Question
Hello...again. Im sorry to bug you again but i had a bit of an emergancy, while repoting my nepenthes i thought it be a good idea to add a bit of orchid bark mix with spagnum moss to create and airy yet moist soil... Any ways right before i threw the orchid bark mix away i noticed it had fertilizer, and all my spahgnum moss was already mixed in with the orchid bark mix. I quickly got my nepenthes out of the soil mixure, washed the roots of the plants, and let them soak in distilled water while i went to the store to get some more soil ingrediants.. i planed to use the 50/50 moss,perlite mixture. But... although i got spaghnum moss all they had was perlite with fertilizer in every store i looked.. so anyways i mixed some long fiber spahgnum moss with charcoal.... I dont know if this was bad though.. it is 100% pure charcoale(no chemicals of any kind added). so i crused it up into about 1/4 to 1/2 inch chunks and washed it. I was wondering if this would be a good substitute for perlite since it is coarse like perlite and also supposably keeps the soil fresh... so it seems like it would be better. if not should i just keep them in some pure long fiber sphag? or will it be good as a long term soil mix?

Answer
Hi Robert,

The charcoal would be fine.  What you can also do is use the perlite with fertilizer (I'm guessing this is Miracle-gro brand) and wash it.  The fertilizer is very water soluble and would leach out quickly.  Also, Nepenthes wouldn't be harmed by a small amount of fertilizer in the soil.  You just wouldn't want to put anything like sundews or flytraps in a mix with it.

You might also check with some independent garden centers for soil amendments.  Many of them tend to carry different brands than the big chain stores.  Whitney Farms and Black Gold brands don't tend to add anything to their single ingredient amendments, and I know there are others out there too.  The big box stores only tend to carry Scott Miracle-gro products.  I actually written to them about this problem since orchid growers fight this battle too, but of course giant corporations just tell you to tell someone who actually cares.

Good Growing!

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