The packaging said it was "naturally sterile." I'm not sure if that's referring to it being acidic since it's sphagnum or if it is completely dead and won't grow. I'd like to get some live sphagnum going if possible. I already had some sort of green top soil moss starting to grow that I think came with one of my plants, but it's nothing like sphagnum. Just little fuzzy stuff. This Chilean stuff looks great though. Is there any chance it'll come back to life though?
Anyway my plants are potted in a 70:30 peat/perlite mix (Black Gold brand) and I top dressed my Dana's Delight pot and VFT pot (which has a few different VFTs) with the Chilean stuff tonight and it's looking good. I water then with purified water from my local water store. They've got some huge fancy purification system and the guy assures me it's the best you can get (and after looking at the complex and expensive system I can see why it is). I put some Mosser Lee stuff on top before and it looked horrid so I just yanked it all out. That stuff just had all sorts of roots and sticks in it and I feel I wasted my money for my purpose. Don't know what I'll do with it now.
Here are some pics of my setup. For some reason my little baby VFTs that I got from my mother as a gift aren't growing well at all and have not been since I got them. They've got weird trap growth and the trap that finally did grow normally died before it opened. The other VFTs are doing GREAT and are finally beginning to look like normal VFTs. I'm pretty sure I have this whole carnivorous plant care stuff down now. The B52s were very stringy and limp when I got them from being grown in a test tube I guess. They are growing lots of new healthy/strong traps and leaf bases though and are finally starting to look like normal VFTs instead of being bunched up and limp on the top soil.
My Carnivorous Plant Collection:
Close up of the B52s, other large VFT (no idea what it is), and Akai Ryu.
Red Piranha
Close up of all of them
Before adding Chilean Sphagnum. Note that the picture was taken last weekend and you can see the growth on the Akai Ryu quite clearly when comparing it to the newer photos.
What on earth is going on with these little guys? They just don't seem to want to be healthy despite lots of light, good soil, and pure water.
My light setup (with my old blinds since the picture was taken last weekend).
Daytime with blinds open and light on. Note my Mustang out front.
The beasty CFL! 5000k temp 6900 lumens 105 watt draw. Note the homemade reflective mylar reflector fashioned out of an old sign and some calendars from work! I rigged up a quiet 50ish CFM 120mm computer fan to keep the light and ballast cool for the light's sake and plant's sake as well as to circulate the air around the plants. It provides a nice very gentle breeze for them.
I'm pretty sure this is a Dana's Delight pitcher plant. The plant was labeled as a sarracenia purpurea when I got it from Home Depot. Anyway it was in horrible shape but I've nursed it back to health. It's doing awesome now! Look at the new pitchers that are nearly twice as tall as the old tallest one that are about to open up! I accidentally clipped the tip of one of them with my cooling fan for the CFL one day though. Ah well I'm much more careful now when swinging around the light for watering with the spray bottle. I think having the light slightly to the side of them is making them grow all wavy though. They sit close to it but the light primarily sits over my Dionaea.
Base around the plant.
Anyway my plants are potted in a 70:30 peat/perlite mix (Black Gold brand) and I top dressed my Dana's Delight pot and VFT pot (which has a few different VFTs) with the Chilean stuff tonight and it's looking good. I water then with purified water from my local water store. They've got some huge fancy purification system and the guy assures me it's the best you can get (and after looking at the complex and expensive system I can see why it is). I put some Mosser Lee stuff on top before and it looked horrid so I just yanked it all out. That stuff just had all sorts of roots and sticks in it and I feel I wasted my money for my purpose. Don't know what I'll do with it now.
Here are some pics of my setup. For some reason my little baby VFTs that I got from my mother as a gift aren't growing well at all and have not been since I got them. They've got weird trap growth and the trap that finally did grow normally died before it opened. The other VFTs are doing GREAT and are finally beginning to look like normal VFTs. I'm pretty sure I have this whole carnivorous plant care stuff down now. The B52s were very stringy and limp when I got them from being grown in a test tube I guess. They are growing lots of new healthy/strong traps and leaf bases though and are finally starting to look like normal VFTs instead of being bunched up and limp on the top soil.
My Carnivorous Plant Collection:
Close up of the B52s, other large VFT (no idea what it is), and Akai Ryu.
Red Piranha
Close up of all of them
Before adding Chilean Sphagnum. Note that the picture was taken last weekend and you can see the growth on the Akai Ryu quite clearly when comparing it to the newer photos.
What on earth is going on with these little guys? They just don't seem to want to be healthy despite lots of light, good soil, and pure water.
My light setup (with my old blinds since the picture was taken last weekend).
Daytime with blinds open and light on. Note my Mustang out front.
The beasty CFL! 5000k temp 6900 lumens 105 watt draw. Note the homemade reflective mylar reflector fashioned out of an old sign and some calendars from work! I rigged up a quiet 50ish CFM 120mm computer fan to keep the light and ballast cool for the light's sake and plant's sake as well as to circulate the air around the plants. It provides a nice very gentle breeze for them.
I'm pretty sure this is a Dana's Delight pitcher plant. The plant was labeled as a sarracenia purpurea when I got it from Home Depot. Anyway it was in horrible shape but I've nursed it back to health. It's doing awesome now! Look at the new pitchers that are nearly twice as tall as the old tallest one that are about to open up! I accidentally clipped the tip of one of them with my cooling fan for the CFL one day though. Ah well I'm much more careful now when swinging around the light for watering with the spray bottle. I think having the light slightly to the side of them is making them grow all wavy though. They sit close to it but the light primarily sits over my Dionaea.
Base around the plant.