FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Those are some extremely healthy looking flytraps! Great growing

Matt wrote:Those are some extremely healthy looking flytraps! Great growing

Thanks. I think it was a post of yours I saw on here some time that said Justina Davis can grow pretty large traps. For a plant that's pretty much known just for being an all green cultivar it's been pretty spectacular. I can't wait for the small Grun division I have to grow up since I understand it has the potential to be even better than JD.

Yes, Grun is a larger all-green plant than Justina Davis. In addition to having larger traps, it is also more vigorous and has a better (in my opinion) growth habit than Justina. But both are great plants!

Dude is there anything you dont grow well? Your VFTs are just gorgeous. I really need to give mine more sun or something lol.

You remember that alata red/black x kilimanjaro with the crazy long hood you were asking about? I think I might have a div of it so you can see if the hood stays like that for yourself;).

Dionae wrote:Dude is there anything you dont grow well? Your VFTs are just gorgeous. I really need to give mine more sun or something lol.

You remember that alata red/black x kilimanjaro with the crazy long hood you were asking about? I think I might have a div of it so you can see if the hood stays like that for yourself;).

Yes. Pings. I've killed 4 of them now. I only get temperate varieties hoping they will like it here. I think I end up either giving them too much Sun or or I'm keeping them too wet.

VFT's really like it here. Sarrs do too but wind, rain, and too many bugs to eat means they don't look pretty for too long with the exception of purps since they don't fall over and tend not to rot from indigestion. VFT's though can't over eat and don't hold water so they always look nice. It's a shame I really didn't expand my VFT collection until this year.

Dionae wrote:Dude is there anything you dont grow well? Your VFTs are just gorgeous. I really need to give mine more sun or something lol.

You remember that alata red/black x kilimanjaro with the crazy long hood you were asking about? I think I might have a div of it so you can see if the hood stays like that for yourself;).

Yes. Pings. I've killed 4 of them now. I only get temperate varieties hoping they will like it here. I think I end up either giving them too much Sun or or I'm keeping them too wet.

VFT's really like it here. Sarrs do too but wind, rain, and too many bugs to eat means they don't look pretty for too long with the exception of purps since they don't fall over and tend not to rot from indigestion. VFT's though can't over eat and don't hold water so they always look nice. It's a shame I really didn't expand my VFT collection until this year.

Great looking plants, parker! Love that red coloration on the pink venus

Parker: After seeing how wonderful your plants look, I think I am going to adopt the concept of adding a top layer of long-fibered sphagnum moss to my mother pot of flytraps for when it comes time for me to repot next Spring. I grow my plants almost exclusively outside in a 50/50 ratio of peat/sand and the media always splashes around after a good rain.

Question - Do you add the top layer of lfsm after potting all of your plants, or before hand, or does it not matter?

Thanks!

pieguy452 wrote:Great looking plants, parker! Love that red coloration on the pink venus

Seriously, I never picked one up before because I always though it would be, well, pink. It's really only settled in the last several weeks, we'll see how it looks during the growing season. That's one place where maroon monster stands apart is it's consistent coloration.

Glenn wrote:Parker: After seeing how wonderful your plants look, I think I am going to adopt the concept of adding a top layer of long-fibered sphagnum moss to my mother pot of flytraps for when it comes time for me to repot next Spring. I grow my plants almost exclusively outside in a 50/50 ratio of peat/sand and the media always splashes around after a good rain.

Question - Do you add the top layer of lfsm after potting all of your plants, or before hand, or does it not matter?

Thanks!

I hear you, the primary reason I use the LFS is to keep the soil from splashing. It makes a pretty poor mulch if your goal is retention since it wicks water from the soil.

I add the top layer after I pot the plants. It can be tricky for prostrate VFT's but not too bad, I use a bamboo skewer to gently lift a leaf or two at a time and push the LFS up to the rhizome. A couple tips just from my experiences...Pot the plant slightly higher in the soil so that when you place the LFS the plant isn't buried too deep. Also, don't put a deep/dense layer down, just try for cover most of the soil surface and gently press the LFS down with your hand once it's all placed. I've found if the layer is too deep it tends to get a lot of algae and fungi, I haven't noticed any health issues because of it but the LFS layer on some of my pots is a dark green/black color.

Thank you for your response and excellent information, Parker!

Although adding a top layer of lfsm sounds like a very effective way to keep the rain from splashing everything around, it sounds like it may be a little too time consuming and labor intensive for me.

Just out of curiousity, have you ever tried just adding a top layer of silica sand or making the top layer of the media a little sandier than the rest and had good results? I was wondering if this would make a good alternative for a top dressing as well.

Thanks, again!

Glenn wrote:Thank you for your response and excellent information, Parker!

Although adding a top layer of lfsm sounds like a very effective way to keep the rain from splashing everything around, it sounds like it may be a little too time consuming and labor intensive for me.

Just out of curiousity, have you ever tried just adding a top layer of silica sand or making the top layer of the media a little sandier than the rest and had good results? I was wondering if this would make a good alternative for a top dressing as well.

Thanks, again!

It's really not as bad as I may have made it seem, though if you're doing a lot of them at once it can be tough. It's really only tedious directly around the plant and only if the leaves touch the soil. Once you get some moss right around the plant the rest of the soil cover is a breeze.

I have used sand, it was actually what I used first. It works, but what I found was that if you put too much it really compacts and makes it take forever for water to penetrate. And if you don't use enough it just gets mixed with the soil and you get splashing all the same.

I've heard for Sarrs that orchid bark works well. I've been thinking of trying pine bark fines as a top coat for some Sarrs, though it may be too heavy for vfts.

I have used orchid bark for ny sarrs and it works greay. When I repotbeverything into bigger pots I am using it and am going to try it for vft. Ot helps keep the water in and stoobsplashing