I've realised that I could really do with a few ferns in the garden to help my planting along, and figure they're the sort of thing people tend to chuck on the compost heap.. so.. if anyone fancies popping any in the post, I'll happily pay postage / swap for some seeds etc. etc.
(I'd be grateful for anything, but I'm especially after a few hart's tongue ferns. Will also happily accept other plant rejects from your gardens/lotties - I'm fed up of having empty spaces but the student debt's currently nagging away at my planting budgets..!)
Ta for any help,
Melanie
Melanie,
I've had fun growing ferns from spores. Harts tongue are very easy. What I did was collect fronds with ripe spores on the back, like stripes of brown velvet on Harts Tongues. Put the fronds between a fold of plain paper, and leave in a folded newspaper the dry a bit, and they then shed the spores onto the plain paper. You then use you microwave to sterilise some old used potting compost and let it cool down, and put in a seed tray with a layer of sterilised crushed brick (just bash an old brick up with a hammer until you have grit like granules). Water the tray well and dust on the spores, and cover with a plastic propagator lid. It will go green all over, then weeks later you will start to see tiny fronds emerge from the green coating, and when big enough these can be pricked out like normal seedlings into new compost with added leafmold.
The timing depends on when the spores are ripe, as they are best sown fresh.
Brian
Ooo, many thanks for that - I hadn't realised it was as easy as that to grow from spores. Will definitely be giving it a try. :)
Melanie
Propagating from spores is fun, but there is another easy way you can use for certain ferns eg Polystichum setiferum (soft shield fern). You can simply pin down a section of a frond in compost and keep it in a humid atmosphere (Eg under plastic or glass) and wait for new plants to start growing.
For the hart's tongue ferns, rather than waiting until summer to collect spores, you can also propagate them by digging up a plant and then peeling off the 'dead' leafbases. Where they attach to the plant, you'll see a green bit. If you plant these leafbases in compost (again in a humid atmosphere ie plastic bag over the pot), the green tip swells and over a few months will grow into new plants. Kind of hard to describe!