs died or diminished over several weeks when I had rushed to plant them. The summer heat was just drying out seedlings too quickly, despite the location being out of direct light. Instead, I started putting the seedlings into intermediate pots/containers with potting soil and setting them on my front porch for a few weeks before planting. They’re still exposed to heat, wind, cold nights, etc. and are just a few feet away from where the other ones died, but they can retain moisture much better in a little pot. I do not go through a hardening process with them, they just go outside and are fine as long as you don’t skip a day watering. Oh, and one day out in direct sun? They’re dead. I had put a very healthy plant in a container with some pumpkins and false shamrock—as long as the leaves of other plants shaded the moss and I watered that container daily, it thrived, even in extreme heat. The second I rotated the container to move it out of a walkway… The moss was exposed to direct sunlight and it was brown and dead within a day. Likewise, I tried breaking off clumps of my established plant, hoping to hasten the spread. Instead, most of my clumps died. They’re simply too fragile to break apart and stick back in the ground, even in the right conditions. It seemed infuriating that the established plant is SO sturdy by comparison, but it is what it is. Another issue was watering the young plants with a stream of water that was too strong (again, NOT an issue with the mature plant—that thing could be pressure washed and be fine). The garden hose pulverized a few moss plugs, even on a gentle “Shower” setting. Only use “Mist”. Even the watering can was too harsh. I started a new system of planting around a flat rock, then watering only the rock. Let the water run off in all directions to get the soil wet. For containers, only water the dirt around the edge of the pot. From now on, I will keep growing the young plants indoors with the grow light for another month or two. Because I wanted reclaim my kitchen space and rushed the first batch outdoors, I had worse results. Now I’ve got a system down and look forward to the moss takeover of my neighborhood… ===========

I literally received the tiniest bit of what looked like black dust . The seeds weren’t even plantable they were literally dust. Not worth the money & not even plantable

The one draw-back to planting is that the seeds are TINY.... like hair shavings. Tiny. To plant I gentle raked the soil around a bit to make a more penetrable surface for the seeds, then got the soil thoroughly wet... then VERY carefully spread the seeds by putting my finger into the tiny wax paper bag (inside the packaging, seeds are packaged again in a wax paper bag about 1 inch x 1 inch), allowing a few seeds, some times more, to stick to my finger,I then dusted the seeds on to the moist, roughed up soil. I do not press the seeds in or water after for a day or so. Honestly, I was worried I would wash away the seeds. Every little patch I have done is sprouting up and looks great. If you DO NOT have a green thumb and cannot purchase live plants for whatever reason I would suggest buying a jiffy greenhouse tray (with the potting soil disks) and starting your plants inside. The greenhouses are great because you pour water in the bottom (between the dehydrated soil disks) and put the lid on. The soil says moist but not soggy because the clear plastic lid drips the condensation back down into the plants. I have order this product at least 3 times, a couple packets each time, and while - because the seeds are so very very small- I cannot say whether 80% or 100% germinated, but I absolutely feels I've gotten my money's worth. THIS IS TIME CONSUMING. If you do not want to be bothered with planting, you can find live/mature plants at nurseries in spring but they go quickly and one 3" pot runs about $6 in Washington, DC, where I am.

Waited weeks, still no sprout. Will try again when weather improves.

