TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk
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carnivoure12
Hear the Call of Nepenthes
Media for carnivorous plants should be mineral deficient, meaning now minerals, fertilizers or anything. Just use Peat moss make sure it has no fertilizer or additives, perlite nothing else. For nepenthes you could add some bark, for CP's like pings sand, and such. Research carefully the media for each type of CP.
Just remember no nutrients, or fertllizers like miracle grow, thats why these plants are modified to catch bugs, because the soild they live is nutrient poor.
Just remember no nutrients, or fertllizers like miracle grow, thats why these plants are modified to catch bugs, because the soild they live is nutrient poor.
carnivoure12
Hear the Call of Nepenthes
seedjar
Let's positive thinking!
Fertilized media will cause the same problems for CPs as dumping a big lump of Miracle Gro concentrate onto your tomatoes. There are way more available nutrients than the roots are designed to handle, and the nutrients react with the receptor mechanisms of the roots so fast that they burn out. Then the roots die, which stresses the plant and stunts it from growing. It will try to make new roots because it needs them to resume growth, but the new roots will have just as much trouble as the old ones and die, which sends the plant back into shock. Some will go faster than others, but that cycle will pretty much continue until the plant is entirely exhausted - or so is my understanding.
~Joe
PS - Did you look outside at Home Depot/Lowe's? They sell peat moss in huge bales for landscaping, but a 3.5 cubic foot bale costs only about twice as much as a five-pound bag of the Miracle Gro foo-fah stuff they sell indoors with the houseplant supplies.
~Joe
PS - Did you look outside at Home Depot/Lowe's? They sell peat moss in huge bales for landscaping, but a 3.5 cubic foot bale costs only about twice as much as a five-pound bag of the Miracle Gro foo-fah stuff they sell indoors with the houseplant supplies.
droseraguy
Illinois
My friend used miracle gro once. He also overwatered the plants a lot, which may have explained why they survived for a fairly long time (the plants were S. purpurea, S. rubra, S. minor, D. capensis, and N. ventrata). It may also have been the fact that most were fairly tolerant sarrs. In any case, the D. capensis and S. rubra eventually died, but the rest he still has. Again, the fertilizer may have been leached out by the excess water, but this is just one case.
1. Take it back.what can i do
2. Get the correct stuff
3. Download Firefox (with built-in spellcheck)
4. Have a Happy New Year
Yup, the big green/white bag of Greensmix Sphagnum Peat Moss or Premier Sphagnum Peat Moss is all you need. The Premier bag looks like this:
Get rid of that Miracle Grow asap. I had a guy buy a $100+ Nep hamata cutting from me and plant it in Miracle Grow, which of course killed it within a few months. Then he wanted me to send him another cutting or a refund. All I did give him was chastisement however since I had a website which told him how to grow it and I'd even sent the cutting rooted and potted all he HAD to do upon receipt was give it the right conditions...
Anyway, go buy some Sphagnum Peat Moss today. You'll have to look way out back by the big bags of mulch and stuff NOT by the small bags of houseplant supplies. My bag was 2.2 CU Ft and it ran me a whole $3.00 but it may only last me 5 years considering I don't like using peat very often, I like using Long Fibered Sphagnum Moss (or "Orchid Moss" at Lowes) for most of my CPs. If you don't wanna buy the Greensmix bale and have to store it til needed later then just buy the orchid moss which is by the houseplant supplies. It's a brick that looks like this:
Orchid Moss runs about $5 a brick and I believe the small brick is enough for six or eight 4" pots.
Incase no one has told you yet, make sure you only water your CPs with Rainwater, Reverse Osmosis or Distilled water. Tap water or well water is generally not pure enough for these plants and will kill them just as fast as incorrect soil.
Get rid of that Miracle Grow asap. I had a guy buy a $100+ Nep hamata cutting from me and plant it in Miracle Grow, which of course killed it within a few months. Then he wanted me to send him another cutting or a refund. All I did give him was chastisement however since I had a website which told him how to grow it and I'd even sent the cutting rooted and potted all he HAD to do upon receipt was give it the right conditions...
Anyway, go buy some Sphagnum Peat Moss today. You'll have to look way out back by the big bags of mulch and stuff NOT by the small bags of houseplant supplies. My bag was 2.2 CU Ft and it ran me a whole $3.00 but it may only last me 5 years considering I don't like using peat very often, I like using Long Fibered Sphagnum Moss (or "Orchid Moss" at Lowes) for most of my CPs. If you don't wanna buy the Greensmix bale and have to store it til needed later then just buy the orchid moss which is by the houseplant supplies. It's a brick that looks like this:
Orchid Moss runs about $5 a brick and I believe the small brick is enough for six or eight 4" pots.
Incase no one has told you yet, make sure you only water your CPs with Rainwater, Reverse Osmosis or Distilled water. Tap water or well water is generally not pure enough for these plants and will kill them just as fast as incorrect soil.
If using the peatmoss then I would add at least 50% perlite to make sure it's open enough. I use #2 sized turkey/chicken grit in my peat to add drainage and open the mix because perlite often "floats out" of the peat when you water it. 
I myself don't recommend using sand instead of perlite because all I can find at hardware stores is playsand and that seems to not be as good to add drainage/aeration to soils as large chunks of Turkey grit or Shultz Aquatc Plant Soil (check HD/Lowes by the pond supplies for the APS). But there are some people who love playsand.
If using plain LFS just take two dry handfuls and grind them together between your hands to make them into various sized shreds. This gives you a very nice all purpose soil for Cps and orchids planted in pots up to about 4" or so. After this (6"+ pots) you should add some shredded CYPRESS mulch or fine orchid bark or pumice (good luck finding fine grade pumice) to improve the drainage cos a big mass of pure LFS can stay too wet and not allow airflow through the roots.
I myself don't recommend using sand instead of perlite because all I can find at hardware stores is playsand and that seems to not be as good to add drainage/aeration to soils as large chunks of Turkey grit or Shultz Aquatc Plant Soil (check HD/Lowes by the pond supplies for the APS). But there are some people who love playsand.
If using plain LFS just take two dry handfuls and grind them together between your hands to make them into various sized shreds. This gives you a very nice all purpose soil for Cps and orchids planted in pots up to about 4" or so. After this (6"+ pots) you should add some shredded CYPRESS mulch or fine orchid bark or pumice (good luck finding fine grade pumice) to improve the drainage cos a big mass of pure LFS can stay too wet and not allow airflow through the roots.
You probably can't grow CPs in JUST aquatic plant soil as it's a baked clay grit rather like kitty litter, it's not actually "soil" at all. I only meant you can use it as a drainage substitute for turkey grit, large grit sand or perlite to add TO your peat moss.
If you already understood what I meant, sorry just wanted to be sure you knew APS was used as an additive.
If you already understood what I meant, sorry just wanted to be sure you knew APS was used as an additive.
