Make Your Own Moss Pole

I've always wanted a moss pole to grow my philodendron on. They're naturally epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants) so attaching them to a moss pole mimics their preferred environment. Other plants that would love to grow this way are syngoniums, some hoya, dischidia, and anthuriums. You could wire orchids onto the pole as well as staghorn fern and bromeliads.

What you'll need: wire mesh, tin snips, long fibre sphagnum moss, work gloves, safety glasses, potting soil, pliers, bandaids, patience.

I couldn't for the life of me find sphagnum here so I ordered it online. It came in a little bag, looking a lot like cheap plywood, and about as thick. Wow!  It really puffed well when water was added!  One little flat piece made twice what Hubby's hand is holding in the picture below. I found it at Stokes Seeds.

We happened to have wire mesh thanks to some recent renovations to the pigeon coops. My husband was kind enough to wrangle it into a tube for me.

He cut the wire in a way that the ends made their own twist ties. He made the wire into its circle and then he used the pliers to fold the long pieces of wire over nice and tidy.

Once we had the tube made he cut the bottom bit into 3 sections and folded them out so they'd fit in the bottom of a pot. We covered those ends with rocks for stability.

We then filled the pot with soil. Then we filled the tube with the wet sphagnum. We didn't put the sphagnum all the way to the bottom of the pot, just to a bit below the soil line.

The two philodendrons I had were growing in hanging baskets. Those aerial roots were becoming a bit of a pain. They were potted into their new home and I tied them up to the wire with a bit of yarn. They don't look very pretty now because we had to bend them a bit but they'll fill in in no time at all and I'll have a beauty of a plant growing happily on a moss pole.

Hubby thinks we can keep the moss damp just by spraying it. I'm not so sure. I think I'm going to insert a small plastic bottle with a bunch of holes in the bottom into the top of the pole, I can fill the bottle with water and let it drain slowly down into the moss.

I hope you can give this a try. It was a nice little project that took only a wee bit more than an hour and 2 bandages.