I know several people have had trouble with this product, so I kind of wanted to do a step by step of things I did to get decent results. Some background info: I am doing a lawn replacement. I have a huge area to cover and I've been working on this for the last three years or so. If I was going to start over from the beginning (hindsight 20/20), I would lay down a thick weed/ground cover, cover the top with a few inches new topsoil, and then seed. This would work a lot better then what I ended up doing, but it's too late to go back now! Anyway, I bought the seeds to try and fill in more of the gaps between the full plants that have been growing for a couple of years. -Buy more than you think you need. These seeds are very small as some of the others have said, and 10,000 is normal seed packet size. If you are going for a large patch, buy triple. If you are just looking to have a small space covered one packet will probably be fine. -Cut the seed with something to give it more volume and equal spread. The company recommends sand or lime, I didn't have either, so I used cheap flour. This has the added bonus of being super easy to see where the seed has been spread. -Choose the right time of year to seed. After watching this plant for a couple of years it always seems to have the best growth in the spring when it is cool and damp outside. It does not like hot dry weather, so I would say spring or fall is the best bet. -Don't let the seeds dry out once they've been planted. Make sure to keep them moist. If you used flour to spread them like I did, I water until I can't see the white from the flour anymore, and then make sure to go over the area every day it doesn't rain with the hose. -Bare ground is best--as with any seed planting, tilled bare ground gives the best results. Try the keep the area as weed free as possible while the moss is starting. -Don't plant all your seeds at once. I've been spreading my plantings out every two weeks so I can see which areas need more love or didn't get fully covered the first time. I am definitely seeing new growth come up in places it wasn't before during the two week time period, but it may take longer depending on the conditions. As I said, I chose this time of year (march) to plant in my area (pacific northwest) based on the behavior of the plants I have in my yard already. -As with any ground cover, full coverage takes time. "The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps!" Anyway, I hope this is mildly helpful. I'm not a garden expert, but I've been working with this plant for a little while and I haven't been experiencing the trouble that others have with this product (other than 10,000 seeds fitting in a teaspoon, which was a little weird). I've got tiny little cute patches of moss starting after the first packet, and I just threw down the second one today. Happy planting!

Only one of the 10,000 (doubt this is even correct) seeds sprouted. One... The quality is so horrendously inconsistent, and the cost for these seeds is so high. It's really disappointing. The seller also has it set that you have to return the item for a refund (you can disable this as a seller). They are just hoping enough friction is created by Amazon on their behalf so there is no return. You cannot exactly pickup each seed from the ground and return it. Either way, steer clear, this seller 'acts' like they are a small independent business, but clearly, the independence they have is from the money they take from us. Reviews seem to validate this, the consistency is all over. So, this may be due to poorly stored seeds (who knows how they're kept), really cheap seeds, etc...

It would have been helpful to know that these seeds are the same color as dirt and smaller than salt, or sand or just about anything I can think of--there is no way to measure only '5-10' seeds for each cell, basically you have to dip your finger in it to get some on the tip and then flick them off and HOPE they land in the cell of dirt. And who knows how many if any actually get in each cell. So far, being kept in a cool environment of less than 72 degrees, with a grow lamp and near a north facing window, and keeping it moist but not soaked (spraying only, not watering) still after almost 2.5 weeks there is no sign of anything. it wasn't expensive so it's not a total loss if I couldnt get to grow---but due to the problems with the color and size of the seeds, i don't know that i even got any in the dirt as I said, so had I know what these would come like, I wouldn't have wasted my $.

I wasn't going to get this 10,000 count seed packet of Irish Moss after reading all of the terrible results that some have had with the. I've been culturing moss on my property for many years and always wanted lush Irish moss wherever I could get it to grow. I am a certified MOSS LOVER!!! I did this a few years ago also and just tossed seeds here and there, expecting them to "take" and grow moss. Well, I was disappointed as I checked in on the moss paths that really showed no progress, even weeks after doing the "seed toss". In the fall, many months later, I found patches of moss all over the place and was thrilled that it was just a matter of waiting for it to get going. Freshly thrilled, I came back to my buying history and found the same Irish Moss supplier, bought the 10,000 seed pack and got back to "seed tossing" this spring. This time, I designated a patch so that I would know for certain that it's the moss I purchased and here we are 2.5 weeks in and they are sprouting!!! I'm so happy about it that I took my DSLR out in the rain just a few moments ago and made a rainy day video of the growth progress which I am sharing with you now. What others say is true, the seeds are ultra-tiny and 10,000 seeds seem like nothing at all, though I did enjoy sharing with friends that I had "planted 10,000 moss seeds today and am I ever tired". Literally took me five minutes, from opening packet to finishing spreading the seeds. Seeing is definitely believing and rainy days just go so well with moss. I plan to grow this patch until the moss becomes dense, then cut out segments for transplanting later on. This patch is in direct full day sunlight. Part of my slow growth problem before was that I was seeding woodland pathways which I am needing to mow down less and less as the moss spreads, but there was a lot of shade. We get very cold and long winters and this stuff will endure. I hate it when I damage some patch of moss with my tractor when doing trail maintenance, but am also happy to find that it quickly fills back in where there is a bald patch. I definitely recommend outsidepride Irish Moss Seed. Start them when it's damp and cool and you'll begin to see the brown earth turning green! Five Stars for sure!