FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

ILC wrote:I was just sitting here looking at your well drawn out plan =D. If you use perlite I see the perlite eventually either floating on the surface of your pond or in your fishes' stomach. But you will use a screen. So that takes care of that. What happens if it rains. Will the screen be able to hold the extra push from the heavy media? I live in Miami and at the end of June; I believed it rain the whole week. What will happen when the water starts to flood your bog =/. I'm just thinking of the oh knows. Don't know if any of this will happen. Just a precaution. What will you do when a hurricane comes to say hello to Florida.

jht-union wrote:
ILC is right in many things, and how will you keep the fish, when it rains, and also the media to just keep it moist, but i guess you will make holes in the bottom right? i think the idea about the fish is a bit complicated, is a good one. But i would rather have all of it for CP's. And yup, when a hurricane hits, what will you do, maybe cover with black bag, and leave it anchored in the soil or something, how will you deal with it?( i'm curious too)

Ok... lots of thoughts to work out. I have 2 actual ponds, so I have pond liner which is a thick plastic rubber thing that is designed to hold back dirt from going in the water and from letting water out. I would use the liner across the entire half of the pool, this will make it to where there can be little to no contamination from the medium.The Screen would be used to divide the water into 2 sections, not to divide the bog into land and water.
I would be drilling holes in the shallow half so it can drain. There will be a layer of rocks on the bottom, then Peat and silica sand mixed (If I could find any). It rained here the whole time too, but I am keeping my other plants outside in pots and they seemed to be ok. Granted they were under a screen so there wasn't as "hard" of rainfall.
I have no idea what I would do about a hurricane, usually the wind isn't so bad where I live since I'm in the wood surrounded by trees. They help diffuse. Its the heavy rain that's the worst part. If that's the case I could probably construct a lean-to or something similar to help keep the plants from being trashed.

jht-union wrote: The medium doesn't necesarly have to be all a mix of perlite and peat, or silica and peat, since the stone is the problem for most people, you might want to do all peat, which is fine, or you can do a mix like layers(that's how i kept mines last year!)

Stone?

jht-union wrote: In the bottom peat moss, like in the middle or so i put a mix of LFSM and peat and silica sand, a few inches more up and i did all silica sand, a few more and i did silica sand and peat, a few more and i mix the 3, then on top i use silica sand mix with peat, and the 2-inch below was all peat, below that a thick layer of silica sand.
So maybe use peat at the bottom, and as you're going up start adding the perlite, and on and on. I really suggest you get silica sand, i can sell you a small baggie of silica sand, it would be cool to have at least one vft growing in all silica in that bog, so you will have to fill the bog first with peat, and then choose a spot, take all the peat, and put all the silica there in that hole. That should be interesting!

Whoa... that's like a ton of work, I might do a layer of rocks at the bottom, then a layer of sand to help fill in the rocks gaps... but I won't be making 100000 layers like that... that's just crazy. Thanks for the offer for the small baggy, but with this much medium I'd need a full 50lb bag.

jht-union wrote: I have a better idea for you, if you really want to grow fish, or have aquatic utrics, here's the ideas, and then the pics. That's what i was going to do for my bog garden( ) , fill the small pool with all peat and mix with whatever you're mixing with(perlite or silica). Get a square or round trash can, or a bucket. and make the shape of the bucket or container in the peat, then take the peat in that area, and put the bucket in, the bucket has to be a bit taller so that peat doesn't fall in or water mix with peat runs into it and destroys everything. and boila, there you got your bog with fish, and aquatic utrics!

If it is 8-inches, then the bucket must be some 10-inchs or so! I hope you like this idea!

I thought about this... but my problem came to be that I would need a really large bucket if I wanted to keep fish in there Happily. I could make a little Utric pond like that no problem though. I am not understanding the reason for the wood keeping it at an angle, is that so some water comes out? You're gunna have to explain that one.

You are the one who should grow a dog, with that dog house and all.

The kiddie pool bog sounds awesome. Looks like you live on sand as it is. Sand drains great. Just dig a hole, set the pool in it, drill some holes, fill with moss (and maybe sand from the yard. I see pine trees. The one time I saw wild CPs was in Mississippi and they were growing in a sandy pine forest. Near Desoto National Forest. You could flush the sand with lots of water first), plant some CPs or some CPs and a handful of CP seeds and call yourself a bog.

heh, I'd like to test it out witha few plants before I go and put all my plants into a natural pine bog like that... but that is a good point.

My main worries with this is that I dont know how they will fair during the winter and with heavy rains. I ordered 250 pounds of the real sand, so I should be set for this project.

I really really like your shade house, and your kiddie pool is inspiring me to make a "mini" bog

Shes Crofty wrote:I really really like your shade house, and your kiddie pool is inspiring me to make a "mini" bog

Thanks, I was telling Dub about it today... here is what I find amazing about it.

1 layer of screen is still like 85-90% sun
it turns a heavy downpour into a mist (rain doesn't jack with pots)
and my favorite part...
I layered screen in some areas so that the shelves have different amount of light at different times of the day!!!

why is that helpful you ask? By placing the screen correctly and then the plants in the corresponding shelf spot I have created an auto-acclimation machine. I am testing it now with several Sarrs, a Nep, and some VFTs. All of which have never been outside until yesterday. I have left them outside for 2 days now and there is 0 sunburn on any of them.

Something else I noticed... since moving my plants out there (the ones that are not currently acclimating) I have noticed a HUGE boost in growth. It could be that they have finally got their roots set and are ready to grow up instead of down... or it could be that the climate in there is wonderful, I am unsure. My Drosera have 5-6 new leaves each all growing currently, the VFTs have 3-4 leaves growing at a time, and even my Fang... which has not put up new growth since the day I got it has begun put up 2 new leaves since moving it out there. I'm hoping this will work well with my Nep because he is in a bad place right now.

Coincidence or not... I'm going to pretend its thanks to the ShadeHouse

Sorry I haven't been around much. My mom has been having some issues so I haven't been doing much in the way of updating any of the forums I am part of. I thought I would show the people how all of my plants are doing, some of them have gotten big, others look less than majestic.












Yay for Pic heavy updates. I was amazed at how many pods the Intermedia put up.

Amazing updates, your plants look really healthy!
and i like how all the FTS labels look in the back!