FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So, as you know, there are hundreds of sphagnum mosses out there, but how many of them are suitable for Venus Flytraps? Can any sphagnum moss be used as a medium?

Here are a few pictures of the moss I got. Maybe someone can actually give me a name of what sphag moss it is too. I put a few strands in a rainwater container to rehydrate it so I could maybe have luck in reviving and growing it, but only if its suitable for use as a CP medium.

That isn't sphagnum, it's actually a fairly common moss where I live. I personally have not tried it with CPs.

katya_dog1 wrote:That isn't sphagnum, it's actually a fairly common moss where I live. I personally have not tried it with CPs.

It isnt? What moss is it then really? Id like a name, but thank you a bunch for the heads up!

i dont think it is a sphagnum... the stuff does grow in with my cultures though

Mufasa wrote:i dont think it is a sphagnum... the stuff does grow in with my cultures though

is it still usable for a medium though?

i wouldnt.. not significantly anyway, i know some mosses just arent conducive to cp health... cant remember exactly why... think it might have been that some mosses produce certain chemicals that promote algae/sludge, and the chemicals themselves the plants wouldnt like too

No, is not sphagnum, this type of moss grows in Carpathian Mountains.

roarke wrote:No, is not sphagnum, this type of moss grows in Carpathian Mountains.

ok, but what moss is it then?

It looks like a star moss, try Tortula Ruralis, if so it wont feel wet like sphagnum as the water is internal to the plant in the brown centre piece. It draws water up internally inside the stem so inst really much use for CP.
I have it growing everywhere in my bogs, its difficult to get rid of it, it grows tall, stays dry, shades seedlings and rhizomes. As you can perhaps gather I'm not a fan.

Cheers
Steve

steve booth wrote:It looks like a star moss, try Tortula Ruralis, if so it wont feel wet like sphagnum as the water is internal to the plant in the brown centre piece. It draws water up internally inside the stem so inst really much use for CP.
I have it growing everywhere in my bogs, its difficult to get rid of it, it grows tall, stays dry, shades seedlings and rhizomes. As you can perhaps gather I'm not a fan.

Cheers
Steve

I see. Thanks for the information. Guess its time to confront the store for selling me a bag of useless moss as sphagnum...

steve booth wrote:It looks like a star moss, try Tortula Ruralis, if so it wont feel wet like sphagnum as the water is internal to the plant in the brown centre piece. It draws water up internally inside the stem so inst really much use for CP.
I have it growing everywhere in my bogs, its difficult to get rid of it, it grows tall, stays dry, shades seedlings and rhizomes. As you can perhaps gather I'm not a fan.

Cheers
Steve

+1. Tortula Ruralis seems like a good guess to me. I second how bad it is, this stuff is nearly impossible to eradicate, and grows nearly five inches tall.

This type of moss draws water from the soil. Live sphagnum moss keep's itself too wet for drosera's and flytrap's.

roarke wrote: Live sphagnum moss keep's itself too wet for drosera's and flytrap's.

I disagree.



This is a flytrap I found in the Green Swamp Preserve growing in pure live LFS.

roarke wrote:This type of moss draws water from the soil. Live sphagnum moss keep's itself too wet for drosera's and flytrap's.

If that was true, people wouldn't even be growing Nepenthes in live Sphagnum, let alone Dionaea...

roarke wrote:This type of moss draws water from the soil. Live sphagnum moss keep's itself too wet for drosera's and flytrap's.

wat no