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Questions About Chilean Sphagnum (Orchid Moss) and other VFT questions -Lots of PICS!

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:

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Close up of the B52s, other large VFT (no idea what it is), and Akai Ryu.

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Red Piranha

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Close up of all of them

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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.

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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.

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My light setup (with my old blinds since the picture was taken last weekend).

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Daytime with blinds open and light on. Note my Mustang out front.

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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.

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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. :0o: 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.

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Base around the plant.

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that is an insain light systen :0o:
 
chilean sphagnum moss is awesome! thats the only kind of LFS i use! very pretty color and it hold up very well!. awesome collection you got there! could you PM me about where you got Red Piranna? been looking for one for a while!

Alex
 
all that to grow plants heck you can use a 50/50 mix of peat moss and pelrite its much easier than complex soil mixes and oh the sphagnum makes a ncie top dressing.
can you provide full sun for the plants I don;t think you need that light if you can you should try moving thme outside they are really resilient little plants.
 
all that to grow plants heck you can use a 50/50 mix of peat moss and pelrite its much easier than complex soil mixes and oh the sphagnum makes a ncie top dressing.
can you provide full sun for the plants I don;t think you need that light if you can you should try moving thme outside they are really resilient little plants.

It's not really a complex soil mixture. I just used 2 cups of peat per 1 cup of perlite and I've only just now top dressed with sphagnum. ;)

Unfortunately they don't get full sunlight all day due to the window/wall, privacy screen, and trees out front. That's why I opted to provide most of the sunlight via the large CFL. Here in Phoenix it gets to be pretty warm during the summer (115°F) too although right now the temperature is great. Plus I don't want any neighborhood kids dicking with my plants when I'm not around. I came home one time after leaving them out for the day to find ALL of the large traps closed. I'm pretty positive one of the neighbor kids did it since they were asking me about the plants only hours earlier before I left to run an errand (and I specifically told them NOT to touch the plants).

So I have no other choice but to grow them inside under supplemental light.
 
lol I was outside watering my plants and the four year old neighbor girl ran over next to me with a pencil in her hadn and she tried poking it and I said no
i showed her one closing ocne and I sai no mroe it takes energy to make them clsoe.I sitll grow my plants outside and about the trees get a tree spade lol jk
i would cut down trees on my property so I cna provide full sun.
115F it gets about 80-90 here in summer I think it would be fine otuside I mean Andy the owner of this forum grows in Arizona.
 
nice plants wierd lighting no offense

Yeah I know it's kinda unique, but it works and is flexible... pun intended. I didn't want to mess with a larger light fixture and my work was throwing out the swing arm lamp and the little platform thing that they're sitting on, so I got those for free. Just had to buy the bulb and fashion a reflector.
 
ur sphagnum moss looks great. Lowes use to sell that type. Now they sell this darker looking sphagnum, same as Home Depot. Don't know how the darker sphagnum will look when they resurrect to life. Will know in a few months. Nice "McGyver" type lighting system...something I would have come up with in order to save $$$.
 
  • #10
something I would have come up with in order to save $$$.

I use sunlight, very cheap and you can find it anywhere!
And Alien1099 your spaghnum moss looks great!
However I think the sarracenia would love it outside
 
  • #11
one thing though...I personally....just personally don't use sphag for VFT's. They do great in a peat + perlite mix. I use a lot of sphag for my neps...so I tend to try and limit my usage whenever possible....and for the most part I am growing my own sphagnum and I use that on my neps now.

Secondly...I found that VFT's can do great in sphag as well...so good luck. :)
 
  • #12
one thing though...I personally....just personally don't use sphag for VFT's. They do great in a peat + perlite mix. I use a lot of sphag for my neps...so I tend to try and limit my usage whenever possible....and for the most part I am growing my own sphagnum and I use that on my neps now.

Secondly...I found that VFT's can do great in sphag as well...so good luck. :)

They are all rooted/planted in a 70% peat 30% perlite mix. The LFS is just a top layer about half an inch thick around the plants. :)

I use sunlight, very cheap and you can find it anywhere!
And Alien1099 your spaghnum moss looks great!
However I think the sarracenia would love it outside

I'm sure they would like it outside, but unfortunately it just gets too hot here during the summer for most CPs I believe. I'm not sure of the max temperature for sarracenia, but from what I've read the dionaea would almost certainly cook in the Phoenix, AZ sun. :(
 
  • #13
The heat should not bother them as long as you keep them wet. I could be wrong. It does get into the 100's here in GA. Also if your worried about it being too hot. Then shade them during the noon time sun. Cali carnivores grows everything under shade cloth.
 
  • #14
I think your media is just fine. And when the temps stay above freezing, I would take them outside.
 
  • #15
They are all rooted/planted in a 70% peat 30% perlite mix. The LFS is just a top layer about half an inch thick around the plants. :)


Aaah! thanks for mentioning that. :) Thats good. It will save you money as well as keep it if you might say : RESOURCEFUL. Long fiber Sphag is pretty expensive in comp to peat. Anyways... If you wanted an LFS upper layer....how come you didn't do a live LFS layer? Try getting some live LFS and then grow it out in a sealed bag for a while and you will eventially have enough to fill that tub. ;) Its grows pretty well and looks pretty amazing as well. Only prob is it is very water greedy. If it even gets dry a bit...the tips will whiten, heat up and darken making it look horrible.
 
  • #16
The moss will sprout into a lush green carpet in a couple of months as the the dormant spores germinate.

Your sarracenia is seriously light starved though. Until you get a stronger light, or that window starts to get some decent sunlight, you'll never get any decent pitchers.
 
  • #17
The moss will sprout into a lush green carpet in a couple of months as the the dormant spores germinate.

Your sarracenia is seriously light starved though. Until you get a stronger light, or that window starts to get some decent sunlight, you'll never get any decent pitchers.

Uhh I thought it was doing well considering it's sent up over a dozen new leaves since I repotted it and put it next to the new CFL. The tallest one is twice as tall as the previously tallest one when I got the plant and it was in bad shape. The tallest one hasn't even finished opening and there's another one that is growing even taller. I mean the old pitchers that matured are a DEEP violet color up top and the new ones are turning violet up top too as they open up. Does this not indicate healthiness?
 
  • #18
I purchased a bag of this just yesterday at Lowes. It's so light and fluffy, it's like my CPs are on sphagnum clouds. I'll never go back to that Mosser Lee garbage! :)
 
  • #19
Shame on you, America hater. j/k :jester:
 
  • #20
Shame on you, America hater. j/k :jester:

The mosser lee stuff really is garbage though. I bought a bag and it's LOADED with sticks and roots and junk. :censor: The difference is night and day and I wish I hadn't wasted my money even though it was only a few dollars.
 
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