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Don’t Know How to Use a Moss Pole? These 5 Ways Will Help You!

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If you aren’t already familiar with a moss pole, we will start by elaborating on what a moss pole is. You must have seen those tall upright columns stuck in planters and pots around the plant vines. These stakes are called moss poles.

A moss pole can be considered a gardening tool that helps your vining plants and creepers to stay upright, provide physical support and grow upward. In nature, many tropical plants, e.g.,

Monstera, like to climb upward on other plants to get sunlight. When such plants are grown in gardens and indoors, they often start growing and falling in all directions because they don’t have anything to climb on.

A moss pole can allow you to train your wild plant to grow in a narrow upward position to be a better fit for smaller spaces. If your plant vines are falling in all directions and your garden is a mess, we will teach you how to use a moss pole and how to DIY a moss pole!

How to Use a Moss Pole
Am I using the moss pole correctly with the monstera? – via Reddit

What is the Function of a Moss Pole?

Before diving into how to use a moss pole, let us tell you the function of a moss pole and why you need it. Your plants are thriving, and their growth is healthy, but now their leaves are running wild and flopping all around and taking over your whole space.

So now you ask, what’s the next step? Now is the time to support your plant with a moss pole or a trellis.

  • We all need to lean onto someone from time to time, and so do your plants. Your plants, just like you, need a healthy support system to grow better and thrive. Moss pole provides this support for plants.
  • Moss poles also help to train the growing habits of your plant and allow them to grow in a direction rather than growing all over the place.
  • Moss poles allow the aerial roots of plants to grow and attach to themselves and provide them with micronutrients to help sustain their growth.
  • For many plants like aroids, such as Monstera, the contact between the aerial roots and moss pole can trigger the growth of mature and larger leaves.
  • The moss is absorptive and enriched with nutrients, so keeping it moist can help mimic a more humid environment for your tropical plants, which prefer to grow in higher humidity.

Where to Get a Moss Pole?

If you are looking for moss poles for your plants and don’t know where to get one, then we’ve got you sorted. You can easily buy a moss pole of your desired lengths and sizes at any nurseries nearby.

If you prefer online shopping, you can buy some good moss poles here. Are you cost-efficient and like a good DIY project just like us? In the following tutorial, we will explain step-by-step how to make your moss pole.

Items You Need

You’ll need the following items to create your moss pole.

  • A wooden stake or bamboo stalk (anything that won’t rot)
  • Sphagnum moss, sheet moss or coconut fiber
  • Strings (twine, jute, fishing line)
  • Scissors
  • A container to soak your moss

DIY Your Own Moss Pole

Follow these simple steps to create your moss pole and enjoy your DIY project.

Step 1: Gather All Required Material

Collect all the materials mentioned in the above list to make your moss pole. How much material you need depends on the size of your plant.

Shorter stakes with thinner diameters are ideal for small plants, while plants with larger sizes, such as Monstera, require a bigger stake with a thicker diameter to support them.

Step 2: Soak Your Moss in Water

Place your moss in a container of fresh water and soak it for 15-20 minutes. Remove after a while and squeeze it to get rid of excess water.

Tip: You need damp moss, not dripping wet moss, to work.

Step 3: Assemble the Pole

Now take the stake and tie the string at one end of the pole. Take your moss, wrap it around the pole, and cover 70% of it with your moss, leaving the last 1/3 of the pole bare. This part will go inside the soil.

Hold the moss in place with one hand start wrapping the string around tightly downward, diagonally. Once the moss is held in place tightly, tie your string at the bottom and secure the moss.

In these 3 simple steps, your DIY moss pole is ready to be used in your garden.

How to Use a Moss Pole 2
Made a mini moss pole for my monstera! – via Reddit

How to Use a Moss Pole

After understanding everything you needed to know about the moss pole and learning how to make your moss pole, it’s time to dive into how to use a moss pole finally.

These easy steps will help you with how to use a moss pole.

  1. Measure how tall is the longest vine of the plant. It will help you establish how much taller moss pole you need to support your plant properly.
  2. After buying or making your moss pole, it’s time to soak it in freshwater. After soaking for a few minutes, gently squeeze the moss on the pole with your palms to get rid of excess water.

The moisture helps the plant attach to the pole and provides water to aerial roots.

  • Now insert your moss pole in the soil of your pot so that it is positioned at the center and the base of your pot.

Tip: while inserting the moss pot, take care not to damage the plant’s roots.

  • Now start wrapping your plant around the moss pole with the help of twine, and don’t tie it too harshly to avoid damaging the stem. Do so while considering the nodes of the plants and ensuring they’ve good contact with the pole. It is where the new adventitious roots will grow from.
  • Voila! You’ve done it. You’ve learned how to use a moss pole. Now your lovely plant is ready to climb up.

Maintenance Tips for Moss Poles

  • Keep your moss pole moist by spritzing some water or just running down some water along the pole while watering the plant. It’ll provide water for the aerial roots, and the tropical plants also appreciate the humidity.
  • As your plant grows roots and binds with the pole, you can remove the twine.
  • When your plant has outgrown the moss pole, you can extend the same pole by binding a new pole at the end instead of buying another one.
  • When your plant has outgrown its pot, replant it with the same moss pole in the new container.
  • Be very careful if you remove a moss pole because if the adventitious roots get damaged, it can seriously affect your plant’s growth.

Conclusion

Your creepers and trailing plants were flopping all around, and you didn’t know how to manage them? Well, now you do! Now you know how to use a moss pole properly, create it, and everything it takes for its maintenance.

We hope this article helped you manage your growing creepers and trailing plants and support their large leaves for proper growth. Do share your feedback with us in the comments. Happy Trailing!