Successfully grow ferns from spores

interested in growing fern from spores. willing to puchase from grower

Gosh, I hate admitting this, but it’s true. Well, I’ve learned a lot, especially that it’s easy to get ferns started, but difficult to get them hardened off. I’m not going to do this again now, but at some point I’ll try again. It sure makes me appreciate being able to buy a fern for a few dollars.

One friend gave me a Narrow-leaved glade fern, Diplazium pycnocarpon, a couple of Silvery glade ferns, Deparia acrostichoides, some Bulblet ferns, and Fragile ferns. Another friend bought a Fancy fern, Dryopteris intermedia, and a Goldie’s wood fern, Dryopteris goldiana, for me. Then a third friend and I rescued some Sensitive ferns. So, even though my propagation efforts were not successful, I have some new ferns thanks to friends.

My little fern babies are growing up. I put the containers they were sowed in outside a couple of days ago. They seemed to survive that OK, so today I started putting them in individual pots. I have a terrible track record with growing anything in a pot, so my fingers are crossed. If all goes well, they can go in the ground in September. More likely it will be next spring as they are only about an inch high now. I never found the recommended fertilizer, so I’m sure my little ferns are not maturing very fast. But they are still alive!

The photo in the previous entry is the fern tray that I got at the propagation workshop I attended in July. The large ferns at the back were sowed by the instructor prior to the class.

This photo is the Maidenhair fern that I sowed all by myself in August.

Finally – it’s working. I now have lots of tiny baby ferns. At least that’s what I hope they are; there’s green. I’m sure that I also have other “stuff” – fungus or something – and I hope that doesn’t kill the ferns. They tell you to sterilize the “soil” that you sow the ferns on. Obviously I didn’t do it entirely right. Anyway, I’m excited.

Here’s the list of fern spores that I’ve got started:

• Royal fern, Osmunda regalis
• Fancy fern, Dryopteris intermedia
• Marginal wood fern, Dryopteris marginalis
• Silvery glade fern, Deparia acrostichoides
• Log fern, Dryopteris celsa
• Narrow-leaved Glade Fern, Diplazium pyncocarpum
• Mountain wood fern, Dryopteris campyloptera
• Northern maidenhair, Adiantum pedatum

A professional fern grower would get hundreds of ferns from what I’ve sowed, but I’ll be happy if I get a few. This is very much an experiment for me.

• patience – it takes 1 – 2 years from spore to garden
• attention – you have to really look at the spores to determine when they’re ripe, the moisture level in the growing medium, the prothallium to determine when to separate them, etc.
• discipline – keeping the light and moisture right over such a long period and keeping everything as sterile as possible