FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have a round 8 x 8 x 8 inch vented covered terrarium for my Venus Fly Trap plant which is growing quite well. I currently have the plant's pot centered in the round terrarium surrounded by dead brown sphagnum moss which I keep wet with distilled water. I see that flytrapcare.com sells "8 to 10 STRANDS" of this living green color moss, but to me, that sounds like an awfully small amount. I want to cover the entire top of the dead brown moss with a "blanket" of living green moss. Has anyone purchased these "8 to 10 strands"? How long do you think it will take to fill out and completely cover the top of my existing dead brown moss base? Any special growing tips?

Thanks so much for any help that you can give me!!!

Richard

I don't have an answer to the Sphagnum question, but you may want to put your VFT outside if your conditions permit.

Read this care guide here for all the information you'll need: http://www.flytrapcare.com/venus-fly-trap-growing

Seconding Katya, vfts and terrariums don't do too well together for winter...

you'll prob need 3 orders of the moss

It says in the reviews that Matt and Leah will send a whole Ziplock bag full of it. Not sure if Sandwich or Freezer size though.

ya but most of the time the zip lock bag will include soil the moss grows on.

Anymal911 wrote:It says in the reviews that Matt and Leah will send a whole Ziplock bag full of it. Not sure if Sandwich or Freezer size though.

We have done that at times in the past. However, we normally only send a handful or so of it.

Hi Richard and welcome

If you get any amount of sphagnum and the conditions are right it will multiply quickly. I denude my bogs of most of it in spring and it grows back to cover the bogs and smother the smaller plants and seedlings by autumn.

Growing - keep it wet (obviously), it needs light but not necessarily as much as the VFT although artificial light wont hurt it, temperatures 20 to 30C, if you can give it a reservoir of water under it, so much the better, it will grow quite quickly given those conditions. If it is in a terrarium and gets direct sunlight for any length of time it may burn.

When it grows, it will grow upwards, it will get etioliated with insufficient light and if so will soon be more than half way up your 8" glass, it doesn't stay small and like a carpet for long without attention I'm afraid.

Cheers
Steve