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Discussions about anything related to Venus Flytraps, cultivars and named clones

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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378372
Could everyone spam their VFT down below? I would love to compare how they grow in different media’s. I always see other mixes other than sphagnum and it seems to me that sphagnum truly is superior, though I’ve never tried using any other mix. I don’t plan on ever switching from sphagnum either. I always see other plants and compare them to mine and to me sphagnum seems like the clear winner.
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378373
I should specify, RECENT pics from this spring. As you can see all my plants are completely awake and I do believe it’s because of the sphagnum. I see other people’s plants still in dormancy and barley coming up even right now.
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By Matt
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Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#378380
For us in southern Oregon, flytraps do grow much better in the New Zealand long-fiber sphagnum than any peat-based mixes I've tried. However, we do have a new peat moss this year -- the Theriault & Hatchey course blend. It seems far superior to and more consistent than any other peat I've ever used. So, for the first time in many years, I'm potting several thousand flytraps in it this spring. Fingers crossed that they do well in it!

After my recent visit with my parents in March when I helped my dad repot most of his flytrap collection, I noticed a few things:
1) Flytraps grow very well in his location in SE Missouri in both long-fiber sphagnum and the peat-based mix of peat/sand/perlite.
2) The flytraps in the peat-based mix seemed to grow slightly larger than those in the long-fiber sphagnum. That's not been our experience here in Oregon.

Thus, after we get settled in Missouri, I'll be doing some more experiments. The plants I'm potting up right now (been potting on the order of 10,000 flytraps for the past 2 weeks and am about 70% done) will provide some information as well.
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378382
Ohh very interesting! So far it seems that the flytraps come out of dormancy a crap ton faster in sphagnum though, I posted this same thing in Facebook and a few people have shared. But I think it’d be better if I experimented on my own plants. I just don’t ever wanna switch to any other mixes! Other mixes seem very messy imo. I have pure coconut coir and perlite mix that I bought for my other tropical plants (none CP related) that has no nutrients whatsoever because I want to add my own ferts. Anyway, could I use that mix for CPs as well? I’ll have to experiment next year since everything is still in newer sphagnum and settled in.
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By optique
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Joined:  Fri May 24, 2019 11:15 pm
#378383
I like peat because its cheap and i can be lazy and use water treys. I do use LFSM for house carnivorous plants.

Downside I cut open a cube of "Premier " peat to day, it seemed like 5% mulch. I am really thinking about inspecting the cubes before I buy.
Apollyon, CPhunter101, Matt liked this
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By Apollyon
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Joined:  Tue May 05, 2020 2:49 am
#378385
Same, I had a cubic foot of lambert peat moss and I didn't mind it. It was actually pretty good. I recently got another cubic foot after some mass planting from a different brand (what was available at home depot where I got the original) and it's garbage. a lot of large sticks mixed in, very large clumps. It was also labelled "Premier" lord only knows what a standard quality would be :/ When you're mixing a thousand pots, you're trying to get through it. It's tedious to be pressing it down and having to pull sticks out of a third of the pots. Pulled out a few up to 3/4 inch in diameter from the bag
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By CPhunter101
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Joined:  Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:30 pm
#378386
optique wrote:I like peat because its cheap and i can be lazy and use water treys.
There's something I call a budget. Peat moss is basically 2 times cheaper than long fibered sphagnum moss. That's based on how many 4 inch pots I can fill using 3 cubic feet of peat moss vs 2 bags of chilean moss (both are worth $10). It makes me wonder, how do growers who use long fibered sphagnum (especially the high quality New Zealand kind) regularly are able to keep up with their ever exspanding collection? :?
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378387
CPhunter101 wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:38 am
optique wrote:I like peat because its cheap and i can be lazy and use water treys.
There's something I call a budget. Peat moss is basically 2 times cheaper than long fibered sphagnum moss. That's based on how many 4 inch pots I can fill using 3 cubic feet of peat moss vs 2 bags of chilean moss (both are worth $10). It makes me wonder, how do growers who use long fibered sphagnum (especially the high quality New Zealand kind) regularly are able to keep up with their ever exspanding collection? :?
Hehe 😅 the new sphagnum I found is half the price of besgro spagmoss, for the same quantity
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By CPhunter101
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Joined:  Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:30 pm
#378389
Adrien wrote:Hehe the new sphagnum I found is half the price of besgro spagmoss, for the same quantity
That's truly amazing. I've been browsing etsy, ebay, homedepot, and even Amazon but haven't found any high quality moss for under $5 per bag...
Will you let us in on your budget friendly secret? :?:
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By MikeB
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Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#378392
Adrien wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:48 pm Could everyone spam their VFT down below? I would love to compare how they grow in different media's.
Are your flytraps kept in a greenhouse during the winter? That makes a big difference in their appearance in early spring. In a greenhouse, the temperature and water is regulated, the plants tend to be warmer during winter, and they aren't exposed to frost or cold, dry winds.

