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By Intheswamp
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#411278
Thanks for the feedback. The big thing, for me, is not letting it get dry. Being able to keep a taller pot in a tray of water without the traps feet staying wet is what I'd like to do...if possible. I've been thinking of going with a 10" diameter pot.

Another thing...would a 4" pot work for a single typical rescue? I've thought about making some pots from PVC drain pipe. I'd have to put them in a bucket or something to keep them upright, but I could make them as deep as I like. The issue with them is that being so small of a diameter I don't see much insulation for the roots.
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By evenwind
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#411297
Have you considered a large styroform cup? The big "super" sized ones should be fine for a rescue. Both the white color and the insulation value of the styroform itself work well.
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By Intheswamp
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#411303
evenwind wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 6:44 pm Have you considered a large styroform cup? The big "super" sized ones should be fine for a rescue. Both the white color and the insulation value of the styroform itself work well.
Indeed I have. 20oz styrofoam cups are what I use to start my vegetable seedlings in. I just grabbed a chicken sandwich at Jack's while I was in town a few minutes ago...I got a "large" cola. The best I can figure without measuring is that it is 32oz. I did measure the height and it's 7-1/8" deep. The 20oz that I use for my vegetables are only 6" deep. I like the insulating aspect of the styrofoam, that's for sure.

I used some cheap, previously used pots when I re-potted the two fly traps that I've done. I had some more, rather old plastic pots that were slightly larger and used them as an outer pot...they give the inner pot walls lots of shade. I'm thinking of taking some styrofoam plates and sliding them down between the two pots for added insulation.

When I was in town I went by the dollar store and bought a couple of pots. One is 12"x8.75" and the other one is 10"x8". I thinking of planting all four remaining rescues in the 10" and using the 12" for the outer "cover" pot. Neither are drained so I can drill drain holes where I want them. I'm debating on drilling the outer pot...I may make a few weep holes maybe an inch or so up the sides. Otherwise, I'll drill the bottoms in both of them and set both of them in a tray (probably the best way).

I may yet go with the styrofoam cups, though. My major concern would be stability. I guess dropping them down into a pot with some more cups in there would keep them from getting knocked over, though.
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By Intheswamp
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#411306
I think I will try the holes in the side first. If they don't work out I can always drill holes in the bottom later.
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By Intheswamp
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#411311
Just to clarify, the pots are 8 and 8.75 inches deep. :)

First thing, though, is planting some Drosera seeds tomorrow... :D
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By Intheswamp
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#411602
It is HOT weather in Dixie!!! Right now at 4:41pm CST it is 91F with a "feels like" temperature of 99F...humidity around 56%. The first flytrap that I re-potted I put a 6" pot inside of a slightly larger pot so that the sides of the planted pot would be shaded. That worked pretty good. Later I thought about it and took two of the old 20-ounce styrofoam cups that I grew my vegetable seedlings in, cut the bottoms off, and split them down the sides. I slid these down into the small space between the two pots creating a layer of foam insulation around the inner pot. I figure this elevated the insulation factor a good bit. :)

I've got four other rescues that are still in their small black pots that I want to go ahead and re-pot. I've decided to put all four in the same pot but wanted to create as cool of a pot as I could. I bought a couple of pots the other day that fit nicely inside of each other and had planned on using those for the four rescues. But today I was exploring the aisles of majestic Wallyworld today for the holy grail of pots and containers. I figured I needed to think "outside the box" in terms of keeping the flytraps cool. Then "it" hit me and I scampered over to the fishing aisle! There the quest of my epic journey was found!!! A beautiful work of art, indeed!!! :mrgreen:

It checked a lot of boxes... It is white in color. It is 8.5" deep by 8.75" across. The sides and bottom are a generous 3/4" thick. It was cheap at $2.63 (plus tax). It's made out of an apparently durable styrofoam..... It's a Styrofoam minnow bucket!!!!! :lol:

I've got to figure out the best way to put drain holes in it. I'm thinking of drilling or burning holes with a hot nail. The burning part is the least desirable due the really nasty smoke that burning styrofoam creates. I'll do a test drilling first and if it doesn't tear out chunks that's what I'll go with. I may cut some small section of tubing of some kind to push into the holes to make smooth and reinforced drain holes...or I may not. :D It won't fit into the pots that I have so I'm still on a quest for an outer pot to protect it and add shade to the styrofoam. But, being a minnow bucket, it should be, and seems, durable as it is. :geek:

