FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Could we consider these suitable for soil mix for CP?
How the moss should be treated? I already rinsed it.

As a suitable soil MIX then no. The moss doesnt look like sphagnum, but rather more like a sheet moss, which isnt suitable. Now depending on how big your set up is, then yes the pine cone could be fine, depending on whether you are just puttinng it on the soil as a decoration or mixing it in with your soil, again that would be OK due to the acid nature of pine, in a large mass but not in a pot. The bark, if it is pine, again can be added to a large mass or bog as decoration or a mix but not a small pot and I wouldnt use it at all if it isnt pine.

cheers
Steve

That is nice! I have an earthbox like half a meter long. Cone and bark is pine, so it is suitable.

As for moss I am thinking about transplanting it on the surface for decoration not for soilmixing.

Hi Andry

If the moss isnt sphagnum (have a look at some pictures on google) I wouldnt encourage it as some of the 'sheet' type mosses are detrimental to the plants eventually. Better to go out on another hunt and get some sphag!!

Cheers
Steve

What ya think aboutthat moss? It is in my pots all around.

I'm no expert on moss I'm afraid but it looks like star moss (tortula ruralis) rather than spagnum, pop that into a search engine and compare it to what you have. I also have it, once you have got it it is difficult to get rid of, seems to be harmless though.

Cheers
Steve

I thought moss is a native neighbour of CPs and by no means detrimental. Moreover, plants are sold with the moss.

Could you tell me why exactly wrong with that star moss?

I appreciate if somebody else would acknowledge or refute this.

I've tried looking up different mosses to use for carnivorous plants. I have read many times not to use certain mosses but never really explain why. Star moss isn't harmful to CP. Most cp growers have it growing in a majority of their pots. Some hobbyist like the carpet look of the moss while others want it out of their pots.

Spanish moss is usually the "no, no" that comes up a lot. Spanish moss isn't an actually moss but a flowering plant. Its doesn't retain water like sphagnum moss and you'll find a lot of places that say its poisonous for cp. Spanish moss isn't poisonous but I have read that it attracts a lot of insects so people spray the plant with high doses of insecticides which probably don't get washed out before it is used; which the high levels of insecticides could be the cause of carnivorous plants suffering causing growers to think its poisonous. This is just from what I've read and I'm speculating that this is the reason people say its harmful to carnivorous plants.

I'm am not an expert on mosses nor do I have much experience with experimenting with different mosses. I use sphagnum and then have the random moss that grows up out of the peat. Steve_D runs flytrapranch and also helped Matt out when starting FTC/FTS. He has a lot more experience and knowledge then I do, so I've posted his comments and advice.

Steve_D wrote:There are at least hundreds of species of carpet moss. They are pretty, but they can choke small seedlings to death, and form a dense, water-sucking mat at the top layer of the growing medium, growing so well that other plants, unless they are much deeper rooted, may suffer.

Carpet moss doesn't usually get the upper hand with mature Venus Flytraps and coexists pretty well with them except that it does put quite a lot of pressure on the sides of the Flytrap bulbs and divisions that are attempting to grow. But carpet mosses can certainly affect tiny Venus Flytrap seedlings, which may almost stop growing at all because their roots have a hard time penetrating the dense mat of carpet moss to get to the moist layer below, and have a hard time expanding the bulb when there is so much pressure from the carpet moss on all sides.

Steve_D wrote:Some types of sheet moss or "green moss" are reportedly poisonous to some or most carnivorous plants, even if they have no additives at all. They are generally considered not suitable for use in carnivorous plant growing mediums.

That said, if you try it, be sure to let everyone know whether the plants grow well in it or not.

I get the impression that a lot of the talk about moss being bad stems from store bought mosses and was originally meant to keep people from buying a package of decorative moss and trying to use it as a soil additive.

Live moss shouldn't pose a risk to the plant for the most part unless there is some type that releases some chemical but I don't know anything about that.

There is certainly the issue of moss causing physical harm for the reasons mentioned in Steve's comments above but beyond that I don't think it's a problem.

For the most part you can easily remove the moss if it does start over growing your plants. Worst case you may remove a layer of soil but you can just add more soil or add a layer of LFS.

Ok, that is pretty useful. Thank you for the irrefragable answers.

What about moss alternatives for decorative purpose? Maybe you could recall any other bog plants you dealt with.

Hi polyakov

Just remembered where I saw the reference about sheet moss being potentially toxic, see link below. It refers to sarracenia and I assume it means if the moss is used as the sole or greater proportion of the growing medium, but I would assume that it would be the same for VFTs. The relevent paragraph is the first in the red ringed box about halfway down the page, but it doesn't go into detail I'm afraid.

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/ ... iaSeed.php

Cheers
Steve