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How would i make a mini bog?

Trapper7

Loves VFT's!
I would like step by step info on how to make a mini bog.Now I know this sounds really stupid but...a bog contains water right?
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I would like to put some VFT's and some Sarrs in it.What do I need?Live Sphagnum Moss?Medium?Please let me know.Thanks!
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~Niki~
 
how big do you want it?
Mine right now is the simplest ever. A bus tub that Ive drilled holes in the bottom of placed into another bus tub (the same size of course). Toss in your CP soil and plants and thats it. I Drilled 2 holes twards the top on the side so that the second tub doesnt get too full but I have a feeling it was kinda a waste of time.
Ive tried a few but with a mini bog my size a water tray is a pain in the behind! This way theres hardly any (if there is any) evaporation and not much chance of mosquitoes or anything getting into the water.

Edited to add I use sphagnum peat mixed with sand. Perlite is not very useful in an outdoor mini bog and turns that yucky green. Ive also tried it with a layer of both sphagnum and rocks at the bottom of the mini bog but in all honesty havent seen any reason for it and now I dont have any at all. I just dont seen any reason why or a difference aside from it making it heavier.
 
Dumb question: What is a bus tub? Of course the big picture is that it is a vessel that holds water, but I am unfamiliar with the term.

I am currently using buckets as minibogs. I used an awl to bore a hole in each bucket, for those 3" rainstorms we occasionaly get. I read diametrically opposed opinions as to where to place holes, with respect to toward the top or bottom. To me, it makes sense to be able to have something at the top, just to control overflowing. For the bottom, it also makes sense to me to allow for excess mineral salts to be flushed out. One person suggested having plugs in holes at the bottom and drain the mini-bog once a week by temporarily removing the plugs. Another expressed concern that worms, wit thier destructive habits for CP's might get inside the mini-bog, if the holes are at the bottom.

I mixed sand and peat together and put the dried LFS on top, though the live LFS would probably be a better idea. I totally agree about the use of perlite. It will tend to migrate to the top and become unsightly.
 
I've heard a lot of mention of worms(I'm assuming earthworms). From my experience earthworms are of no worry to the cper. I also find it quite impossible not to get worms. I have had worms to show up in media that I KNOW that I KNOW did not originally have earthworms.

I have a few things on bogs the laura sent me a while back. I will e-mail those to you.

I was recently in Maryland and visited a guy who sells cps. His outdoor bog was very simple and looked quite beautiful. He used 2x12 boards and made boxes according to the size he wanted. He then proceeded to line the box(bog) with plastic, and poked 3 or 4 holes every 3-4 feet. This allows for the draining of excess water while still holding water to provide the cps with. He said that if you had too few the bog would start to stink and provide a great place for mosquitos, but if you had too many holes it would dry out. IMO, you can put the holes in according to how many YOU think you need. After the plastic is laid and punched, you can proceed to add about a 1/1 mixture of peat and sand. After that's done, add your plants and youre done! His bog was a raised bag and not sunken, if you want to sink it I would go with UKC's instructions.

Jim, I think when she says a bus tub, she means those tubs that they use at restraunts to put the dirty plates in when they "bus" a table.
 
Wesly got it right. A bus tub is something you normally see in restraunts when the people are clearing the tables. The bus boy takes all the dishes and puts them in a gray tub so its easier to carry than trying to ballance them all on his own.

Try and keep earthworms out they, by what Ive been told, make the soil much too rich.


My mini bog....

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Wow...Shelly, your plants look great!
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Niki...you can put the plants in just about any container that fits your space as long as its deep enough for root room but most importantly, it does need to have some drainage. The same water left standing for months at a time gets stagnant and will start to smell and isn't good for the CPs.

My plants are in pots in pond liners which I regularly dump. If I know we are going to get a decent rain, I dump the liners and let the rain refill them. As long as the water is evaporating off normally, it doesn't stand too long.
 
Given your geographic location, I would recommend an above-ground bog (i.e. -- large pot or tub), rather than an in-ground bog.  You can do an in-ground bog, but except for S. purpurea ssp. purpurea (pref. Canadian in origin), you'd probably have to dig up your plants before freezing, and keep them in the fridge over winter.

For an above-ground bog, I'd recommend a 2-foot pot, the kind that looks like stone, but is actually foam.  They are sturdy and lightweight, and you can drill drainage holes in them.

Drill 4 quarter-inch holes, spaced equally around the rim, about 1.5 - 2 inches below the top of the pot.  This helps prevent flooding if it pours.

VFTs and Sarracenia really do best, IMHO, in pure LFS moss.  It's more expensive than peat, so I recommend filling the bottom half of the pot with wet peat, then fill the pot, to within an inch of the rim, with wet LFS moss.

Water thoroughly, shake gently to remove air bubbles, and let settle for 2 weeks.  If necessary, add more LFS to top pot off again.

In a 2-foot pot, you should be able to plant 3 Sarracenia, leaving them room to grow for years to come, or 6-8 smaller Sarracenia, and replant them in a year or two into more pots.  You can then plant the VFTs amid the bases of the Sarracenia.

