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Peat Free composts for Sarracenia

  • #21
My understanding of hydroponics is to have a nutrient rich solution flowing through an inert media that the plants are rooted in, now with CPs they take in very little to no nutrients through their roots and peat and sand are pretty much inert so a tray system would qualify as a primitive hydroponic system!
The soil mix that I suggested and RP modified could have the last organic ingredient removed if another suitable, non organic, source of acidity could be provided without leaving residual salts in the soil upon evaporation. Any suggestions?
 
  • #22
Oh yeah, I forgot about acidity... I suppose you could put some sort of acid in the water, I don't know if any straight chemical would be suitable for CPs, but you could probably just soak something acidic in the water, such as pine needles. Anyone have any ideas as to what to use to make the water acidic? Preferrably something inorganic. Then you could just use straight water without any soil at all. Would this work?
 
  • #23
All I can think of besides some sort of peat tea (which defeats the point of using hydroculture) would be aluminum sulfate, which is a chemical and would eventually cause mineral buildup.

I know it DOES work because I sometimes use it on my cp, but it's inorganic.

Maybe, as you said, pine needle infused water?
Chris
 
  • #24
I think Acetic acid (vinegar) might work but I will have to check out the evaporation rate to see if it would accumulate, it is suposed to evaporate completely in time so it should not build up too bad and for a pH of 6 it should be dilute enough not to smell too bad, especialy if you just used it as an occasional rinse to keep the pH down. Please DON'T go off and pickle your plants on this advise though, I still need to check out a lot of stuff first, evaporation, dilution, etc. etc.etc. If any one has tried this in the past, what happened? Would love to hear.
 
  • #25
That may be a good idea. I have a pH meter, so I can determine what dilution would be necessary to give a pH of 6.0, and how long it would take to evaporate. Can you think of any reason why acetic acid as a chemical might be harmful to CPs?
 
  • #26
Hi Havron, so you have a pH meter, cool, do an experiment for me if you would, get a shallow plastic or glass pan, like a baking pan, and put water in it then add enough distilled vinagar in it to bring it to 6 pH then set it aside and let it evaporate. When it as about 90% gone check the pH again and see if it went up or down. When it is all gone check and see if it left any residue, but make sure the vinagar you buy does not have any salt added obviously. I was going to do this myself but I don't have any realy accurate way to measure the pH.
 
  • #27
Sure! I was going to perform an experiment similar to this anyways.
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Next time I go to Publix I'll pick up some distilled white vinegar, and see what happens.
 
  • #28
Where are yu going get it pure they always add mineral water to it. If its ph isn't 6 boil down (do this outside though it stinks otherwise)
 
  • #29
This is interesting. I performed a few experiments with my pH meter (just recalibrated prior to experiment), and I got the following results:

The distilled water I use (Crystal Springs distilled water, available here at Publix) <i>already has a pH of 6.0!</i> My chemistry professor says that this is because really pure water has essentially no buffering capacity, and even a small amount of dissolved carbon dioxide can push the pH that low. Of course, this lack of buffering capacity also means that, although pure distilled water seems to, at least in my experience, have a very-nice-for-CPs pH of 6.0, that pH could be easily upset.

Next, I bubbled some CO2 through the water (half an Alka Seltzer tablet in a separate container with a tube attatched and feeding into the water), the water was swirled to ensure even mixing of carbonation in the water, and the pH dropped as low as 5.2. An hour later the pH was 5.4. I will measure it again this afternoon.
 
  • #30
This is odd. I just measured the pH of the water again, and it's risen a little <i>above</i> where it started! It is now 6.2. No clue why...
 
  • #31
If you say it has virtually no buffering capacity, just about anything could have shot the pH back up. Do you have this water in a glass container?

NG, I remember you mentioned acidic, or silver sand. Where did you obtain this sand? Thanks.
Chris
 
  • #32
It's in a 9 oz plastic Solo cup, about 1/3 full or so.
 
  • #33
My acidic sand? I got it from my friends driveway in FL. He said these wierd palnts were growing in his drive around 1 part that was always wet adn they were D.Capillarius! Unbelivable huh! But He said take some sand for my CP's. SO I did and planted S.Leucophylla right in there. Pure acidic sand. IT was kinda bizzare to see Drosera in his driveway! I am just glad to report the Leucophylla is doing wonderfully!It is doing so good as a matter of fact that it has sent up 3 new pitchers now and 2 babies! :eek: IT is very nice to get free acidic sand!
 
  • #35
Wild huh! It was pretty odd to see what I though were sundews in his driveway! I asked him what they were, ( and he did research!) and surprizingly told me they were ( he pronounced it) Drooseeras Capillareeiuuss. But I told himthe correct term and he said yes, that is what it said on a webpage I found about it. I still was astonished to see sundews in his drive way. But, they were not in the way of his car they were more off to the side by the walkway up to his house. SO they were far away from harms grasp.
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  • #37
GOE, I think you found what we're looking for! The link didn't work, so I just did:
<a href="http://www.organics.uk.com

scroll" target="_blank">http://www.organics.uk.com

scroll</a> down a bit and the product is listed

has anyone here ever heard of or tried Moorland Gold? I really think it may work

thanks so much GOE!
 
  • #38
Hi Havron, that is interesting, your results would explain how organic material in the sand raises acidity because any decomposition of plant debris is going to release carbon, then any increase in soil alkilinity would drive biological activity, increasing the rate of decomposition and drive the pH back down into the acid range so the organic matter is acting as the buffer in the system. I wonder if you could use sub soil CO2 injection to maintain acidity? perhaps a very slow yeast generator would work, although I suspect that good old organic matter would be the best slow release agent. I would also suspect that your pH rebound after CO2 injection was caused by water vapor/particle contamination from the alka-seltzer water. As you noted it would not take much to swing it that far. So I guess that all things said that I will stick to the recipe that was suggested earlier using the rock wool absorbant and orchid bark for acidity for a peat free growing mix with the disclaimer that you will have to water it more often.
 
  • #39
I am currently growing a plant of <i>Drosera binata</i> in distilled water infused with carbon dioxide, making sure it is well-fed, and will report my findings as time goes on. So far, after a few days it seems to be doing well, comparable to the plants I potted in 1:1 peat/perlite. If things go well, I will probably try this hydroponic growing method with a VFT and some other type of CP, and maybe I'll get an article in CPN!
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  • #40
Hi Havron, sound interesting! what type of co2 generator are you using? how long does it last? what are you using to physically support the plant? looking forward to hearing your results!
 
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