I had a leaner. A beautiful variegated arrowhead (Syngonium podophyllum). It has grown really fast and was being supported by a table. It was growing too close to the grow light and was awkward and hard to prop up. It has a lot of aerial roots or nubbins as I call them. I decided to make a moss pole and see how it takes to it. I made one a little taller than the plant which now I am rethinking. With how fast it is growing it might outgrow it and then I will get to figure out how to untangle it all. Hmmm.
Materials:
wood stick/pole
fishing line or string
sphagnum moss
water in a fairly large container for soaking moss
new slightly bigger pot
potting soil
twist-ease ties (optional for securing plant closer to pole)
scissors
Might want to protect your surface area as this was a little messy.
The amount of sphagnum moss. I didn't make mine super thick, I had a lot leftover which I used as a topper for some moisture-loving plants. this is my first pole so I might make some changes.
Instructions:
(Depending on your pot and pole/stick size)
1. Place pole in pot and measure and mark an inch or 2 about where the soil base of the plant will be.
Put the pole in the empty pot at the center if you have a younger plant and want to wrap it all around and climb up it. Mine is off-center because my plant is fairly big and I didn't want to disturb the roots too much. Mark an inch or 2 above the soil. I did this to avoid moisture pooling around the base of that plant.
2. Soak the moss in water.
I added Joyfuldirt houseplant plant food. Not sponsored I just really like this product. It goes a long way when I mix it by the gallon. This is just a thing I thought I would try since I have a mounted plant I occasionally do a soak with the same mixture and it likes it.
3. Squeeze excess liquid and wrap the pole with moss in small segments.
I wrung out excess liquid then I took the moss and wrapped a small section all around the pole starting right above/ at the line/mark on the post.
4. Secure moss by wrapping the fishing line around it.
I then took a really long segment of fishing string and tied it right underneath where I started. This is where you can just wing it and start overlapping the fishing line over the moss to hold it in place. There was no method to my mad wrapping just whatever held it in place. I ended up using 3 different strings of the finishing line all in all and tied it down. I would advise 2 layers as I noticed mine dries pretty quickly after 3 days.
Tadah! I used the twisties to keep the plant closer to the pole. The leaves were still leaning a certain way but it looked pretty and well supported. As an update here is a picture of it a week later. The leaves have adjusted positions and it seems it is producing a few more new leaves! Arieal roots have not taken to the moss pole yet but that might be becasue I have not kept it consistently moist. I'll either have to make a new one or get creative to keep up with this plant growth!
-DashinMoments