Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

Vegetative transplantation is best undertaken in spring at the beginning of
the growing season which allows plants to develop a strong root and rhizome
anchorage before being flooded or upooted by winter wave action.
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Planting out reed plugs at
Lakenheath Fen (RSPB)
Transplants of cotton grass rhizomes have been used to stabilise loose
substrates like peat which would otherwise take many decades to
stabilise due to frost heave constantly breaking tender young roots. The
tough rhizomes of cotton grass resist the movement and create a stable
substrate. In time the dominance of introduced species wanes and other
species colonise the stabilised surface. Planting density depends on
how quickly the ground needs to be colonised, but in most cases 10
plants/ m2 is sufficient.
On very nutrient poor former raised bog peats in Germany it was
recommended that shoots of rhizomatous sedges (e.g. Carex rostrata
and Eriophorum angustifolium) were planted at a density of one shoot
per 2 m 2 (Sliva 1999), which resulted in 100% cover of vascular plants
within 4 years.
9.9.7 Mosses and liverworts
Mosses and liverworts can be important components of many types of fen and bog
vegetation, especially brown mosses in some of the spring-head fens (e.g. M10)
and bog mosses in many types of poor fen (e.g. M4, M5, M6, etc. – see Section
2: Fen Flora and Fauna, and Appendix IV, fen NVC classifications). Mosses and
liverworts can be difficult to establish where the substrate is dry or has high nutrient
levels, but may readily establish naturally from airborne spores where the substrate
is maintained in a damp or wet state, or from small stem fragments or individual
leaves.
Introducing mosses to fen creation sites
Bog mosses and brown mosses have been established from vegetative
sources at a cut-over mire and base-rich fen creation site respectively.
Handfuls of mosses were macerated with a modified paint whisk on
the end of a variable speed drill to chop the stems into small fragments
in a bucket of water, which was then spread by hand across the moist
substrate surface.