Staghorn fern from spores

I've always liked the look of staghorn ferns Platycerium superbum.  The first one I ever saw was when I was in high school, someone had one on their front verandah, that thing was massive.  I asked about them at the local plant nursery, and was told they could not get one and even if they could it would be too expensive. 

I saw a few massive staghorn ferns in the wild while I was studying at university.  They were perched high up in trees in a rainforest, and were an incredible sight.  

I really wanted to buy one so I could grow it at home, but I was renting and moving house often, so never looked into getting one back then. 

Baby staghorn ferns 

When I was in my early twenties I was rock climbing and found a tiny plant I thought was a staghorn fern.  It had a shield frond about the size of a twenty cent coin.  At the time I didn't know anything about them, so I carefully scraped it off the cliff and brought it home.  This wasn't a good thing to do, I should have left it where it was.  I regret taking that plant, but I was young and stupid at the time.  

It was a long time ago and I don't remember exactly what I did, I think I initially grew it in a pot of soil or moss.  The plant grew well, and I mounted it on a small piece of wooden lattice.  It grew, then produced pups, which I was not expecting.  

Back then I wondered what I was doing wrong to make it divide rather than growing into a single large plant.  At the time I didn't know that there were several species of Platycerium ferns, and this one was an 'elkhorn' rather than the 'staghorn' that I wanted.  

I had that fern for a few years, it grew into a large thriving clump of plants, and I eventually gave it away before moving house.  

I know more about these ferns now, there is some confusion over common names, which is why it is important to look at the binomial name rather than the common name.  

Staghorn fern sporelings

Baby Staghorn ferns in peat pellet

In Australia, the Stag horn fern (Platycerium superbum) produces large plants and does not produce offsets, it can only be propagated by spore (and maybe tissue culture).  

The Elk horn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) produces far smaller plants that divide and produce numerous pups in large clumps, these are usually propagated by division rather than spore, but they can also be grown by spores.  

There are a few other species, some are very beautiful, but these two species are by far the most common here.  To add to the naming confusion, I am told that overseas the common names can be the opposite to this, or in some places the common names can be used interchangeably, and some other species share these common names with these two species, which is all the more reason to pay attention to binomial names and ignore common names.

I would like to grow both of these species, but I particularly want to grow a staghorn (P superbum). 

Staghorn - image from Australian Native Plant Society

Elkhorn ferns - image from Australian National Botanic Gardens

I've almost bought a staghorn fern a few times.  Sometimes I regret not buying one, other times I am glad that I waited.  They are really expensive ferns, and they look so good.  Staghorn ferns cannot be divided, so it feels like wasted money and I'm being selfish, especially if the thing dies.  Then again, if I buy one and look after it, I would have it for basically the rest of my life.  

Then I considered growing a staghorn from spore, that way I could have my staghorn and sell some extra ones to break even on cost.  While growing from spore takes a very long time, and can be very fiddly, I am up for that.  It doesn't help that I am not in their preferred climate.  

Probably the hardest part of growing a staghorn from spore is the fact that getting live spore is difficult.  Plenty of places online will sell dead spore that can never grow.  If I knew someone with a large plant I don't think I know enough to be able to collect spore at the right time, and I would likely still end up with dead spore.  Getting live spore is probably easy if you know what you are doing, but I don't know what I am doing.  

I know a guy who knows a guy that knows a lot about staghorns and elkhorns, and was able to get some live staghorn fern spores and some tips on how to grow them.  I am not sure if I will get a second chance at this, so I really want this to be successful and to end up with at least a few strong plants.  

A good number are growing strong

One way staghorn spores can be grown is by putting live spore onto a moist peat pellet.  This pellet is put in a sealed container to keep humidity high, and kept warm in bright indirect light.  

It takes months for the spore to germinate, for months literally nothing happens.  During this time it needs to be kept damp, but not too wet or too dry, and not allowed to get too hot or too cold.  If all goes well, and fungi or moss does not take over, you eventually have prothalli.  

Fern prothalli look like little liverworts or slime, they are the first stage in the fern lifecycle.  They look nothing like an adult fern, and you are not entirely sure that things have worked yet.  I spray fern prothalli with water from time to time to enable fertilisation.  

After many more months, if all goes well and things haven't got too dry or too wet or too cold or too hot and no moss or whatever has contaminated things, the prothalli grow tiny sporelings.  This is when I first know that things have probably worked and I have not spent months carefully looking after moss.

Once sporelings grow, I get very excited.  They grow reasonably fast at first, then due to competition they stop growing and do nothing.  You can see the spore were put on quite thick, and the plants are far too crowded to grow well.  For months they sit at this stage, still needing care, still threatening to be overrun by moss or fungi, and rewarding me by doing absolutely nothing other than staying alive.

That is the stage my staghorn ferns reached.  They are tiny cute baby ferns just sitting in a peat pellet crowded close together.  

I don't know what to do from here, so I divided some and planted in a seedling tray.  Some were divided into individual plants, others were left in small numbers clumped together.  I'm not sure what is best.

Staghorn fern sporelings planted out

I am pretty much making up what to do from here.  

The internet does not explain how to grow these things from spore.  It explains how to germinate the spores, and I found a few youtube videos on this.  It explains how to mount larger plants, again there were youtube videos and things explaining this step.  But I found nothing on the middle step explaining how and when to divide tiny sporelings that are unable to grow due to over crowding. 

Perhaps the sporelings need to be divided into individual plants and given their own space to be able to grow properly.  Or perhaps my rough handling will kill them and they would do better in small groups where one plant might survive and the rest will perish.  

I have no idea what is best.  So I did a bit of both, and hope something works.