I blame all of this on my granddaughter. :lol:
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By evenwind
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#411604
How about something like a thin-walled metal tube that you can use as a punch?
Intheswamp liked this
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By Intheswamp
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#411607
I might try that. Maybe sharpen the edge and use it like a keyhole saw. Thanks for the idea!
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By Intheswamp
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#411742
Ok, I went against my OCD-grain and through a 1/4" drill bit in the drill and put four holes in the very bottom and four holes around the side, barely above the bottom. Worked ok...chunked out a little, but hey...it's a big styrofoam pot (minnow bucket :lol: )!

I went ahead and re-potted the four little Wallyworld rescue pots of traps this afternoon. The OCD in me made it an all-afternoon-event!! :roll: I rinsed the peat moss twice, I *think* I got the peat:perlite ratio close to right. But, I did end up putting more peat moss than I did to start with...the mix just felt too light...but what do I know? After all was said and done, it drains well and appears to hold moisture. I'll be watching it close.

Regarding the mix...are the equal parts of peat and perlite supposed to be equal parts of *moist* peat and perlite? Or should both be measured dry? :?

Anyhoo... I broke down all four little pots. The outer later around the plug was simply some ground up peat moss with no perlite. This outer later fell away easily from the "plug". The first two fly traps (one of mine and one of my granddaughter's) that I re-potted a few weeks ago I did not break apart the plugs and simply planted it in the new mix. I decided to go ahead and make these transplants "bare-roots". Firmly but carefully I broke the plug up. It too some gentle pulling and teasing to get the plug to break apart and to separate the multiple plants within the plug. Out of the four pots I ended up with somewhere around 25 plants. Some were tiny, which I went ahead and planted the best I could. There were several rhizomes in each pot.

My tools of choice was a tablespoon (used both ends), my pocket knife (used to dig the deeper slits in the growing mix), and a #2 pencil (used for making small holes for the tiny plants and the eraser was used to get in between plants when firming in around them.

Anyhow, I got all the plants in the 8.5" diameter minnow bucket pot. It looks semi-crowded, but these are really small plants that I don't think will get to be large plants...they'll probably fill in a good bit, hopefully, but the trap leaves are small...biggest ones probably in the neighborhood of 3/8" long. So, though it is rather congested in the bucket, I think they will be fine for a long time...maybe (or maybe not!) ;)

After all the divided plants were planted I bottom watered *and* top watered with rainwater. I bottom watered first and saw that the planting mix was taking the water. For the top watering I took a 20oz water bottle, drilled a hole in the lid, and squeezed a drinking straw through the hole. I filled it with rainwater and used the straw to water in between all the plants well, helping to settle the mix around the plant bases and roots. I watered enough so that the water ran out into the saucer.

Finally I moved the minnow bucket over into a more shaded area...more mottled sunlight. That probably isn't necessary as we are supposed to start getting rain tomorrow with rain chances continuing for several days. I may need to move the bucket indoors or into the garage to keep the freshly transplanted plants from getting battered too badly.

And, similar to @Panman, I have a small terrorist cell of squirrels besieging the house...aka "flying rats". Thus, out of sheer fearof having the yellow toothed heathens possibly mow down my carefully planted traps, I stole Panman's idea I created "The Squirrel Defense 0005". :lol:

I went out a little bit ago to check the plants. Even after having gone through a tormenting afternoon at my hands the plants actually seemed more perky than they were before the re-potting. We'll see how they look tomorrow! :D
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By Intheswamp
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#411750
Thanks for the encouragement. :D I do wonder, still, about whether the peat moss is measured wet or dry when figuring the volume ratio between it and the perlite. It seems for me that the peat mass gets smaller when it moistened. The plants continue to look "ok"...at least they haven't all turned black this morning!!! :o :lol:
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By evenwind
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#411751
Don't sweat the ratio that much. Not everybody uses 50/50 anyhow. It's an easy ratio to recommend but I can't believe the plants care that much, as long as there's enough perlite to keep the mixture light.
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