Fun with Ferns

Like finding a Mythical Pokemon (actually better than) growing ferns from spores is one holy grail of gardening. Over a year and a half ago my birds nest fern ( Aspendium Nidus) went all out and produced tons of spores on the underside of almost every frond. So I decided to try and grow my own plants from spores. I carefully removed a few fronds, aged the spores in a brown paper bag, then sprinkled the spores on a bed of peat recently cooled from being treated with boiling water to kill anything that might germinated and interfere with my gametophytes (later to become sporophytes).  

For over a year and a half I have kept the recycled plastic container on my kitchen windowsill and misted it ever day or so with water from the little red spray bottle that also resided on the sill.  My cat sitter probably thought I was crazy to ask her to mist a cup of 'dirt' while we were happy to let her ignore all the other house plants!  But now I have the best reward for my efforts in the form of ferns that are about 3/4" tall now.  Maybe another half inch and I will pot them up in their own proper pots.

Now there are a half dozen or so little ferns. I am quite pleased with myself.

A few months after I 'planted' the spores a nice green moss developed. After about a year I could finally see the gametophytes.

Here is the parent plant. This trouble free plant has graced my garden for about twenty years.