FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Its now April in Pensacola, Florida which means its now in the 90s until about 7 pm where it drops to high 80s (no joke) and my VFT needs extra water now. I repotted him last week with just pure spagnum moss (I know its not recommended but I couldn't find any perlite that wasn't miracle gro) but the thing is is that when the top dries out and I go to water my plant, all the water flows directly to the bottom and then all pours out from under the pot (I have this plastic pot that comes with a tray underneath it that is removable) Did I pack the spagnum down correctly or did I just not use enough and will it hurt my plant to do ANOTHER repotting if I have to?

You should not have the flytrap in pure sphagnum. Home Depot and Lowes both have pure PEAT moss that you can mix 50/50 with sand. That's what I use.

The one thing with sphagnum moss is that it can retain 20x its own weight in water and it likes "sticking" to a VFT's roots (from my experience). This can cause root and rhizome rot (which is why it is recommended against for venus fly traps). If you can get ahold of something that retains less water (like MichaelG recommended, if you're in the USA) and mix it with some silica sand or perlite (if you are able to find any) and then repot your venus fly trap.

I wouldn't worry about your plant being damaged by repotting. Sometimes it's nessecary and even though it may set your plant back a tiny bit it won't be detrimental to its health unless you do it every day for a week. If you're in the UK you can order carnivorous plant soil online (I recommend The Little Shop of Horrors: www.littleshopofhorrors.com as they deliver very, very quickly) as department stores like Homebase and B&Q don't appear to stock peat moss.