Soil

[Guest]

Since I can't seem to be able to find any form of sphagnum moss, I've been forced to find other alternatives. For the ventricosax(rafflesiana x tobaica purple) and rokko x spathulata that I just got, I used a medium with peat, vermiculite, and perlite at about a 1:1:2 ratio. Anyway, the perlite seemed to float to the top when I watered it, and it took forever to drain. Is there something wrong with the medium? Or is it all right, and unecesary to repot again?

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Be sure the peatmoss is damp when you mix it up and repot. Do not pot with it when it is dry. Peatmoss perlite at a 1:1 ratio is fine. I would not use vermiculite as it will make the potting medium less acidic. You can also add stuff like fine bark, charcoal, lava rock, expanded clay, coconut husk chips, etc to open it up more.
Tony

 

[RamPuppy]

what tony said, and all the stuff, well most of the stuff, he said to add to open it up more, you can get in Shultz's Orchid Bark Mix... that's what I use!

 

[GEORGE-CP]

nathaniel you can get lmf at mosserlee to order some. i put it under the discussion topic so you could see it. also purplesundew gets it in the wild there. you might want to ask her for some.

Tony thanks for stating that vermiculite does make the soil less acidic. i just learned something thanks

 

[carnivorous23]

Actually, I've used both peat/perlite mixes and peat/pelite/vermiculite mixes for nepenthes. I usually use peat/perlite/vermiculite at 1:1:1 ratio now, since the plants in that have actually grown faster than the ones in peat/perlite, though that could easily be because of which nepenthes are in the differnet mixes. It isn't the perlite coming to the top - it's everything else sinking down. I've had that happen before. It's not serious, and you can just add a bit more peat above it if you want, though it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

 

[Guest]

Carnivorous23, is the peaterlite:vermiculite mix a bit slow to drain like mine?

 

[carnivorous23]

I don't think it's much slower than other mixes, or at least not peat/perlite. I'm not sure why it would drain so slowly, unless there is too much water.
Did you press the soil down? If it is compacted, that can slow the draining for a while. I tried that recently with some sundews, so that the soil level wouldn't drop when I watered, and ended up regretting it quite a bit, though thankfully capensis always seem to come back eventually.