Welcome Tree ferns Cycads Palms Proteas Others For sale

Contact

Tree ferns - growing method

Basic considerations

You’ll need to source fern spores either from commercial sources or from fern societies (see the bottom of
this page). There are pros and cons either way - samples from fern societies can be misidentified or
contaminated with other spore. Some commercially-sourced spore may have been on the shelf for a while,
and hard to germinate. Tree fern spore seems to be viable for perhaps five years, though it is to be
expected that germination rates will be lower as time goes by.

Growing tree ferns from spores is not going to be quick. You will need to be patient, some batches may
take a year or more to germinate and some may fail completely. If you want full-size ferns with trunks
quickly, go and buy some full-size plants! (see links at the bottom of this page).

General method

Sprinkle the spores onto sterilised compost, which needs to be moist. You can, in fact, use almost any
reasonable growing medium, including terracotta chips, bricks etc., but I use a commercial compost. Cover
and leave in a warm (room temperature), well-lit (but not too sunny) place until small heart-shaped leaves
develop (prothalli). Once these reach a size of a few millimetres across, mist them twice a week. The
young ferns (sporelings) should then develop, growing out of the prothalli which then die off. If you forget
to mist, then in most cases, ferns will still develop, as long as the growing medium is fairly moist.

There are some good articles about propagation at the bottom of this page. I suggest you read those, then
I have some additional comments relating to my own experiences.

★ I use ceramic ramekins as containers for growing. These are just the right size for the usual “packet”
of spores. You can buy a box of four of these for five pounds at the bigger supermarkets, they can be
scrubbed and re-used over and over. Seven of these will fit in a standard window-ledge propagator.

★ I use a basic unheated propagator. I tried a heated propagator (12W non-thermostatic) and didn’t get
great results. Most ferns even those from tropical regions seem to germinate fine at room temperature.

★ I have had best results from a windowsill that is west-facing but overshadowed by the house next
door. This location gets very little direct sunlight but is generally bright and warm.

★ I have read somewhere that fern spores need to be sown during lengthening days not shortening, in
my experience this makes a huge difference. Some batches sown late in the year have just not moved
- the problem arising from this is that moss and algae are now taking over the pots.

★ I use a basic “moisture control” compost widely available from garden centres. There is probably a
small amount of peat in this compost, also there seems to be a small amount of loam, but the bulk of it
is fibrous stuff that looks like some type of composted coarsely-shredded bark (not the hard outer
layer of bark which is used for mulching, but the fibrous layer directly below).

Tree ferns typically grow in tropical or sub-tropical rain forest as understorey plants, with their leaves in
a rich layer of leaf litter and decomposing debris that has fallen from the trees above. The “moisture
control” compost is rich in organic material, and while it may be moisture-retentive, its fibrous nature
means that there is also a fair amount of air trapped in the compost, which is essential for good root
growth.

★ Sterilising the compost, tools etc.., is vital, but the spores of mould, moss, algae are floating around
in the air anyway. Unless you have lab facilities, there’s nothing you can do about this. So rapid
germination is going to be important. Spore packets that have been on the shelf for a long time may
(will) be slow to germinate - so mould, algae etc., will take over long before the spores germinate.

★ If batches are invaded by mould, you can try a liquid fungicide, reduced to one-quarter strength by
dilution. Anything stronger than this tends to kill the prothalli.

★ The growing medium needs to be damp, but not saturated. If using ceramic ramekins, you will need
to watch the watering carefully as it is easy to overdo it. You could drill holes in the bottom of the
ramekin for drainage, but it is very hard material to drill. If your propagator is not completely airtight,
they will eventually dry out, which is immediately fatal. Prothallii don’t have anwhere to store reserves
of water to withstand a drought (they have no stems or true roots).

★ I have had good results from sealing the propagator completely round the edges with sticky tape.
The propagator then keeps the moisture in for a long time, meaning it needs to be opened less often,
and there is no chance of the pots drying out.

