FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

About 2-3 weeks ago I finally got my bog finished and was able to start planting it. I have been holding my plants in kiddie pools until recently.

The bog is 4'x28' and is about 18" deep in the center and 10" on the edges. The bog receives about 4-6 hours of direct sunlight a day. Unfortunately I do not have anywhere on my property that receives full sun as I have many mature/tall pine trees. I made interlocking concrete panels for the above ground edging and used a heavy duty pond liner on the inside. The media is 50/50 peat and coarse silica sand. I have a 500 gallon rain tank about 170' from the bog up by the house that collects rain water off my metal roof. A 3/4" pvc pipe is burried from the rain water tank to the bog. An in ground sump sits in the bog that has a float valve in it. The float valve is adjustable and I haven't quite figured out what the best water level to keep in the bog is yet. I suspect I may want to vary this level by season but not really sure at this point. From the in ground sump there is a buried pvc pipe running almost the length of the bog with piezometer tips which allow water flow from the sump to the bog, but the soil can not enter that system. I also plan to install a drain using the same materials, but have not done that yet. The drain will be a small piece of the piezometer tip so that the bog can temporarily flood during rains but does not stay flooded.

I have a good assortment of Sarracenia, Drosera, and a few VFTs, and Pinguiculas. I also love companion plants. I have grown several of my companion plants from seed (Xyris, Rhexia, Ludwigia, etc) since they can be hard to find. Below are a bunch of photos of the construction and current conditions. I'm excited to see how this grows out in the next few years.

This is my first bog and I am open to suggestions and questions.

That is well laid out and indeed thought out, it will be a beautiful thing in the next couple of years.

The winter water level may be a problem unless you can shut your float valve off and drain the bog if you get a lot of winter rain. Constant levels of water and high water levels can give you anaerobic conditions. Varying the level tends to keep the medium 'sweeter'. Your drain idea is a good one and will be required.

Well done.

Cheers
Steve

My slow DSL connection is preventing all the large images from loading...

I have been out of town for a while for work, so I have have some time to think about how to make this drain work. I finally installed it this morning. I installed a 1/2" bulkhead through the in ground sump about 4-5" below soil level and then ran a horizontal pvc out the pond liner with another 1/2" bulkhead. That water goes down and drains into the yard. I can adjust the level of the drain inside the sump by rotating the drain pipe on a union. This way I can change and play with the drain level until I'm happy. It'll also allow me to adjust the water level in the bog for seasons if I want. The float valve for the fill is also adjustable, so this let's me greatly control the minimum and maximum water level in the bog.

I am a beginner to bogs. I really want to keep the water high in my bog (not sure why), but the more I read, the more I seem to think running the water a little lower will be better.

They are indeed bog plants so a high water level occasionally is normal, as in the wild. However almost as important as water levels, is the oxygen levels to the roots, so high water levels, for long periods (more than a week say) block this ability, so some variance in the levels to allow oxygen to the roots is required otherwise you get shorter roots, root rot, or anaerobic conditions.
If you can build in some means of level control into any bog it pays dividends.
Cheers
Steve

The bog is coming along. I have added quite a few companion plants and a few more carnivorous plants. I have thrown some seed in the bog, so we'll see what germinates from now to next spring. I will likely need to thin a few plants next spring. I am particularly excited about trying to add Rhexia lutea. It doesn't really seem like anyone is growing this Rhexia, am I wrong? Here are a few updated photos.

steve booth wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:13 am That is well laid out and indeed thought out, it will be a beautiful thing in the next couple of years.

The winter water level may be a problem unless you can shut your float valve off and drain the bog if you get a lot of winter rain. Constant levels of water and high water levels can give you anaerobic conditions. Varying the level tends to keep the medium 'sweeter'. Your drain idea is a good one and will be required.

Well done.

Cheers
Steve

Steve, can you elaborate a little on the winter water level? I am new to this bog thing and don't fully understand. I assume I want to run the winter water level lower than the summer water level but not entirely drained, correct?

Hi
In winter it is better to have a low water level, the idea is to keep the soil just damp if you can. Cold and excessivly wet is a bit of a trial for roots and rhizomes and can cause damage allowing pathogens in.
So yes you are absolutely correct, my bogs that are about 16" deep have about 1" water in the bottom over winter and it works well in our UK winters.
Cheers
Steve

Our family's bog land (pitchers, sundew, bladderwort) in central Wisconsin has significant water-level fluctuations from season to season, and year to year. The top couple of inches freezes solid in the winter, with lots of snow cover.

I really enjoy all your photos: thank you for posting. The pine needles make a good-looking, natural, stable top-dressing/mulch.

Here’s some updated photos of the bog. It’s been a steady light rain all day, so the bog is doing what bogs do and has high water temporarily until it drains off. Plants are starting to go dormant. I’ll be excited to see how it wakes up in the spring.

It is a beautiful day here. Spring is coming fast and the bog is on the verge of waking up! I planted some seedlings today that I grew indoors during the winter. I have many more seeds to move put of the refrigerator that have been stratified (mostly companion plants). I’ll post an update after the sarracenia are up.

Looking surprisingly good for this early in the season. The excitement mounts this side of the pond too, it will be a few weeks yet over here before the outside bogs get going.
Looking forward to the spring updates, it should really take off this year.
Cheers
Steve

Looking good!