A couple of weeks ago I made some moss poles for my monstera plants. Below is one of the finished poles.
Monstera adansonii
Plant Nanny
The plants attached to the poles grow in the sunroom that I call my greenhouse because even the ceiling is glass. The heat is excessive in there during the summer, so I run a ceiling exhaust fan to draw air in through the windows and have a ceiling fan running constantly. Because of that, the moss poles dry out rather quickly. The point of moss poles is to give the aerial roots of plants (usually vines such as monstera or philodendron) something to cling to and they need to be kept moist. I’ve been trying to water them from the top and the water runs down the sides and it takes forever to get them moistened. I didn’t want to tear the poles apart so I decided to try a Plant Nanny for the moss poles already made. I found a friend with a wine bottle, and we’ll see if they work. In the two days since I put it in the top of the pole, I have filled it three times and the potting medium isn’t getting wet, so that is a plus. The moss is only moist a few inches down, so I may have to fill the bottle more often. I think it is so hot right now (high nineties all week here in Michigan) that no matter what I do, I won’t be able to keep up. When it is cooler, it should stay moist longer.
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- I’m holding up the Plant nanny to show you what it looks like.
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- Use a wine bottle for water
Enter the PVC pipe
There has to be a better way. I decided to make another pole for a Rhaphidophora tetrasperma ‘Ginny’ and thought of another way to make one. If I put a hole-filled pipe down the middle of the moss pole, I could pour water into the pipe and it would moisten the moss. So I went to the hardware store, bought 1/2″ PVC pipe, caps for one end of the pipe, and outdoor adhesive.
Moss pole supplies including PVC pipe, caps for the pipe, outdoor sealant, and drill bits
Drill holes in the PVC
I capped off the end, gluing the cap with Loctite Stik n’ Seal adhesive so the water wouldn’t leak out the end into the potting medium. I then used a 3/32″ drill bit to drill holes every couple of inches down the pipe. I wasn’t worried about it being perfect. There are no holes drilled on the part of the pole that will be under the soil line but did drill a couple of holes near the bottom so there wouldn’t be stagnant water standing in the bottom of the pipe.
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- 3/32″ drill bit
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- I drilled small holes in the pipe
Adding the PVC pipe
I made the poles the same way as before, but placed the hole-filled PVC pipe in the middle of the pole, surrounding it with the moss. When it starts to dry out, I can pour water into the pipe which will then seep out of the small holes into the moss. I just made this today so the moss is thoroughly wet. I will find out if the hole-filled pipe works when it dries out.
PVC pipe in the moss pole
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- The hole filled PVC pipe is enclosed in the middle of the moss
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- Twist tie the wire together.
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- PVC pipe in the middle of the moss poll
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- Moss pole with the PVC pipe
Will it work?
I hope this works. It makes sense that it will, right? Have any of you ever tried this? Did it work? Let me know in the comments.
Rhaphidophora on the moss pole
Have a great day and let me know if you make any moss poles for your plants.
P.S. If you buy any of the products I mentioned, I may receive a few cents from Amazon as an affiliate. Just so you know. Thanks!
wonderful display with pictures.. i like it.
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beautiful idea. easy to understand with step by step pictures.
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Tried this moss pole and a different version. This works great so far (8/7/20). My husband and I drilled small drip holes in a spiral down the pole and works great watering with a funnel to saturate moss. Great idea for climbers. Thanks for the plan.
Hi Margie, It is working great for me, too! Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it! Keep me updated.
Thank you for share the ideas step by step on how to make the moss pole. We made it with plastic wire instead of the metal ones to avoid rusty in the longer run. Can’t wait to see our philodendron melanochrysum climb up 🙂
Hi Labijo,
I’m so glad you liked it. Good luck with making your pole and I hope your plant loves it! Lisa
This is such a brilliant idea. Thank you for sharing. I was at Lowes deciding on what pipe size to buy when I came across your blog. I have all the materials and am excited to try this but I will be using the preserved mountain moss as I prefer the green moss look to brown.
Let me know how it goes. I think it would be better to use the sphagnum moss for the inside and then just wrap the green on the outside. Hope it works well for you!
Lisa