Non-sphagnous mosses tend not to grow as readily on long-fiber sphagnum (LFS) as they do on peat, and often, LFS has living sphagnum that will grow eventually.
 
Here is my mini-bog:

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I made it last summer, its in its 2nd year now.
It is made from one of those pre-formed plastic ponds.
this must be the smallest pond they make!
it is filled with a 50/50 mix of peat and perlite, and topped with a layer of LFS.
(no problems with perlite coming to the top..the LFS keeps it under control)

I put strips of wood around it for a dectorative effect, here it is without the wood:

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it contains about 40 VFT's, two S. leucophylla, and one S. wrigleyana.

I drilled drainage holes half way up the sides..and no drainage holes in the bottom.
So that there is always lots of standing water in the bottom of the bog, to keep it wet, btu the upper 2-3 inches is not waterlogged.
There are enough drainage holes that it drains faster than it can rain, so it never fills to the top.

Scot
 
I must say 2 things- first, BC is coastal and it gets near freezing in winter but not too cold all the time, I don't see why pretty much any Sarracenia couldn't be kept outdoors year round below ground

Second- Sarrs in general are WAY tougher than most folks seem to think- I have S.flava doing BEAUTIFULLY outside here near Niagara Falls and we had a pretty typical Canadian winter up here
D.filiformis ssp. filiformis also survived the winter and is doing extremely well- the ones I brought in for indoor dormancy "just in case" look like they are likely going to die, whilst the ones inground all winter are spectacular- almost 10 inches tall, more than 10 leaves per plant, HUGE "dew balls"

I'm telling ya Scottychaos, you can grow lots more outdoors that just S.purpurea ssp. purpurea... I have it on good authority that VFTs will also do well outside overwinter here
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I will have concrete proof in a little under 12 months
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  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (mabudon @ June 16 2005,12:22)]I'm telling ya Scottychaos, you can grow lots more outdoors that just S.purpurea ssp. purpurea...
I assume you were actually replying to me?
 
  • #11
Shelly & Scottychaos: Great looking bogs!

Shelly: I've done been ejumacated. And to think I worked in a Greek diner, washing those dishes!
 
  • #12
Thank you all for the great advice and the awesome pics.I can't do an in-ground bog anyways cause I rent and there's no room anyways.I was wanting to get one of those mini pond things that scottychaos has.Where would I get me one of those?Pet store I'm guessing
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Thanks again to everyone,you have been REALLY helpful once again
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~Niki~
 
  • #13
Which plants would go well together in a bog? I personally like the look of Sundews, but I'm not sure if I'd like a big pot completely full of Sundews. Maybe some bladderworts and butterworts, and even pitchers. Would these all grow well with the same conditions?
 
  • #14
The bins we have at work would make good bogs. They are just a rectangular frame made with 2x4's with a pond liner. The ones outside we put plants in cups and trays into the bins. In the greenhouse they have the same bins but with dirt straight into them.
No drainage in any of them, and yes they do stink if they sit with water to long, but it does take awhile for them to start stinking. And they are shallow enough that they tend to dry often enough that it isn't a problem in most of them. We have atleast 75-100 5'x10' of these bins and only the 10 or so under the cover of the trees stink (strongly) and the plants have been in those for 2 1/2 years now.
Ofcourse some work would need to be done to make them visually appealing.
 
  • #15
VFT_lover, you could certainly do a bog with those species, particularly if you choose plants from the southeast of the US. There are Dionaea, Drosera, Pinguicula, Sarracenia, and Utricularia all around the various CP habitats there, and I'm sure if you did a little research you could find species that are all compatible with the same conditions.
Good luck,
~Joe
 
  • #16
Sorry, SarraceniaScott- I WAS replying to you, but for some reason I got the wrong Scott/Scot
I just feel like it's my duty to make it clear that the fragility of many species is highly overrated, since I see a lot of things that say otherwise which I can disprove with my own experience and I feel it is kinda unfortunate- if I hadn't been told by the "good authority" I would never have even tried growing anything past S.purpurea outdoors for fear of killing them and finding out that I had a lot more options was really exciting

And also that Vancouver and places near there are NOTHING like say northern Michigan or northern ohio or places like that, people grow all sort of tropical plants as garden specimens out there, it's more like northern California than upstate NY
 
  • #17
[b said:
Quote[/b] (VFT_lover123 @ June 16 2005,8:21)]Which plants would go well together in a bog? I personally like the look of Sundews, but I'm not sure if I'd like a big pot completely full of Sundews. Maybe some bladderworts and butterworts, and even pitchers. Would these all grow well with the same conditions?
To be more specific, American pitcher plants (Sarracenia - purpurea, rubra, leucophylla, alata, ...) as well as VFT's, and D. filiformis, intermedia, rotundifolia, and binata). I think Utrics need to have a mini-bog for each species, as they tend to be invasive.
 
  • #18
Utrics seem too complicated for me. I just want some vicious bloodlust-driven plants.... I pity the children I will have. Waking up in the morning to find Mom feeding crickets to the VFT's and 'dews.
 
  • #19
An odd thought just flitted by.... At least they are waking up everyday, as opposed to being one of the crickets.
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