FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I just replanted my king sundews in peat moss and sand and filtered it out till the ppm of the water I ran through it said about 50. After about two days of sitting i checked the ppm again and it said about 260. I’m using distilled water only.
So I rewatered and checked the ppm and the fresh water said about 250. Why is the ppm rising?

Probably because the water was sitting for a while. As long as you are using distilled water and the media has no added nutrients I think your good.

Test your water. Even though it is labeled distilled does not mean it could not have been a bad batch. What brand of peat are you using? Some brands of peat contain time-release components that can raise the tds over time. A rising tds means that something is dissolving out of the media into the water.

I use an organic peat that has no added components. What you are seeing is classic for something water soluble slowing dissolving. If it is a time-release fertilizer, you should repot using another brand that has no additives. You were wise to check the tds over time.

Peat moss always has some dissolved solids in it and will read high for the first few flushes. That's why we usually recommend flushing our FlytrapStore soil mix the first few times you water it. It's nothing to worry about unless you see some negative side effects, then FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH!!

Oh, and this phenomenon of some bales of peat being particularly high in TDS is one of the reasons we switched to using New Zealand long-fiber sphagnum for all of our flytraps.

I don't see that with the peat I am using, but I do wash it several times as well as boil it to kill moss spores. I know the boiling is not considered necessary, but it works for me. The peat I have is seriously polluted with moss spores.

Also, I had a couple of bags of AFS that worked great, but the last bag raises the tds significantly whereas the previous bags did not. So with the current bag, I have to let sit in water for a week or so, with daily rinses, before the media stabilizes. Media, even from the same vendor can be different from one batch to another. So now, I am always testing.

twitcher wrote:I don't see that with the peat I am using, but I do wash it several times as well as boil it to kill moss spores. I know the boiling is not considered necessary, but it works for me. The peat I have is seriously polluted with moss spores.

Also, I had a couple of bags of AFS that worked great, but the last bag raises the tds significantly whereas the previous bags did not. So with the current bag, I have to let sit in water for a week or so, with daily rinses, before the media stabilizes. Media, even from the same vendor can be different from one batch to another. So now, I am always testing.

Do you use Premier sphagnum peat moss?

I got a bale of Premier peat moss at Home Depot over the winter, buried in the snow behind a pallet of topsoil. Did a 1part peat to 2 parts water and left overnight. Squeezed it the next AM and got 26 ppm. Luck of the draw I guess, but have a nice bale that should last for awhile.

cwm1 wrote:Did a 1part peat to 2 parts water and left overnight. Squeezed it the next AM and got 26 ppm. Luck of the draw I guess, but have a nice bale that should last for awhile.

Lucky you! Yes, nice for sure to have a good clean bale of peat moss

The brand I use is "Espoma". It works good for me, but is is very fine texture. It can turn into a rock if it dries a bit and I have to let it sit for a time between rinses so I don't end up flushing half of it down the drain. I have a partial bale of Canadian peat that I intend to check out this summer. since I would prefer to have a coarser texture.

I’m used Hoffman Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss which is supposed to be organic and many have used it with good results and I used a sand but I rinsed it to a ppm of 15.
The problem I’m having is I keep rinsing till it says 50 or below each time but after sitting it goes back up each time to like 200. I already planted my king sundews in it and I keep flushing but it keeps going back up. Someone mentioned it’s leaching. I would keep flushing but distilled water is hard to come by as of right now. Will my king sundews be ok in a soil with the ppm being 200?