FlyTrapCare Forums

I have a small colony of D. Shizandra . They are all growing great, but they're just not that green. Growing in cool and humid conditions. Indirect lighting on live sphagnum moss.. Any help to get em greener is appreciated...

I'm going to guess the light level is too low, judging by the etiolated stems.

Use peat instead of sphag. TF and FTC member jcal did this experiment

What experiment? Is there a link.. ? Thanks

Google is your best friend!

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/sunde ... -soil.html

Thank you for providing that very interesting and helpful information.. I guess I will repot them and see how that works out..

Update... I planted them in the peat mix and I do believe they look a little greener after a few weeks in the new medium...

They really do look much happier! And the soil looks incredibly well-mixed. In addition, I would try and increase the light intensity. That should really help them color up and produce more dew.

Huh...I wasn't aware of this at all. Back when I was learning how to grow schizandra LFS was the recommended soil. Some even said live sphagnum moss was the ideal thing to grow them on.
I haven't noticed any problem with the color of mine though, but I use cheap wisconsin sphagnum that deteriorates quickly. I might switch some over to a container of peat to see for myself how much the color changes.

I've noticed that my current bag of peat will grow mold once the peat is wet and used to pot something up though... I originally used a base layer of peat in my schiz terrarium, but I scrapped it after a mold outbreak. I could try boiling it before I use it I guess.

You can try microwaving it. That should sterilise it, but you might get mold infection later, spores are all around, traveling in the air.