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best soil mix for D Regia

what soil mix has worked the best for you with D Regia???
 
I have success with a heavy silica in peat mix. Grown in cool HL conditions.. moist, but not wet.
 
Mass is that a course silica, I take it?

Cheers,

Joe
 
I've heard that Sphag:perlite is a favoured mix too- people often say that they like cool roots etc- so it probably helps with that :)
 
In my growing conditions: 65 - 80F, humidity 50 - 75% and fairly high light levels I have had good success with just plain long-fibered sphagnum (the good stuff, not the dirty, cheap garbage you sometimes see.) 'Got a new plant coming, Mickey?

- Mark
 
The best mix is what works best for you. It depends a lot on your conditions and cultivation practices.

Some people find pure live Sphagnum moss works best. Some find pure long fiber sphagnum (dried) works best. Most find a light airy, quickly draining mix of mostly sand or perlite or pumice and peat moss or long fiber sphagnum works (40% or less peat moss/LFS).

I seem to get the best results with 60-75% perlite to peat moss so far, but still experimenting. This is what the best grower of D. regia in the LACPS was using too.

Plants do not appreciate anaerobic conditions for the roots and do seem to appreciate a significant temperature drop at night.
 
wish i had one planing a head in case 1 comes around that I can afford
 
using a mixture of lava rock, orchid bark, perlite, sand, peat and live sphagnum. Have it sitting in a try of water and it is doing nicely. White pot so hoping less heat absorption. Seems I am using a media described by Joseph Clemens. But cant quite find the reference just now.

Can also see most of the roots are growing in the live sphagnum.

Keep in mind my daily temps are comparable to Capetown South Africa so I might be able to do things that wont work for other people....

http://icps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=drosera&action=display&thread=1099
 
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  • #10
I have one growing in an outside bog garden for a little over a year up near Portland, Oregon, in peat/sand/pumice/perlite with moss surrounding it and slightly mounded. I top water it with cool water once a day in summer and mulch it after it dies back in winter.

A friend grows theirs in a pot of peat/sand/orchid bark; another uses silica sand/peat/perlite.
 
  • #11
I've tried using sand/peat but the plants didn't look too good, media/pot quite heavy and tends to dry faster in my conditions. I've also tried dried sphagnum/perlite but I find myself filling the water tray twice more which is inconvenient for me, media gets too wet, and I'm afraid of root rot. The plants also get moldy quite easily when fed. I might expirement on other complicated mixes someday, maybe... but right now, I'm more than fine with using 2 parts perlite 1 part peat which is just right, in my case. Here's a pic of my adult D regia and seedlings at the back. The adult was just transplanted a week ago or so because of an accident...

IMG_20111005_182502_734x979.jpg
 
  • #12
nice plant 13 where do you live weather effects how much water a plant needs
 
  • #13
Congratulations on doing an excellent job growing these guys!
..... and seedlings at the back.
Did your plant flower under lights? If so, what is your day/night lighting schedule & do you change it seasonally? (Welcome to TF btw)
 
  • #14
@MICKEY
Thanks, forgot to edit my location.

@RL7836
(WOW!!! at your grow list.)
Thank you. My larger D regia didn't flower yet although it had leaves about 14 inches. Seeds are from the UK, Belgium, and France iirc.

All my plants were in direct sun from sunrise till sunset. Pots are 8 inches tall, and 6 inches wide. The bigger D regia was producing shorter leaves mid-summer. Before it reached halfway down it's size, I moved it to a shady location then growth went back to normal. I guess it couldn't take prolonged heat under direct sun and wanted to go dormant. I kept the bigger D regia a bit dryer 'cause (sometimes I forget to water) and it used to be at a different location in a large black ceramic pot, untill the legs of the table I put it on rusted and fell over, so now it's beside the young one's.

Summer weather can reach a high of 35C during the day, and around 20C at night. Humidity is atleast 60-80% which is good, outdoors.

The seedlings are almost always sitting in about 2 inches of water. They're 10 months old, and majority have leaves of 5"-7". Was paranoid at first, but thought of putting them in direct sunlight and see what happens... The best one's that grew really well are the few that I put in small 3" white styrofoam cups (1peat/2perlite with some dead sphagnum in the mix), the cups were cool to the touch, and sitting halfway in water. I can boil an egg on the one's that has tall dark pots, probably. During this summer, 5 seedlings from the tall black pots died and I replaced them with the one's from the styrofoam cups, 3 went dormant, and 1 that I thought died, grew back from roots, and around 15 stayed 1"-2", out of the 110+ seedlings (and some are multiplying).

I planned to bring them indoors before the weather shows a 0C..., which is what I did yesterday.

Past winter weather: indoor temp is around 18C to 27C, 4" under 4 x 24" flourescent 6500k lights at 16 hours/day, humidity in the low 30C. Death rate was at 4. Fed with Freeze dried blood worms and/or fish food flakes once a week or once a month.
 
  • #15
Very nice job growing them! Regia and Grao are definitely my fav dews....Thank you!

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