★ Be prepared for some batches to be taken over by Cyathea cooperii. This is a strong grower and can
out-compete many other tree ferns if it is present. Cyathea cooperii is a great tree fern to have - so
this may not be a complete disaster, depending on your point of view.

★ Once the spores have germinated, the prothallii will start to grow. At first these can look like moss,
but don’t throw them away until they are big enough to be sure. The pot below is doing well, the
prothallii are well spaced, which means the young ferns will not be too crowded.
 prothallii are well spaced, which means the young ferns will not be too crowded.

A close-up will show just how thin and fragile these are, they are so thin as to be almost-transparent:

★ Once true fronds start to appear, I wait for the new ferns to reach a height between 3 and 6cm
before potting on. I find that below this size they are difficult to handle without damage, and the roots
are not well-developed. For potting on, I use the same fibrous compost in small plastic pots (old
individual yoghurt pots with holes for drainage cut into the bottom). The pots are put into a propagator,
watered to the point of being moist but not wet, and the propagator vents and and lid sealed with
sticky tape. I have had no problems at all with mould or fungus using this method (which is similar to a
terrarium approach) and I find that the sealed propagators can go a long time without needing to have
water added.

Several months after germination:

Several months after going into the propagator:

★ Hardening off: After the ferns are too tall for the propagator, I pot them individually and keep them in
plastic bags. after a short setling-in period, I cut off the top corners to allow drier air into the bag -
small holes at first and then progressively bigger. You do need to move onto the ventilated stage fairly
rapidly, because if the fronds are in contact with the wet plastic bag for any length of time, mould can
attack. Once the fern sends fronds out of the holes, it’s time to cut off the top of the bag completely.
At this stage there will still be a humid micro-climate inside the bag compared to outside (condensation
may appear on the bag from time to time). A few weeks after cutting off the top of the bag, it is time to
remove it altogether. You may at this stage get some die-back of the smaller, tender, first fronds, but
 the newer, bigger ones that were poking out of the top of the bag should be fine.

Methods that didn’t work

The traditional method of sowing the spores onto damp terracotta pots didn’t work at all for me. Also,
proprietary sowing and potting compost didn’t work very well. Peaty, fibrous compost is my favourite at the
moment.

I have done some experiments with coir. You can get germination and successful growth of new ferns in
this medium, but it sems slow compared to the fibrous compost. On the other hand it may be more
resistant to mould. The jury’s still out on this one.

I have seen an example of good growth on an old, porous brick, but I haven’t tried this method.

Contrary to poular belief, it is possible to over-water tree ferns, at least that is my experience for some of
the sporelings shown on these pages. Cyathea australis for example has been particularly prone to crown
rot from over-watering. Cyathea robusta seems particularly prone to grey mould growing on the fronds if
they are damp. The problem is that in habitat, high humidity will still be accompanid by some air
movement, but in a greenhouse or plastic bag the air can be completely still.

Having said that, I now treat the newly-potted sporelings as a terrarium planting, I put them back into a
propagator and seal all joints with sticky tape. Oddly enough i have had almost no problems with mould by
doing this, even though in principle it should be an ideal environment for it. It’s almost as if the ferns are
naturally resistant to mould once they reach a certain size.

Sourcing spores

If you discover a good spore source that I haven’t listed here, please let me know (using the Contact
page). I am particularly hoping to find a source for Cibotium menziesii.

Commercial spore sources:

B and T World Seeds
Seedgarden.net
Sandeman Seeds
Wild Seed Tasmania (good selection of Blechnums)
Trebrown used to sell mostly Palm and succulent seeds but have now moved into ferns

Fern societies (usually have one issue of spores per year):

British Pteridological Society
American Fern Society
Fern Society of Victoria

Propagation method
Raising ferns from spores
Propagation from spores

Back to Tree Ferns main page