Long fiber Sphagmum as the only planting medium??

[DarthBuck]

I just bought two Sarracenea. Cannot tell you for sure which, they were labled purple pitcher plant. They are definitely not purple pitcher plants. If I had to guess, I'd say they are closer to S. leucophylla. Anyway, they came in only LFS as the "soil". I normally use 50/50 sphagmum and perlite, will they do well in just LFS as the "soil" or should I re-pot them right away?

D. Buck.

[Pyro]

Darth,

I know a lot of people who use LF sphag for every single plant they own, so I would guess you are probably safe.

Pyro

[nepenthes gracilis]

Sure it'll work out wondefully! I use almost LFS in all of my mixes. Including VFT's,Sundews,and Butterworts. I plant all of my Purpurea's Venosa,Purpurea Purpurea,etc in Living Sphagnum. Esp,Purpurea Purpurea as that is what it is found in naturally. The living works wonders for me. Great stuff! Although when you do need to repot I would say repot the Leucophylla in more of a Peat/Sand , Peat/Perlite or Peat/Sand/Perlite as Leucophylla likes a more sandier mic than most other Sarracenia. Just a suggestion.

[Flint]

Also, a trick I came acorss by complete accident, you can put a layer of sand/peat mix ontop of the LFS and water from above and it will wash down into the LFS. Keep doing this and you will have your soil mix down in the LFS, which is really wonderful for the plant, without having to disturb the root system that is probably very delicate if it is just in LFS. I'ld do this for the Leucophylla at least.

[Wado]

Would you be able to support a cp in a soil of 100% LFS with out peat/sand mix?? Does it provide the nessesery acidic conditions required for cp's?? What advantages or disadvantages is there??