FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I decided to try an outdoor bog garden. I made a large container lined with pond liner as a kind of raised bed so that I can basically tray water individual pots. I plan on having VFT, Sundews, and Pitchers. So far the soil has been keeping moist well. Has anyone had success with this type of setup? I have seen a few dead flies in the water under the pots. Do you think I will need to clean the liner every so often for things like that?

I would be concerned about heat

Yeah I was worried about that too. You think a layer of perlite or white sand on top would help? Or maybe white spray-paint of some kind that won't leach on the liner?

You can buy a white 1020 tray, though those are fairly expensive. I would paint it with outdoors spray paint.
https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-77978 ... 010&sr=8-8

How does everyone fill their bogs with low TDS water? I can't really collect enough rain water for this. Most sources just seem to indicate filling from a hose...is it just assumed that the bog substrate and plants filter this out fairly quickly?

Venusdogtrap wrote:How does everyone fill their bogs with low TDS water? I can't really collect enough rain water for this. Most sources just seem to indicate filling from a hose...is it just assumed that the bog substrate and plants filter this out fairly quickly?

Personally I have a 30 gallon rain barrel hooked to a downspout diverter which lasts me and my 3 containers and indoor rack weeks, but RO systems are also common and can be found for as low as $50 or so on amazon. In any case definitely don't just fill with a hose, since that of course is just asking to kill them unless you're extremely lucky with your tap water.

Venusdogtrap wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 2:22 am How does everyone fill their bogs with low TDS water? I can't really collect enough rain water for this. Most sources just seem to indicate filling from a hose...is it just assumed that the bog substrate and plants filter this out fairly quickly?

Buy a TDS meter (they sell for $8-$20 on Amazon and eBay) and test your tap water before going this route. You may be one of the lucky few who has usable tap water, but most people don't.

My tap tds is around 100 which is better than most water it seems but still marginal. I don't have gutters which is the main problem in collection of rainwater...I'll have to figure something out.

You can dilute your tap with distilled to make the distilled go further. That being said, I watered all of my plants with 72ppm water without issue. One of the reasons, I believe, is that they were outside plants and would regularly be flushed with rain water and I would replace the water in the tray when it got really high.

I have grown VFTs in similar set ups to that, with black pots and trays, outdoors, for thirty odd years with no problems whatsoever, but I am in the UK.
Don't worry about dead flies or algae blooms that happen in the tray too much, just clean out once a month or so.
You can buy RO water, or if you have an AC unit use the water out of that, but please test it with a TDS meter first, the water will be pure but it can pick up detritus from the unit on its way out.
Cheers
Steve