We hear mixed reviews on this as a substrate, mainly for RF's (particularly Cherryheads) as they seem most sensitive to shell rot(s). Sphagnum acidifies its surroundings by absorbing cations (charged elements in the soil, usually Ca, Mg, Al, etc.) and releasing Hydrogen ions (H+). In fact, pH is simply a logarithmic scale pertaining to the number of hydrogen (H+) and/or hydroxide ions (OH-) within a media - I'll stop here to keep from tumbling down the rabbit hole.
To the point: Has anyone ever tried to increase the pH of sphagnum moss by inundating it with cations? I'm thinking you could exhaust it's cation exchange by simply immersing the moss in a aqueous solution while adding an excess of cations.
If the answer is no, that no one has tried it, I'm going to pick up some lime and litmus paper and do some experimentation.
To the point: Has anyone ever tried to increase the pH of sphagnum moss by inundating it with cations? I'm thinking you could exhaust it's cation exchange by simply immersing the moss in a aqueous solution while adding an excess of cations.
If the answer is no, that no one has tried it, I'm going to pick up some lime and litmus paper and do some experimentation.
