moss and other things on paths

Brian Gaff scribbled

Bleach.

The moss here is currently sprouting the hairlike sporophytes, probably that's what looks like grass growing on it.

There are several possibilities. Perhaps the simplest is a strong solution of washing soda watered on. A variant of this is to scatter washing soda crystals on the mossy area and lightly water-in with a watering can. Leave for a few days and then scrape or brush up the dead moss. Another method is to water the area with a solution of Jeyes Fluid, but the smell lingers for days, or even weeks, and it will stain the concrete for a while. Watering with a solution of sulphate of iron will also kill the moss, turning it black, but it will also stain the concrete, and your hands if you get it on them. Pressure washing will also shift moss, as you say. Lastly, there are commercial moss killers available, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has a list, together with some other methods, here

Yes did that last year, and managed to kill some of the lawn as well..:-) Still, I have a cunning plan to stop run off this year using a bit of old plastic and a plank! Brian

Ah, not up to speed on the life cycle of moss, are these then like the bits that propagate it? I was never a gardener, more of a sitter out in the gardener under a treeer. Brian

Obviously need a strip of copper upstream, as it were of the moss then!

It would obviously not take very many years to see nature reclaim a lot of our habitats would it? Brian

Dairy Hypochlorite from Agricultural suppliers (?Deosan), = full power bleach, not like the watered down stuff sold to the public. Bookers also do 5 litres of strong bleach, with added sodium hyroxide.

Moss doesn't have seeds, it has spores, like fungi and ferns. Sporophytes are the part that makes the spores.

It's a rare enough word that my spiel chucker doesn't know it.

Andy