Recently a friend brought me a Masdie in a 4" clay pot, growing in Sphagnum moss, which is not thriving. He waters it daily. The surface of the pot seemed wet enough but it felt lighter than similar pots I have, also in moss. I asked him if he waters until water physically runs out the bottom hole. He stated that he did not check for that as the pot sits on a bench.

We took the plant to the RO unit and slowly added 1 1/2 drinking glasses of RO water before it started dripping out of the bottom hole. By then the pot weighed twice as much as before. He was flabbergasted!

SM soaks up a tremendous amount of water before it is truly wet. One must ensure that water drips out of the MIDDLE of the bottom before concluding that adequate watering has occurred.

If you do not check for this, take a large plant growing in sphagnum moss in your collection and see how much water you need to add before it drips out of the bottom. You may get a surprise. One word of caution: Not all plants like to be that wet, I'm specifically talking about cloud forest plants in the Pleuro family who do thrive in this moist environment.

Nick