Propagating Staghorn Fern – Post Link

I have had this staghorn fern for a long time. It recently fell and plunged to the ground. That did not hurt it much, but it will do much better if it is hung up, or even on the side of a tree, just not on the ground. I had already tried to rework it by finding the existing wire basket and tying wire onto that. Well, that didn’t last long, so it was now time to do something a little more permanent.

So I finally found what to do with this oversized Staghorn Fern. I had an old punching bag someone gave to me that needs to go in the garbage. So I pitched the punching bag and used the hangers to re-hang the staghorn fern.

I looked around and found some old chain pieces and hooked them together. Then, I found a swingset chain to make the X that I had in my mind. 7′ of chain was what I needed and that is what I was able to come up with. If I didn’t have the punching bag setup, the chain would have to be around 9′ – 10′. A larger S hook would accept the 4 rings of chain to make the X.

The hanger on the punching bag was too easy. Formed an X right away with the 4 S hooks. So I went with it. Tied the chains together in the center of them to eventually form the X.

Once I did that, I laid out the X underneath the hooks. I originally had the punching bag on the south side of this tree. So before I did anything, I went ahead and moved the setup to the north side of the tree. I have had success with a piece of advice given to me long ago. Staghorn ferns like to be on the north side.

Now for the big moment. I got the Staghorn fern and placed it on the X underneath where I was going to hang it. This way I didn’t have to move it again.

Ready to hang it. I just laced the chains up to the top while going around and between some of the shoots.

Yes, it was very heavy. I should have had help, but it is too late to cry about that now. Just a thought if you are going to do this, get a hand with it.

Now it is all hung and just beautiful. The staghorn fern will grow around the chains and that is when it will not fall out ever again. I would think that those chains will last 50 years or more. The original wire basket hanger lasted over 20 years.

I will post on how to start a staghorn (from another staghorn) at some other point. The Staghorn fern in this wire basket is one I started and you can see it has already grown around its container. This staghorn fern is probably 4 or 5 years old now.

Here is a link to a 20′ chain from Amazon.com

10′ of chain

50 pound S-hooks

Use this for the top loop, to hook all of the chains to.

More S-hooks – Stronger than 50 pounds