FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

[Abigail Skoda]

I just bought two death cubes from Walmart. I also picked up some sphagnum moss from the hardware Lowe's, but they didn't have any perlite without a bunch of fertilizer in it. I could wait and get perlite from somewhere else tommorow, but I've some people use just sphagnum moss for their VFTs. What are the big downsides of this method? I do live in a pretty arid place, so holding humidity is important.

Also, is the live moss growing around this VFT sphagnum moss

[MaxVft]

Hi Abigail,
I don't think there really are any downsides to using LFSM(Long Fibered Sphagnum Moss) in your CP pots. In fact, it has done a billion times better for me than peat ever has(at least for VFTs) and I am sure most growers on this forum will agree. So to answer your question, yes you can definitely get away with using LFSM

[Panman]

The only downside is cost. I'd have all of my plants in it if it wasn't so expensive.

[optique]

I do my outside plants in peat/perlite so i can use water treys, lets me be lazy in the hot part of the summer. I would think LFSM would be better for the plants but cheap plus lazy is hard to pass up.

[MikeB]

Also, is the live moss growing around this VFT sphagnum moss

No, that's star moss.

[Abigail Skoda]

I'll make sure to remove the star moss! I kind of want to grow some on it's own, but I might buy some live sphagnum and redirect my energy towards that

I'm glad to know that sphagnum is super good as growing media! I'll keep an eye on the moisture levels for sure though.

[ChefDean]

In many ways, LFSM is a superior growing media. However, it is also more expensive. If you only have a few plants, you probably won't see much difference. But, when you get up to 30 or 40 pots, and the plants are still growing and dividing, they'll need bigger pots and more LFSM. New Zealand LFSM is the cream of the crop, Chilean is a good second choice.
Peat is much cheaper, but can compact easier, necessitating perlite, which is also inexpensive.
Personally, I'm at a stage where I'm starting to mix peat, LFSM, and perlite, but I'll likely be at the peat/perlite, and maybe sand, point next year or the year after unless I can score some great 3A or good 4A/5A Chilean stuff.