I live just 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of the Venus flytrap's native range. My plants sit in trays on my back patio under the open sky. They had to deal with seesawing temperatures all winter plus 2 months of ridiculously heavy rain (I got twice as much rain as normal in January and February). I tried to drain the trays after every rain, but several times it rained every day for an entire week. My flytraps are looking a bit rough right now, and I'm repotting most of them to fend off rot. My Sarracenia and Drosera, on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by all the rain.
Adrien wrote: I always see other mixes other than sphagnum and it seems to me that sphagnum truly is superior, though I've never tried using any other mix. I don't plan on ever switching from sphagnum either. I always see other plants and compare them to mine and to me sphagnum seems like the clear winner.
This is not a valid comparison. Other people's plants are grown under different conditions than yours. Plus, you've never tried peat moss, so you really don't know how your plants would respond to that media. The only way that you can make a definitive statement like this is to grow two plants of the same cultivar, one in sphagnum moss and the other in a peat moss/perlite/sand mix, in the same environment and watering schedule, and compare them.
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By Matt
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Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#378395
Adrien wrote:I have pure coconut coir and perlite mix that I bought for my other tropical plants (none CP related) that has no nutrients whatsoever because I want to add my own ferts. Anyway, could I use that mix for CPs as well?
Yes, but it doesn't work too well for flytraps without a ton of work to make the pH levels right and to get the TDS down to something reasonable to use with VFTs. Steve Doonan was using coco coir for a while and eventually gave up on it. It had far too much salt in it most of the time so it took 8 or 10 rinses in rainwater to flush it out. Then the pH would always creep back up to near neutral and the plants didn't like that.

optique wrote:Downside I cut open a cube of "Premier " peat to day, it seemed like 5% mulch.
Apollyon wrote:I recently got another cubic foot after some mass planting from a different brand (what was available at home depot where I got the original) and it's garbage. a lot of large sticks mixed in, very large clumps. It was also labelled "Premier" lord only knows what a standard quality would be
The quality of "Premier" brand peat moss varies a lot. I bought an entire pallet recently and it was pretty good quality. Then I had a couple of other bags from another pallet and they were total crap. Premier peat moss is the main reason I switched to using NZLFSM a number of years back. I used a bale to repot most of my personal collection of flytraps and nearly lost a lot of them because there was a ton of minerals in the moss and I didn't flush it out at all. The T&H peat seems to be uniformly good with very, very little mineral content, so I'm excited to see how the plants do in it over the next couple of years.

CPhunter101 wrote:Peat moss is basically 2 times cheaper than long fibered sphagnum moss.
True, but when you nearly lose all of your plants due to a bad bag of peat, that can quickly change the bottom line price when you have to pay to replace most of your collection!!!
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378396
I will do my own experiments. I’ll buy the new brand of peat mix Matt is trying out too. And use a few king Henry clones since I have the most of them.

Would be okay to repot in the new mixes right now as well? Or should I wait until next year?
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378397
Or, is anyone willing to trade me 4 exact size clones of the same cultivar for 1 St. Patrick’s beard? Preferably a larger size and Bareroot ofc, that way I can just pot it and go from there.
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By Adrien
Posts:  758
Joined:  Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:13 pm
#378399
@Matt should I do a 50:50 mix of the Theriault & Hachey mix and perlite or just the theriault & hachey mix by itself? Thanks.
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By MikeB
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Joined:  Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:13 pm
#378401
Adrien wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 3:42 amI will do my own experiments. I’ll buy the new brand of peat mix Matt is trying out too. And use a few king Henry clones since I have the most of them.
Matt is very lucky that he can get his hands on Theriault & Hachey peat moss. I've never heard of it before. When I checked, I couldn't even find a distributor anywhere near me.
Adrien wrote: Would be okay to repot in the new mixes right now as well? Or should I wait until next year?
I'm in the midst of repotting my "horde" in North Carolina. After a repot, I put the plants in a lower-light area (50% mottled sun for 4 hours, then indirect light) to let them get settled in. After a week to 10 days, I move them back into the sun. Their growth stalls for a couple weeks then picks up where it left off.
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