Maiden Hair Fern
- Lea
- Jul 21, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 4
Maiden hair fern has powerful but superfacial roots. The roots can grasp them firmly on brick / rock but they do not go deep in soil.
Please check the following video.
It shows how they live in natural environment. It prefers vertical surface ( rock, brick) with little soil. Its roots grasp firmly on rocks and it does not require large deep pot. In moist days, they grow quickly and die in hot and dry days. Hope this post helps you understand it well.
This is a piece of maiden hair fern on a shadow brick wall I taken years ago.
There are lots of rains those days. Weeks later when I visited this spot again in summer, they are all gone.
Next years in the rainy days, they came back.
About maiden hair Q&A:
1. Q: What is the substrate of planting it in terrarium?
A: dry moss or soil (any, gardening soil or clay soil) It is not picky about soil.
2. Q: Why my maiden hair fern leaves die several days after I transplant it, what should I do?
A: When you transplant it, the leaves do become yellow easily (for you may damage the roots or sudden environment changes). But it does not die. Please cut the dead leaves and days later new leaves will grow out.
3. Q: In your video, you just fix the maiden hair fern with dry moss on the vertical glass panel, will it die?
A: Maiden hair fern is a "vertical-living" plants. I posted the natural environment of the wild maidenhair fern. They live in group on the brick walls, in the shade side, with just a sheer layer of soil. In fact, they need little soil. In fact, the best way to grow them is to stick them on the vertical glass panel with red clay soil. I did not do that for I am worrying they will destroy the moss wall.
To restrict its roots, I insert its roots with dry moss in a drilled hole lava rock.
Here is a video showing how to trim it and to what extend you can trim.
How to plant maiden hair fern so they can be a best condition?
in a terrarium. Please check this one. The maiden hair grows quickly and you can see the changes day by day.
with a basin or pot that contains water. I do not use the terrarium since planted because the box deshaped. This one is placed on my table.
By the way. You can remove the glass cover. This is the most easy and low maintenance way to keep maiden hair fern.
It grows well. To be updated.
I moved recently, and the red lava stone cluster I had glued together broke. At first, I thought about taking it all apart, but I couldn’t bring myself to remove the creeping figs and moss that had spread over it. So, I left it as it was and continued caring for it, watering it every few days to keep the volcanic rocks moist.
Soon, I noticed green leaves sprouting on the stone. It turned out to be Adiantum (maidenhair fern). Yesterday, when I cleaned it up, I saw that Adiantum had completely taken over the volcanic stone.
I've had Adiantum plants for a while and often find new shoots in different moss terrariums. But this large spread is rare. Half of the stone is covered by creeping figs, and the other half is now taken over by Adiantum.
This shows two things:
First, Adiantum loves moist stones as a growing environment.
Second, the easiest way to propagate Adiantum is to grow one plant, place some porous stones soaked in water nearby, or even add some moss to your nearby plants pots. Over time, you'll find Adiantum seedlings growing in the moss or on the stones.
Adiantum prefers shade and moisture, just like many other shade-loving plants like ferns and begonias. You don’t need to do much to encourage moss growth—it’ll naturally appear. If you want faster results, you can collect some moss from outside when it rains.
Adiantum propagates through spores, so if you create the right environment, it will naturally settle in. Now, I have Adiantum growing all over my office and balcony.
I
Comments