Do Moss Cocktails Really Work? I Tested 3 Different Methods.

The winter was long and cold. Apparently we haven’t had a winter like that in the last 16 years!

It was beautiful – the frost, the sunrises the deer that came to nibble on young trees and bushes, the birds that sat on the windows with a “I’d like to file a complaint” look when you did not bring the seeds out into their feeder on time.

But at some point I wanted to start some gardening and the ground was under a meter of snow.

So when March was not showing any signs of spring, I decided to grow moss. Because internet is full of those “Moss Cocktails” that you just blend, spray and voila! Weeeell…is it really that simple?

Moss and ferns are my most favorite forest thing…after pines.

Moss is an extremely interesting organism.

They find their happiness in very niche spaces- some only grow on rotting wood, some solely on limestone and others even on deer dung!

A clump of moss is like a mini ecological system – a whole tiny forest with structures that gathers water, holds moisture, provides habitat, feeds itself and goes to seed. Moss is extremely resilient – many can dry out almost completely and stay like that until they get some water – then, they return to life as if nothing happened.

If you’re in a mood for reading, there is a really good book called “Gathering Moss” by Robin Wall-Kimerer which tells a story (Spoiler alert!) of how a wealthy man tried to “restore the native Apalachian habitat”, or that’s how he put it. Kimerer was invited to advice on the mosses. When she arrived she found out that the man wanted to harvest mosses from the forest and put them on the rocks in his garden. Kimerer was there to match the right mosses to the right rocks. When told that they would likely not survive because they require very specific conditions and just transferring a clump, that took years or decades to grow in that particular niche, onto another rock, and hoping it will “take” will likely result in failure, the man did not accept that answer. They would do it without her help if she can’t find a way.

Kimerer was asked to go and was invited to the property a couple of years later to witness the results. The results were amazing. Only till she found out just how they managed to grow that healthy looking moss. They blasted the entire rock pieces off that beautiful forest and transferred the moss along with their growing habitat to the man’s garden.

That illustrates two things – that, unfortunately, money can buy pretty much everything, and that moss is not that easy to grow just whenever and wherever you like.

I have read so many times that you can make all sorts of moss cocktails, spray them on walls, rocks and whatnot and grow a lush moss carpet.

Moss Cocktails On a Large Scale.

With the climate change making a lot of places on this planet too hot to handle (pun intended) there has been some exciting development incorporating moss into buildings. The newest I hear is the development of bioreceptive concrete that has tiny pores which moss can colonize. Once you have a moss wall, when it evaporates water, it would cool down the atmosphere arpound it.

Sadly, it cannot be incorporated just anywhere as moss still needs moisture to thrive and effectively cool the surroundings down.

Since I was a bit bored, I decided to grow moss myself using the widely discussed recipes.

The Magic Moss Cocktail Recipes Tested!

Because it was an experiment, I decided to try them all. Well, all of those super popular I found.

Moss Cocktail 1.

Moss cocktail number 1 was the one you hear about most often – the yoghurt + moss.

I did not have a mixer so I ripped moss into many small pieces and mixed with the yoghurt, then, used a brush to cover the rock with the mix.

Moss Cocktail 2.

Moss cocktail number 2 was conjured after reading comments saying that yoghurt will only grow bacteria, and it is enough to simply mix moss and water. Thus – the number 2 was just moss + rain water applied to a rock.

Moss Cocktail 3.

Moss cocktail number 3 wasn’t a cocktail at all. It was just clumps of moss tied to a rick with a thin string. Some people claimed it is enough to do that.

Since outside was still about -15 degrees Celsius, I created a “moss habitat” at home by filling a plastic storage box with rain water, placed another box with a log on top (so that my rocks aren’t submerged in water) and placed rocks on that. I would cover and uncover the lid every now and then to keep the space humid but give it oxygen.

After a week…

As some said, the yoghurt rock made a cozy environment for the bacteria and soon it metamorphosed into a fuzzy white ball. I removed it from my experiment space as a pretty obvious failure.

Moss cocktails 2 and 3 remained.

I inspected them from time to time to check for any progress and to my dismay, the progress seemed to either not exist or be so small it would take decades before I noticed anything, but winter was long and cold, I had time, so I waited.

After a month…

I waited till spring and till the snow melted, still no progress. Eventually, at the end of March, I moved the two rocks outside and there, they slowly dried with no visible change after a month.

Next time I try to grow moss I will change the following:

Mix the cocktails with an electric mixer.
Grow moss outside

If you’ve had better success, share your tips in the comments!