FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone, just joined. I've got lots of questions, but I'll start with my most immediate one now .

So I got this trap a few weeks ago. Things seem to mostly be going well with it. However, I'm uncertain if I've potted it as well as I should.

Right now I've got it in a bowl, actually an old cereal bowl, in the sphagnum moss it came with in the mail. So it's just in sphagnum moss, about 3-4 inches deep. I keep the moss pretty wet, as per the instructions I got with it.

So now after a few weeks of keeping the moss wet and trying to give it as much sun as possible (I keep it outside), the moss is turning green. I assume this is algae growth. Is this okay? Anything I can do to prevent it?

Should I think about drastically changing my potting set up?

Thanks in advance for replies.

After reading more of the beginner's material, I realize that my questions may be a bit redundant. Obviously just sphagnum moss is not ideal. Sorry.

But still, should I be more concerned about the algae thing? Also, how important is drainage, and is this the source of my problem? I thought I was supposed to keep the moss pretty wet for the plant...so if the soil is constantly draining, how am I supposed to do that?

Welcome to flytrapcare!

Pogona wrote:the moss is turning green. I assume this is algae growth. Is this okay?

It may be algae or live sphagnum moss growing on top of the old sphagnum, both of which are usually harmless. A picture could help to identify which one it is.

Pogona wrote:Should I think about drastically changing my potting set up?

It may be better not to use long fibered sphagnum moss if you are just starting out. The problem is that it is usually kept too wet or too dry and it is hard to keep it in between (moist). A 50/50 mixture of sphagnum peat moss and perlite (both additive and fertilizer free) works well and it can be easier to manage. A cheap pot that works great is a 16 oz (or 20 oz) styrofoam cup with drainage holes added to the bottom.

Pogona wrote:Also, how important is drainage

Very important, drainage keeps the moisture of the media in check by getting rid of any excess water. Draining water can also carry away minerals from the soil that build up over time. Using a small planting container without drainage holes is not ideal, having a flytrap constantly sitting in a saturated media is just asking for root rot.

I suggest reading this page with the links provided in them, it can help cover the basics of caring for a flytrap

Very important, drainage keeps the moisture of the media in check by getting rid of any excess water. Draining water can also carry away minerals from the soil that build up over time. Using a small planting container without drainage holes is not ideal, having a flytrap constantly sitting in a saturated media is just asking for root rot.

Damn, this is pretty contradictory to what the information I got with the trap says. In fact, it basically said that the trap would die if I ever let the media dry out, so I always had to keep a bit of standing water in the bottom of the bowl.

So then it's okay for the media to be, say, moist to the touch, but not saturated?

Pogona wrote:

Very important, drainage keeps the moisture of the media in check by getting rid of any excess water. Draining water can also carry away minerals from the soil that build up over time. Using a small planting container without drainage holes is not ideal, having a flytrap constantly sitting in a saturated media is just asking for root rot.

Damn, this is pretty contradictory to what the information I got with the trap says. In fact, it basically said that the trap would die if I ever let the media dry out, so I always had to keep a bit of standing water in the bottom of the bowl.

So then it's okay for the media to be, say, moist to the touch, but not saturated?

You want your plant moist to the touch -- never dry -- but you don't want so much water that it stands and pools around the plant. What I've been going is I will soak my plant in a bowl of water that stands about an inch around it, let it stand there for 20-30mins to absorb as much water as it can and then I take it out. If I am putting it outside on a really hot day in bright sunlight, I probably would keep the water around it just to keep it from drying out and over heating. This is how I am caring for my plants anyway.

Yeah okay, definitely time to change this potting set up. I just pulled up some of the sphagnum moss and found mosquito larvae in the standing water underneath. Not cool. Gonna get some new media and a pot with drainage ASAP.

A cereal bowl will also be too shallow for your fly trap. You want your soil at least 5 inches deep. The roots grow straight down from the plant and they are what need to stay moist. As others said, you don't want it wet and soggy all the time, but also never let the roots dry. If you continue to keep yours as wet as it has been it will rot. The top layer of the soil in my 7" deep pots is always dry and crusty but from about 3/4" down it is continuously moist. The difference between "wet" and "moist" is if you were to squeeze a handful of wet soil, water would come dripping out. If you squeeze moist soil you'd get nothing to a few drops of water.

Take a look at some of the pictures in the photos forum and you'll probably get a feel for how most of us have ours potted: http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/a-few ... t8085.html.