Many baby staghorn ferns

Transplanting the sporelings took me a very long time.  I used my planting tweezers, and gently removed the tiny plants and tried to plant them in little rows.  Some plants were tiny and incredibly difficult to handle.  Others were still very small but seemingly more established and much easier to handle.  Hopefully I didn't damage their tiny roots too much when I divided them. 

I have well over 100 staghorn fern sporelings planted in this first tray.  Some are planted close, others further apart, hopefully I stumble across their preferred conditions and a few survive.  Planting out this took me what felt like forever, and I still don't know if any will even survive.  

Once they were planted, I gently sprayed with water to settle them in and to increase humidity.  Hopefully this helps reduce transplant shock.  

Watering this tray will be difficult, so I left a gap in one corner.  I don't know what is best, and am making this up as I go.  I will be able to spray the plants using a spray bottle, and I can tip water into that corner and it can seep underneath and water them from the bottom.  

Gap in bottom left corner for watering

From here I don't know what to do, and hope I don't kill them all.  I know adult staghorn ferns prefer air movement, but I am guessing they need high humidity when they are so tiny, so I put a clear top over the tray.  

This cover has vents I could open, for now I am leaving them closed.  This should keep humidity very high, which will either be really good or really bad - I don't know yet.  I can open one or both vents to reduce humidity, or I can remove the top.  I have options.

I put this in bright indirect light in my greenhouse.  The light there is bright enough to keep maidenhair ferns alive, but not so bright that it burns them.  I assume this is the right amount of light for baby staghorn ferns.  Again, I have no idea and am guessing.  The greenhouse is a bit warmer than the outside temperatures, so the staghorn sporelings could do ok there.  

It has been a few weeks since I divided these tiny ferns.  Some were a little bruised and the tiny roots were damaged from being transplanted.  So far most seem alive, but they aren't doing a lot of growth.  

Staghorn ferns in covered seedling tray

I also divided some baby staghorn ferns in another seedling tray.  In this one I used a 24 cell seedling thing.  I thought maybe the baby ferns would benefit from fertiliser, so I put vermicompost in the bottom of each of the cells.  Some have more, others have less, the nutrients should be able to wick up into the cell. 

I should be able to water this from below by lifting the seedling thing, and adding some water to the green tray.  This will also allow me to add diluted fertiliser or tea or whatever if needed.  

Again I wasn't sure if the baby staghorns would benefit from being separated into individual plants, or left in little clumps, so I did a bit of both.  I planted 5 individual plants into some cells, and small clumps of plants into the center of others. 

24 cell seedling tray with baby staghorn ferns

Some of the plants were tiny, others were far larger but still vey small.  I don't know which would survive being transplanted better.  Some of the tiniest ones were divided into individual plants, and some of the larger ones were divided into individual plants.  Some of the clumps were only tiny plants, others only had larger plants, while others had a mix.  Hopefully one of the combinations works and at least some survive. 

Again I covered it with the clear top with the vents closed so it would have very high humidity.  The vents can be opened if needed, or the top removed.  I have a lot of options. 

I have a sheltered place on the deck where I grow a few types of maidenhair ferns year round.  This spot gets direct sun in the early morning, and bright shade for most of the day.  The deck may be better suited to growing these staghorns, or they may be better in the greenhouse, or maybe neither will be good.  

I put this second tray on the deck.  I will keep an eye on both sets of baby ferns and move one or both of them if needed.

The ones at this end were divided into individual plants

The ones at this end were left in clumps

I had a few staghorn sporelings that I planted these in a self watering wicking pot that I normally use for African violets.  

These ones will be kept on the kitchen windowsill.  There is not a lot of light here, but it is reasonably bright, and hopefully there is enough light for them.  This will stay cooler over summer, and hopefully be a little warmer over winter.  While I wash up the dishes I will be able to keep a close eye on these ones. 

Staghorn ferns

I put a clear cup over the top to keep the humidity high, and I sprayed it with water just after planting to reduce transplant stress.  I also put a little piece of sticky tape on one end that will prevent the top from sliding off easily, but can work like a hinge if I want to open the top or prop it open to reduce humidity slightly.

I plan to keep an eye on this and move it if they start to look poorly.  At this stage I don't know if the dome will make humidity too high, or if that will be ok for now.  Hopefully if things start to go wrong I can move them or do something before they all die.  So far they look good, but it is still early. 

Clear dome to keep humidity high

Wicking self-watering pot

Baby ferns in humidity dome

I found someone on ebay selling tiny staghorn ferns in little cups for $16 plus $12.70 postage.  This seems excessive considering how tiny they are, then again a lot of work went into growing them to this size from spore, so perhaps the price is justified.  

Perhaps this is a better way to grow them.  If fungi or some contaminate gets into my seedling tray it could kill them all.  Perhaps I should have grown some in individual cups like this so that contaminates do not spread easily.  

Staghorn fern growing in little cups - image from ebay

These things are tiny for the price - image from ebay

I have a feeling that if all goes well I probably have another year until they have tiny shield fronds and start looking like tiny versions of the mature plants, and probably more time after that until are large enough to mount onto boards.  

Perhaps they will grow fast and be ready to mount far earlier, or perhaps this is not the way to grow them and they will all die.  I really don't know what I am doing with these.  Hopefully at least one survives for me long term.  

If someone who has done this before is reading my post, feel free to comment on this blog post or email me (my email address is listed on my for sale page) as I would love to learn more.  I have written this blog post about what I am attempting, and I would love to learn from an expert how this should be done.

As these things are going to take ages to reach a good size I'm still tempted to buy a larger staghorn (and maybe an elkhorn).  They are such incredible looking plants.  Or maybe I should just wait another year or two and see how this goes before spending money on a mounted staghorn.