FlyTrapCare Forums

So I just repotted my flytrap. I bought it a nice big pot that 12 inches deep as its new home. I used 50% peat moss- 50% perlite as it's new soil. I mixed it, added water, mixed it again, and threw it in the new pot. I then transplanted the flytraps to their new home. Everything was fine until I decided to water them. Immediately after watering the soil turned to "quicksand", the flytraps started sinking and the perlite all rose to the top, making me realize that mixing the soil was all a waste of time. I had a little baby flytrap that disappeared under the soil.

You have to go really easy watering new peat mixes since it does liquefy easily. After a couple months outside in the rain the soil compacts a bit and the soil surface becomes more solid which allows for easier watering.

If it sank it wasn't wet enough before potting your plant.

Let it soak in water for a few hours before potting things up and it won't be nearly as dramatic.

After your plants potted top water it to "settle" the media

I think your potting method may be more at fault here. I've been using that mix and others with varying levels of perlite for years and never had a problem. Make sure you really firm the plant in to it's new pot and leave it to soak in a tray rather than top watering straight away.

I use a peat moss/silica sand/perlite mix of 5:3:2 (per FTS specifications) and that works great. But correct you need to make sure the consistency is where you want it to be before I pot my plants. I usually slowly add water to the mix until I have the mixture close to the consistency of thick mud. Adding the silica sand I have noticed has helped the mixture thicken up as compared to just perlite.

Peat is actually very hard to get wet when it's dry, for the same reason it takes a long time to dry out when it's wet. It has a waxy cuticle layer that is hard for water to penetrate. With dry peat I'm mixing up I will usually stir it in a container of water (non-draining container) to get it wet and decant the water off it afterward. This is how I wash it, that helps reduce a lot of algae and mold growth. Then throw the washed, wet peat into a free-draining plant pot. The pressure of stirring it up in water forces the water to penetrate the cuticle and soak the peat.

Be careful, if you just put dry peat in a pot, you can pour 5 gallons of water on top and let it drain through, then dig down an inch into it and find out all the peat is still bone dry beneath the surface because the water just runs past and doesn't soak in. To soak past the waxy cuticle and wet the peat it has to either sit in the water for some time, or get stirred in water vigorously to force the water in.

Once the peat is truly soaked and penetrated through to the middle, it won't liquify and float like that. When it's dry it will float on top the water and stay bone dry even submerged briefly.

Most people rinse the peat to wash out the unwanted studd in a old shirt as bag. usually the peat atays moist and would be easy to pot. with perlite mix. well everyone messed up ao dont worry about it. [WHITE SMILING FACE]

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Agree with the others. You need to have wetted the peat material more.

As you have just recently potted it, it should be OK to take out the plant and re-wet the potting medium.

For the size pot, you may also like to have other plants there, too. Having the VFTs get addictive so if you want to pick up a few more to go along with your baby VFT, go for it.

Elpsy, I would have to agree with you here. I think once the community tries NZ premium sphagnum, it spoils you.



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Also, after putting the soil mix in the pot, knock the pot onto a table a couple of times, to eliminate air pockets you might have. That helps prevent some settling of the soil