January 5, 2012

Doctoring My Marimo

I bought a little marimo ball 10 years ago, on a school trip to Hokkaido. These balls of algae have long been a protected species in Japan, but you can buy tiny ones at gift shops. The one I bought was about half the size of a marble.

The woman at the store told me then, "It takes 15 years for them to grow six centimeters in diameter." I made the mistake of giving mine too much light (they live on the bottom of lakes in places like Hokkaido and Iceland, after all), and for several years now, it's been a brown-green mossy color.

Wanting to confirm whether it was still alive or not, I split my marimo into two. (It was deemed safe to do so on the internet.) The rich green color in the middle is the color of a healthy marimo. Hopefully it will revive in another 10 years.

2 comments:

Wilda said...

I would suggest to trim the yellowish part and expose the inner part which is green that hopefully will enhance the process of photosynthesis.

And of course, remember TLC (Tender, Love and Care)to the Marimo.

Cheers! :)

Sachiko Shiota said...

I put the marimo in a place with little sunlight for about a month, and the dark green color came back! I didn't want to trim it because it takes soooo long for them to grow larger.