Question
I have had my carnivorous plants for many years and they are now crowded on their current container. I want to move them to a larger one, actually I'm considering building a bog in a very sunny spot(per your suggestions on pitcherplant.com# but I have been struggling with a question for some time now #it's actually been holding me back in transplanting this season: I realize that peat moss is only harvested by destroying natural bog habitats, which are the natural habitat of most of my precious plants. I find myself torn and at an impasse as in order to keep my handful of well loved plants I need to use peat moss to prepare their new home (container or bog-like)while knowingly supporting an industry that is destroying their natural homes. Please tell me if there is any other type of material that can be used instead of peat moss? What about coir, clay pellets or some other hydroponic growth medium? Any suggestions will help. My plants are mostly a mix of Sarracenias with a couple of Venus Fly traps. My sundews are not doing very well indoors so I was planning to move them into the bog as well and try to protect them with the taller plants. Years ago when I first moved the other plants outside, before I discovered your website and read your monthly newsletters, I thought all of them had to live indoors but living in Vancouver, BC I have great climate for growing them outside. Is there a way I can do this without being part of their habitat destruction? (I can attach a photo if this would help, just didn't have a recent one)
Thanks in advance for your reply, it will be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Paola,

You can use coir for your plants, but you may need to transplant more often since it breaks down somewhat faster.  You also may need to watch your plants to see how they do.  My experience has been that flytraps don't do as well in it. Here's a big warning.  You will need to soak, rinse, drain, repeat about 3 times to use coir.  All of it has salt in it regardless of what the label may say.  A TDS meter will help with this since it will help you determine when no more solutes are going into the water.

Having said that, I know that peat harvesting in some parts of the world has been done very irresponsibly.  The overwhelming majority of peat moss goes into soil mixes for the horticultural industry.  If carnivorous plants growers were the only ones using peat moss (which is what they grow in in nature), there probably wouldn't be a peat industry since we are such a small user.  From what I've seen and read, Canada does a much more responsible job of this than most countries, and the resource is quite vast.  I'm not saying that there isn't a serious issue here to be considered, but rather it's worth researching so you can see what is done, and being done.  This is a helpful link:  http://www.peatsociety.org/about-us

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com